Installer's Office Floor a Chaotic Jumble of Wood Planks

Andrew Averill Headshot
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Some like an orderly home office, but David Braunsdorf, owner of Flawless Flooring in Waukesha, Wis., wanted his chaotic, at least when it came to the wood flooring. He and a buddy were brainstorming the layout for his square office and wanted to do something unique. His friend, lifelong flooring mentor Daryl Behling, said, "Let's pretend we threw a bundle of wood in the room, let the pieces scatter and that will be the room." So that's what Braunsdorf did, using 12 species from his scrap pile in random widths between 2¼–5 inches to add to the disorder. First he stapled flooring in three directions, almost like a square pinwheel. It would have made an intriguing floor on its own, but Braunsdorf's next step was to inlay flooring boards in random spots and angles to make the pattern unrecognizable, he says. Starting around the perimeter, Braunsdorf traced a board onto the floor, cut out the sides with a track saw and the ends with an oscillating saw blade, and then inserted the board with adhesive. He did this nearly 50 times. A few of the inlays have an extra measure of creativity—one scattered board has 10 square flooring pieces inside while another is built with 22 pieces of 1-inch-square end-matched end-grain zebrawood. And in the center is a wenge medallion bordered by bird's-eye maple and more wenge. Braunsdorf finished the floor with a natural oil, wrapping up about five days of work on the project. He loves the floor enough to give it a name, "Chaos," but he does worry about the resale value of his home. "That was a thought of mine, but if they don't like it, then they can carpet it," he says.

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