Joe Rocco never intended to be a wood floor guy-he started doing wood floors as a temporary part-time job to put himself through college before heading to law school. He learned quickly that wood flooring was hard physical work, and he was dedicated to the idea of using his college degree, he says. But somewhere along the way, as he got married and thought about his future with a family, he realized he could make a great living in the wood floor business, and he ended up managing the hardwood department of a local flooring company instead of heading to law school.
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Joe Rocco never intended to be a wood floor guy-he started doing wood floors as a temporary part-time job to put himself through college before heading to law school. He learned quickly that wood flooring was hard physical work, and he was dedicated to the idea of using his college degree, he says. But somewhere along the way, as he got married and thought about his future with a family, he realized he could make a great living in the wood floor business, and he ended up managing the hardwood department of a local flooring company instead of heading to law school.
He first discovered the National Wood Flooring Association when the company he worked for did a beautiful patterned floor that he wanted to enter in the NWFA Wood Floor of the Year contest, but his boss didn't want to pay the money to be an NWFA member so they could enter. Even so, Rocco says, he started thinking about more intricate floors and wanted to learn more. "I had things I knew in my head, but I didn't know why I did them," he says.
Rocco started his own company, Artistic Floors by Design in Parker, Colo., in 2006, and he started attending NWFA schools. "I just wanted to know more and more, and every time I would go to a school I would learn something, but I would also leave the class thinking, 'How am I going to put this in practice?' or 'Now I have another question; what's the next step?'" Rocco ended up attending all the NWFA schools and getting involved in NWFA committees, too, to make sure the issues faced by contractors in his region are heard at the national level. Now he's on the NWFA board of directors, is NWFA Certified Professionals certified for Install and Sand & Finish, and his contracting business focuses on high-end custom wood floor work (see his 2012 Wood Floor of the Year winning floor here).
Now, as an NWFA Regional Instructor, Rocco says he wants to pass the knowledge the NWFA has on to the younger generations. "It feels like family; the networking is awesome," he says. "It lets me know what's going on, and I get the heartbeat of the industry nationally," he says.
Rocco is teaching NWFA workshops this week at the Chattahoochee Technical College in Marietta, Ga. He'll also be the lead instructor at these schools:
March 11-14: Job Site Preparation | Problems, Causes & Cures | Wood Floor Repair | Finish Application/Color - R & R Hardwood (Boise, Idaho)
May 20-22: Basic Installation - Chattahoochee Technical College (Marietta, Ga.)
Oct. 10-11: Certification School | Sand & Finish Certification | Certification Testing - KO Floor Supply LLC (Riverdale, N.J.)
To read more about the revamped NWFA technical schools and see the schedule for this year, click here. To register, click here.
The NWFA Regional Instructors for 2014 are:
(back row, L-R): Jay Daniel Moore, Daniel Boone, Scott Taylor, Jason Elquest, Roy Reichow and NWFA Director of Certification and Education Brett Miller; (front row, L-R): Jon Namba, Mike Dittmer, Kjell Nymark and Joe Rocco.
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.
