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Daniel Moore, owner of Antique Floors LLC (Richmond, Va.) and National Wood Flooring Association Regional Instructor, is unique in that he's a hybrid. Moore's background makes him both a traditionalist and modernist when it comes to wood floors.
His interest in sanding and finishing was sparked at a school hosted by NOFMA in Memphis taught by Mickey Moore, Daniel Boone and Wayne Lee, among many others. He says a short time after, he purchased $10,000 worth of sanding equipment and started his own business.
The Historian
It made sense. After all, Moore was raised in the flooring business. His father started reclaimed wood flooring company E.T. Moore Manufacturing Inc. in Richmond, Va. Moore said he had dabbled in almost every step of manufacturing and installing wood flooring-from collecting timber to the sawmill to laying plank at a job site-by the time he was a teenager.
One of his first memories as a toddler is visiting his dad, Taylor Moore, at a sawmill in Richmond, Va., and watching him set up a retrofitted molder in the sawmill that was from 1906. By 14, Moore was working a straight-line ripsaw that he said was "really ancient by today's standards." All that equipment is still in use today, he says.
That 1906 molder isn't even the oldest piece of equipment used at E.T. Moore. The plant also retrofitted a J.A. Vance Model 66 molder from 1902 that was designed to be used with a steam engine (see a photo here).
Moore is well versed in historical woodworking tools and machines used at the turn of the 19th century and earlier. Last year, he attended a three-day event called Field Day of the Past in Goochland County, Va. There he worked with other participants dressed in period carpenter garb and created wood floor planks using hand tools-the way they did before the steam engine was invented.
Moore has also worked on pre-Revolutionary War homes in Virginia. His work at Little England, a plantation home built in 1716 near Gloucester, Va., had him refinishing wood laid decades before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
See Moore's essay on historical wood floor methods and machines here.
The Modernist
Moore's background with old equipment, old wood and old homes might make you think he likes to do things how they've been done, but that's not always the case. In fact, Moore considers himself an expert at one of the most modern finish techniques to date-job-site UV curing.
"I'm the first guy in the mid-Atlantic to do UV curing," Moore said. "There are only a handful of guys in the world that have done more UV on-site than me personally."
Moore's expertise also extends to hardwax oils and conversion varnish, as well as traditional urethane finishes.
This mixture of old tech and new tech makes Moore an instructor to watch.
"It's fascinating to me, and sharing that knowledge has been very interesting," Moore said.
Moore will be leading an Intermediate Installation school May 6-9 at E.T. Moore Manufacturing in Richmond. The school includes a mill tour on May 9.
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.
