Christine Sabol sells wood floors, and now she thinks she's found a pretty good way to clean them, too. The owner of Majestic Flooring & Home Designs Inc. in Limerick, Pa., was awarded a patent last year for a residential hardwood floor cleaner that is still in the prototype stage.
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Christine Sabol sells wood floors, and now she thinks she's found a pretty good way to clean them, too. The owner of Majestic Flooring & Home Designs Inc. in Limerick, Pa., was awarded a patent last year for a residential hardwood floor cleaner that is still in the prototype stage.
According to local newspaper The Reporter, Sabol's father built the lightweight prototype after she had given him the drawings and is considered the co-inventor of the machine. Intended to be pushed like an industrial floor cleaner, the prototype includes a reservoir for the cleaner, which gets sprayed on the floor. A buffer on the bottom removes the grime, an LED light on the front illuminates the surface to make sure it's clean, and a safety lever shuts the cleaner off if it falls over. "Steam is often used with hardwood floor cleaners, but that can cause buckling," Sabol told the newspaper. "Then the only way to fix it is to sand it, which takes off the finish, and that voids the floor's warranty."
Now, Sabol is trying to get financing to manufacture and market her prototype, or sell the patent. "I have contacted a few companies," she tells Hardwood Floors. "I recently wrote to them describing my patent and to see if they would have any interest in either buying the patent from me or manufacturing it with me." Sabol also wouldn't mind appearing on CNBC's Shark Tank, but she needs to be manufacturing the product before she can be eligible for the show: "It would take a considerable amount of money."
All Things Wood Floor, created by Wood Floor Business magazine, talks to interesting wood flooring pros to share knowledge, stories and tips on everything to do with wood flooring, from installation, sanding and finishing to business management.