The E.J. Welch Company (Earth City, Mo.) hosted two four-day National Wood Flooring Association training schools at its facility in Elk Grove, Ill.
The Intermediate Installation and Intermediate Sand & Finish schools took place Aug. 17–20 and Aug. 24–27, respectively. Both programs were led by NWFA Regional Instructor Michael Dittmer of Michael Dittmer Wood Floors (Putnam, Ill.). Matt Thrane of Arboritec was the lead instructor Aug. 26 and 27.
In all, 22 students attended the schools. The installation curriculum covered techniques such as lacing, border and medallion installation, while the sand-and-finish students learned hand-scraping and resanding methods for factory-finished floors, among other topics.
Installation school instructors were Mike Kearns, Primatech; Kelly McCarthy, Bostik Inc.; Tim Moore, Fortifiber Building Systems Group; and Brian McCartt, Loba-Wakol LLC.
Instructors for the Sand & Finish school were Bob Goldstein, Vermont Natural Coatings; Mike Hoy, PoloPlaz; Larry LeFevre, DuraSeal; Tim Nathan, General Finishes; Todd McDonald, Glitsa, a div. of Rudd Co.; Brian Holtz, Rust-Oleum; Johannes Boonstra, Rubio Monocoat; and Tom Swidnicki, Basic Coatings.
Students at the Installation school were Mark Freece, Mark on Wood Inc.; Andrew Damrell, Precision Flooring Products Inc.; Carl Howard, Central Michigan Inspection Service; Danny Blanke, Primatech Inc.; Aaron Schaalma, Signature Custom Flooring LLC; Johnny Mihalescu, ADC Floors; Matt Allyn and Dean Bentley, Powernail Company Inc.; Lyle Longley and Dylan Longley, LP Flooring; Aaron Belton, The Floor Guys CSF LLC; and Michael Mehio, Floorsense/Expressive Flooring.
The Sand & Finish school was attended by Freece; Mihalescu; Scott Carpenter, Divine Hardwood Flooring Ltd.; Christopher Garcia and Shawn Garcia, Azores Hardwood Flooring Inc.; Edson Dias, Oakville Hardwood Floors Refinishing Inc.; Patrick McGibbon, Ridgefield Industries; Keith Bickett, Fabulous Floors; Efrain Garcia, Hardwoods of Wisconsin; Eric Padilla and Alex Padilla, Apex Wood Floors Inc.; and Jason Carter, Carter Quality Hardwood Flooring Inc.
Premium Partners in Education for both schools were 3M, Advantech, Bona US, Bostik, MAPEI Corp., Somerset Wood Products and Weyerhaeuser.
Participating Partners in Education for the Installation school were Goodwin Heart Pine Company, Bostik, Cumberland Flooring, Delmhorst Instruments, Dittmer Wood Floors, E.J. Welch Company, Fortifiber, Jaeckle Distributors, Lignomat, Loba-Wakol, Primatech, Somerset Wood Floors, Spring Creek Flooring and Wagner Meters.
Sand & Finish school Participating Partners in Education were Dittmer Wood Floors, Arboritec, Vermont Natural Coatings, PoloPlaz, DuraSeal, General Finishes, Glitsa, Rust-Oleum, Rubio Monocoat, Basic Coatings, Clarke American, Bona US, Starcke Abrasives USA Inc. and Woodcare USA.
Editor's note: The article was edited Sept. 3 to include Goodwin Heart Pine Company in the list of Participating Partners in Education for the installation school.
