Hardwood Floors E-News - 6/25/2007

The Armstrong World Industries (Lancaster, Pa.) headquarters received Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council under its LEED Green Building Rating System for existing buildings. Some characteristics that contributed to this certification include: renewable wind energy for 75 percent of the building's power; reduced energy usage to 1.5 watts/square foot; reduced water use from 800,000 to 420,000 gallons; and the 60 percent of the building’s waste that is recycled. In other company news, Armstrong received three Awards for Design Excellence (ADEX), including the Gold Award for its Robbins Fine Hardwood Flooring Artesian Classics Color Wash collection.

After suffering fire damage to one of its manufacturing facilities in October, PennWood Products (East Berlin, Pa.) has completed construction on its new facilities, including a 5,000-square-foot library and lab, and a 10,000-square-foot sanding and finishing building.

Preverco Inc. (St-Augustin-de-desmaures, Quebec) opened its new $10 million manufacturing facility in St. Augustin June 11. The company expects a fivefold increase in production because of the expansion.

Mapei Corporation (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) held a bilingual two-day concrete restoration system seminar in Deerfield Beach May 14-15 for distributors and contractors from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Panama, Guatemala and Argentina.

Merle B. Smith Co. (Burr Ridge, Ill.) held its annual Customer Appreciation Day May 19. More than $40,000 in prizes were awarded to customers, who had a chance to meet with various vendors, including Appalachian Floor Vents, BLC Hardwood, Barefoot Flooring, Design Hardwood Products, Global Market Partners, Graf Brothers, Grill Works, Hillwood Products, L.W. Mountain, Lumberman Wholesale, Marlin Lumber Sales, Maxwell Hardwood, Missouri Hardwood, PoloPlaz, North Pacific Group, Oregon-Canadian, Sheoga Hardwood, Silent Blue, Stauf Adhesives, Dura Seal, Stanley-Bostitch, Timbermate, Capital Fire and Security and Sweet Connection.

Robina Floors (Kennesaw, Ga.) has selected the Cronin Company (Portland, Ore.) to cover the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and McRae Sales and Distribution (Salt Lake City) to serve Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

The NWFA received two Communicator Awards of Distinction for its 2007 School Brochure and its 2007 Convention Brochure. The Communicator Awards is an international competition recognizing outstanding work in the communication field.

Hardwood Floors also won three Communicator Awards. The magazine received an Award of Excellence in the feature article category for "Sound Material" from the April/May 2006 issue, an Award of Distinction in the Technical Article category for "ABCs of Adhesives" from the August/September 2006 issue, and Honorable Mention for its 2007 media kit.

The NWFA has also received an Hermes Gold Award for its NWFA 2007 Convention Campaign. The Hermes Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional and emerging media.

Additionally, the NWFA is in the final testing and development phase of a technical call center that will direct manufacturer-specific technical questions to NWFA technicians, who will relieve manufacturer in-house sales teams from fielding such questions. The program is a key component of the NWFA Service Corporation, a new for-profit subsidiary of the NWFA that provides industry-specific services to help NWFA members advance their businesses.

Lauzon Fine Hardwood Flooring (Papineauville, Quebec) has named Pierre Archambault executive vice president, Mario Bergamin vice president-sales, Rene Dionne vice president-marketing and Alain Houde vice president-operations.

Owens Inc. (Shawano, Wis.) has selected Mike Ricker as vice president of sales and marketing. Ricker oversees all aspects of sales and marketing for the company’s flooring and door manufacturing divisions. He most recently worked for the Armstrong and Bruce hardwood flooring brands.

BonaKemi USA (Aurora, Colo.) has appointed John Rauvola vice president for sales, marketing and product management. The company has also named Pat Cooney, Frank Szubart and Eric Bennett regional team managers. Cooney manages sales in California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii. Szubart oversees Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Canada. Bennett is in charge of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Robina Floors has chosen Mark Suplee as vice president-sales for the United States. Suplee has more than 25 years in the flooring industry.

The Wood Cellar (Melbourne, Fla.) has added Tony Simms as sales manager. Simms has more than 20 years in the construction industry and previously worked for Falcon International.

Chuck Garvey has been hired by Timbermate USA Inc. (Chicago) and Palo Duro Hardwoods Inc. (Denver) as a product training specialist and sales representative for Timbermate, Lägler and Eukula products. Garvey instructs at NWFA schools and offers product support to distributors. He can be reached at 866/563-6283, ext. 4.

PennWood Products has appointed Debra K. Paino management assistant and Christina M. Smith safety coordinator.

Total housing starts for May 2007 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,474,000 units, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. This is 2.1 percent below the April 2007 figure of 1,542,000 units.

The overall National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) declined two points from 30 in May to 28 in June, its lowest level since February 1991. The other three indices also fell from April: The index gauging sales expectations for the next six months dropped two points to 39, the index measuring current sales of new single-family homes fell two points to 29, and the index measuring traffic of prospective buyers fell one point to 21.

The NWFA will hold a NOFMA/NWFA/MFMA Basics School September 18-21 at its training facility in St. Louis. For more information, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.nwfa.org.

ProTeam (Boise, Idaho) will celebrate its 20^th anniversary August 17 at its headquarters with an open-house tour, catered dinner, live music and more. For more information, call Laurie Birrer at 208/377-9555.

The JLC Live Midwest Residential Construction Show will take place September 13-14 in Minneapolis. The Pacific Northwest show is slated for November 1-2 in Seattle. For more information, visit www.jlclive.com.

The China Wood Flooring Export and Import Conference 2007 will take place October 28-31 in Hangzhou, China. This wood flooring and laminate conference offers seminars, a product showcase, trading opportunities and industry tours. For more information, visit www.chinawood.com.

Mohawk Industries (Dalton, Ga.) has revamped its Mohawk University Web site at www.mohawk-university.com.

La Olden Antique Heart Pine Flooring (Plaucheville, La.) has launched its Web site at www.laolden.com.

Powernail Company (Lake Zurich, Ill.) is looking for a regional territory manager for Georgia and Florida. Qualified candidates will have a minimum of five years’ experience installing hardwood flooring, as well as experience calling on distributors and contractors. Candidates must also be able to demonstrate manual and pneumatic nailing equipment. Résumés and salary history should be sent to [email protected].

Hawa Bamboo (Lombard, Ill.) is seeking a hardwood flooring account representative/sales manager for the Midwest. The company’s Sayreville, N.J., location is also seeking an office shipping/handling person with at least two years’ experience in the wood flooring industry. Résumés should be e-mailed to [email protected] or faxed to 732/390-1838.

Www.specialflooring.com (Los Angeles) is looking for U.S. territory sales agents for its bamboo flooring products. Some sales experience is preferred but not necessary. Résumés should be sent to [email protected] with "salesperson" in the subject line.

This fall, the NWFA will offer moisture meters to students at all NWFA installation schools. The moisture meters are being provided by NWFA manufacturer members and are included in the registration fee for each school. NWFA member companies participating in this program include Delmhorst Instrument Co., GE Sensing, Lignomat USA Ltd. and Wagner Electronic Products. To register for a school, contact the NWFA by phone at 800/422-4556 (U.S.), 800/848-8824 (Canada) or 636/519-9663 (local and international), by e-mail at [email protected] or visit www.nwfa.org.