Over decades, repeat Wood Floor of the Year winner Leonard Hall of Endurance Floor Company in West Park, Fla., has handled all manner of wood flooring jobs, from exotic woods to custom borders, hand-cut inlaid vines, hand-cut medallions and end grain blocks. But this job, 1,200 square feet of French white oak end grain cut into 6-inch hexagons, was new for him.
"The layout wouldn't be all that complicated, but I was excited because this hexagon design would be a first for me," Hall says. The unique job came to him via colleague John Lessick at Apex Floors in Downer's Grove, Ill. An Apex designer client had a customer remodeling a fine home in Palm Beach, Fla., and Lessick knew the high-end project would be in good hands with Hall.
After 12 weeks of production time in Europe, the end-grain pieces were flown to the States. "We collected the crates and went straight to the job site rather than to my shop, as I was told the blocks were loose in the crate, and I didn't want to handle the nearly 4,500 pieces more than once!" Hall recalls.
Once at the job, the pieces were stacked in a large pantry closet "like offset poker chips" to acclimate in the air conditioning, and their moisture content was carefully monitored. Once at the target MC, the flooring was installed using urethane adhesive over the slab, which had an epoxy moisture barrier. Trammel points were used to mark true 30–60 degree lines from the center line to guide the layout. After sanding, Hall's crew wet the blocks and stained the floor white, then burnished the floor with a light oil finish coat to acheive the ceruse color chosen by the client.
As happens with custom color, the appearance of the entire floor was just a tad lighter than the sample the customer had approved. Although she liked the color, she asked if they could lessen the white. Contractors with less experience at color might have blanched at the prospect of fixing the color over the entire floor, but Hall was unfazed, and another oil burnish brought the desired result. "Custom work is just that," he says. "Custom work."
