Postcard from St. Louis: My First Time at Wood Flooring School

This week I've been in St. Louis at National Wood Flooring Headquarters attending the Principles of Wood Flooring school, the NWFA's entry-level technical education program. It's my first NWFA school since becoming assistant editor at the magazine last year in March, and I'm thrilled to be here.

Since I'm here, I'd like to give our readers an idea of what it's like to attend an NWFA school as a participant. Here's a recap of days one and two.

Day One

The first day began with introductions. Brett Miller, NWFA VP of education and certification, asked everybody to stand up and say who they were, where they were from and, though he said it might feel awkward, to tell the class one unique thing about themselves.

Someone said they had been skydiving more than 40 times. Another student said he'd been shot at the age of 12. Two people volunteered their strange hometown names—Peculiar, Mo., and Hooker, Okla. I said I wrote for the magazine and asked people to let me know if they had a good story to tell.

NWFA's Brett Miller kicks off the class.

Instructor (and HF blogger) Wayne Lee said, in a perfect example of his sense of humor, that there was nothing unique about him.

Then Miller took the class through a few hours of PowerPoint info about the NWFA, the industry and wood biology. Paul Laurenzi from Delmhorst also talked about moisture meters.

One of the more interesting concepts was squaring a room using the Pythagorean theorem or a compass. 

Other quick hits from the presentation:

• 14 percent of the floor covering market is wood floors
• 60 percent of the wood flooring market is factory-finished floors
• 32 percent of wood flooring is sold in big-box stores
• 21 percent is sold in in retail stores
• 44 percent in specialty wood floor stores (down from 67 percent in 2002)

After a filling lunch of BBQ turkey sandwiches, fried chicken, creamy macaroni and cheese, and green beans, the class went to the back of NWFA's training facility for a demonstration about prepping the subfloor for wood flooring.

Instructor Todd McDonald from Glitsa showed the class how to use a straightedge to check for flatness, and how to raise low spots with roofing shingles and flatten high spots with a buffer. It was our turn once he finished.

The big group was split into six smaller groups and each was assigned a practice panel platform for the week. The panels represented rooms, and each had a subfloor and a perimeter of 2x4s that stood in for actual walls. Each panel also had a smaller room attached to the main room. We were going to nail down solid unfinished strip flooring in one half of the main room and prefinished flooring in the other half. The smaller room would be a stapled or glued floor.

My group is a good bunch of people that includes a construction builder, machinist, installer and one office guy (like me!). Our fearless leader/instructor is Mark Mukosiej from Arboritec USA—each panel gets one dedicated instructor.

In what time we had left, we were able to put down a chalkline as a center mark in the room, put down a vapor retarder and screw in a backing board.

Day Two

Miller started the day by grossing out the class with photos of hands that fought saws and lost. For the Principles class, we're allowed to use the miter saw but not the table saw or circular saw.

Miller wanted to get us to our panels right away this morning, but he did drop some wisdom that flooring guys may have already heard but I hadn't considered.

We're about wood floors, and sometimes a little hostile to other floor coverings. Miller said don't let that disdain for carpet or vinyl or whatever affect how you act when you're tearing out old floor coverings in a customer's home. The customer might have a good amount of nostalgia for that floor—maybe it was on that carpet that their children learned to walk or on that vinyl that the family dog would take his naps. Treat it with respect.

Our group started on the panels soon after. It was a little tight working on a floor with five guys, but we eventually got into a groove. I hit my first nail into a floor with a manual nailer. What did it teach me? Pneumatics are amazing.

Lunchtime came quicker than the previous day. We'd been working hard all morning, so time flew and everyone was hungry. The spread was just as delicious—a heaping portion of lasagna, cooked carrots, salad, rolls and some leftover fried chicken.

The lasagna is the best I've ever had (don't tell my grandma). I'm beginning to think the class is worth it for the lunches alone.

We finished the main room floor and the small room—which our group dubbed the bathroom—in the afternoon. Sanding and finishing was being saved for the next day, so our instructors taught us how to replace individual boards.

Of all the skills I've learned so far, I liked this the most. It took some noodling around with the miter saw and finesse with a hand plane to get the replacement board to fit just right. I cut the board a smidge short, but the fit was tight. A job well done for this newbie.

Throughout the day I was constantly seeing how all the groups were helping one another out. The faster learners were watching over the guys who needed more attention, and everyone was getting better. At the end of the day, every group had successfully installed flooring across their panels.

With all that hammering, sleep came early and easy that night.