Tutu Saadullah, owner of Bentwood.
Bangladesh experiences dramatic climate shifts, from humid summer, to monsoon season, to dry winter, making installing wood floors there a daunting task. In fact, only one company in the entire country is up for the challenge—Bentwood, owned by a former design consultant named Tutu Saadullah. Saadullah got his start more than 20 years ago when he had to install wood flooring in a bank where the carpet had caught fire. It was a 6,000-square-foot job, and had to be scraped by hand because he didn't have a sanding machine. Saadullah looked for technical information online and discovered resources about humidity from the NWFA. Armed with that information, his business skyrocketed. Now he offers parquet flooring, sports court flooring and intricate inlays. That expertise comes at a cost in a country where wood flooring is expensive and uncommon. Saadullah has survived by courting a high-paying clientele interested in using what Saadullah considers to be western-style products, like wood, in their homes. He charges anywhere from $3.75–$10 USD per square foot for parquet floors and $6.87–$16.25 USD per square foot for 3½-inch-wide strip floors of teak, ironwood, raintree and pyinkado. Just like in the U.S., seeing the smile on a satisfied customer's face after a job well-done is priceless. "As per the customer's order, whether it is square-edge parquet, random-length strip or hot-press engineered flooring, we try to achieve a precision result," Saadullah says. "There is a tremendous satisfaction if it is done correctly."
See Bentwood's Facebook page for more information.
The Bentwood showroom features a medallion hand sawn using a fretsaw.
