Doug DalsingDoug Dalsing is a former associate editor at Hardwood Floors.NewsResearchers Offer Assistance to Wood Flooring ManufacturersIn the business world, "It's all about who you know." One person wood flooring manufacturers should know is Pat Donahue, director of the Market-Oriented Wood Technology Program at the University of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute. "My goal is to help the North American flooring manufacturers," Donahue says. In his research lab, Donahue has apparatuses to scientifically test important wood flooring characteristics, including hardness, wear resistance, cleanability, chemical resistance, scratch and mar resistance, aging, bending strength, and more. One company that has benefitted from Donahue's guidance is Cook, Minn.-based Hill Wood Products. A few years ago, he company sought Donahue's guidance as it looked to improve business during the recession. Donahue helped Hill Wood Products develop two flooring lines: Ashawa Bay custom flooring and Ashawa Bay stock flooring. Donahue assisted Hill Wood Products with doing the stability testing and specifying an adhesive for laminating the multi-layered flooring. The assistance from Donahue has paid off: "It's an integral part, and it's a growing part of the company," Randy Rosoundich, Hill Wood Products' vice president, says of Ashawa Bay and Ashawa Trail. For Donahue, his mission is simple: "I'm a wood scientist trying to help build an industry, trying to move it forward."March 24, 2011DesignUp Your Style with a Wooden iPhone CaseToday's wood flooring industry is all about style, and the gadget accessory industry is catching on to our tastes. Vers makes cases for Apple gadgets out of wood; the company says it has a green mission, so it makes its cases from naturally renewing species. Plus, Vers values sound quality, and wood has great acoustic properties due to its rigidity, which reduces unwanted resonance. Like any good flooring dealer, Vers offers options: Its cases are available in cherry, walnut, and strand bamboo; cases for the iPad and every iteration of the iPhone and iPod are available. Now you can let your inner wood grain shine with your gadgets, too.February 23, 2011DesignDesign Firm Puts Wood Floor on Wall, Books UnderfootThe wood flooring here will definitely make customers do a double-take when they walk in.February 21, 2011HistoryVintage Moments: Woodworking Ads From 1917February 13, 2011Extraordinary Floors'Curl' Installation Turns Wood Floors into ArtProof that a wood floor can certainly be a work of art, Brent Sommerhauser created "Curl" and displayed it at Seattle's Greg Kucera Gallery.February 13, 2011DesignWood Floors Provide Art Underfoot in SeattleRaised text in 11 languages brings books right down onto the maple floor at the Seattle Central Library.February 9, 2011Design'Timber Mosaic' Wood Floor in a Tasmanian WineryThis Australian winery has a unique wood floor reflecting the wine industry Down Under.December 21, 2010NewsIn Recession Times, a Wood Flooring Distributor Starts a BreweryWhile the economy languishes, a cold beer might be about the only thing worth getting excited over these days. Steve Merila, president of Vadnais Heights, Minn.-based Lon Musolf Distributing Inc., recognized this and decided he may as well capitalize on this universal love of suds, so he opened Big Wood Brewery. "It's a step up from home brewing, but not quite a microbrewery operation," Merila says of his newest venture; instead, he calls Big Wood Brewery a "nano" brewery. He debuted the product Oct. 20 during Lontoberfest, the distributorship's annual open house, and his India Pale Ale, American Ale, Farmhouse Ale and Nut Brown brews all sold out by the day's end. Today, Merila is rushing to fill Christmas orders placed by wood flooring industry manufacturers. "We're going into next year looking to increase production already since the feedback has been so positive," says Merila, who can be reached at [email protected]. Next year for Christmas, we should all be able to buy each other the perfect industry gift: Big Wood Beer.December 21, 2010HistoryBrad Paisley Helps Restore a Treasured Opry Wood FloorThe six-foot circle of oak at the center of the Grand Ole Opry House stage appears modest, yet it's actually a prominent piece of country music lore. The small circle is a physical link to the earliest days of the genre, when Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff and others sang to the nation via radio while performing for a live audience at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, home to the Opry show from 1943 to 1974. When the show moved to its current digs in the Grand Ole Opry House at the Gaylord Opryland Resort, organizers brought along a piece of the Ryman stage floor. But tragedy struck Nashville, The Music City, this past May; the Cumberland River overflowed its banks, crippling parts of the city and forcing the closure of the resort. For a time, the music stopped, and two feet of water covered the Opry stage. When the water receded, Opry organizers, along with the whole of Nashville, picked up the pieces. In September, Opry members Little Jimmy Dickens and Brad Paisley opened the next chapter of the show by placing the refurbished circle back into the floor during a small ceremony. "I've always said that the circle still contains the dust from Hank Williams' cowboy boots," Paisley said. "Well, now it contains that dust, but also the heart and soul of this town and all the people who have worked to rise above this spring's flood.December 21, 2010SafetyFirst Aid for the Wood Flooring Job SiteWhat do you do when someone gets injured on a wood flooring job site? Read this and be prepared.December 9, 2010Previous PagePage 6 of 7Next PageTop StoriesRetailThriving Through Innovation: See the Winners of the 2025 WFB Outstanding Retailer AwardsFrom reimagined showrooms and mobile studios to thoughtful mentorship, employee empowerment and social media marketing, these WFB Outstanding Retailers are proving that personalized service is key to long-term success.TechniquesUseful Advice When Dealing With Pine FlooringContractingHow I Do These Jobs: Refinishing DecksNewsRecognizing Wood Floor Contractors: Enter the 2025 Ultimate Wood Floor Guy/Gal ContestSponsor ContentSawdust in Our Veins
