Putting Leftover Boards to Use as an Inlay

Hello, Keith Long here with Thunderheart Flooring.

As a hardwood flooring contractor, I generally end up with a few boards left over after a wood floor installation, sometimes as much as a full bundle. Over the first few years of contracting, varying widths and grades of red oak, white oak, maple, hickory, American cherry, walnut, pine, fir, Brazilian cherry, Brazilian walnut, santos mahogany, tigerwood, et cetera, leftovers were accumulating in my shop. One way put them to use is to convert them into custom inlay elements. Some benefits of doing so come to mind:

1. It gets the wood out of the shop and into a floor.
2. It gives contractors a chance to expand their skill sets.
3. Many homeowners are open to getting inlays installed in their homes.
4. It builds a portfolio of photos that can be shown to prospective clients.
5. It gets people talking about more than just a regular floor, which can lead to referrals.

At the end of an installation, in order to keep the leftover wood orderly, I use this type of clear plastic wrap:

Not only does this keep the wood together, but it also allows a person to see the species, grade, color, and grain orientation without having to open it up. These rolls of wrapping are just a few dollars each, and one of them lasts me several months.

Here’s a project we completed on the outskirts of Greeley, Colo. These homeowners are super! They took up the carpet, ceramic tile, brick-paver-style tile, and fingerblock parquet in the areas where 5-inch character-grade hickory went. I had mentioned to them while measuring for the bid that I had an idea for a custom inlay in their foyer. They sounded open to the suggestion, so I told them Robin and I would play around a bit and see if we could come up with something they liked. While I was flattening the subfloor, Robin oriented some pieces of 5-inch hickory, 3¼-inch white oak, and 4-inch walnut.

I am a big fan of sliding table saw jigs. If I were to do a whole floor in this pattern, I would definitely make the sleds to have all these pieces come out perfect every time. Since we were making only eight squares, and we were doing it on the job site, we opted to set stops on the sliding miter saw and cut these few pieces. Robin loves running power tools and is a big fan of gadgets. I picked up this special bottle for her called a GluBot, which we’ve found to be less messy than a standard glue bottle. It’s easy to get the glue to come out with a tip and a little squeeze, but once the pressure is off, it has back suction and doesn’t tend to drool.

We took our measurements for center placement, ripped two blonde pieces of hickory in half to make an almost 2½-inch-wide picture frame around the inlay, and glued it in. This took a total of seven hours to fabricate and install. Robin did the majority of it while I was flattening the subfloor and prepping a staircase to put in hickory stairs. The blue tape didn’t need to be taken up by hand, it sanded off just fine.

Since the wood was leftover from other jobs, we already owned it. There isn’t a lot of expense or time involved in this. If a person has a gap in their schedule, an inlay could be fabricated in advance. If they are already made, they can be physically set in a person’s home during a bid. My experience is the likelihood of inlay selling increases greatly if it can be seen, touched, and placed where it might look good.

I was happy to put this inlay in, and the homeowners say they couldn’t be happier. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my business model is to provide superior quality and customer service at a fair price. Since my wife and I did the labor, our overhead was low. The homeowners were glad to pay what I bid. Everyone was satisfied as we went our separate ways from the properly completed job—by my way of thinking, that’s a good transaction.

Is there anyone wondering if it would just be simpler to throw the leftover boards in the trash or burn them in the fireplace, and not do an inlay at all? It’s a natural question. My thought on the matter is this:

I got the opportunity to bid for this job because of the level of customer service that I provide. Two years ago, I had done a job for a friend of this family. Although it was just a regular resurface of some main-level hardwood and a flight of stairs, what this sweet woman remembers about me doing work for her is, “Keith told me he would be there at 7 a.m. to start the job. He was! That night, he told me he would be back at 7 a.m. the next day. And he was!” She’s still gladly referring me to others.

My best guess is people will ask about this inlay when they see it. Things such as this done in the past have generally led to more opportunities to bid. It’s good for the customers, and it’s good for my company. I’m booked solid for the next two months, having contracted with several homeowners that are confident I can meet their flooring needs, and are happy to compensate me well. Calls for estimates continue to roll in on a steady basis. During this darkest, coldest part of the year, it’s a comfortable position to be in. I believe I’m in this position in part because I promise superior quality and service, and then I deliver. It’s so much easier to get ahead when there are profitable things to do week in and week out. More satisfied customers, more people talking, more people calling for bids. That’s the way I like it!

As always, your questions, comments, and feedback are welcome. I intend for the next post to be about an engineered white oak floor with a natural oil finish that Toby Merrill from Chicago and I did recently. Stay sharp!