Wood Floor of the Week: ‘I Wanted To Push My Skill Level’ With Custom Parquet, Border

Matthew Garcia is a third-generation wood flooring pro, but when he moved from his native California to Texas five years ago, he had to restart on his own, forming Craftsman Hardwood Flooring in San Angelo, Texas. By 2020 he decided it was time to open his own showroom, and it had to have a wow factor that would showcase his company’s capabilities.

“I wanted to do something that wasn’t commonly seen; to really kind of push the limits on my abilities and something that people would enjoy seeing,” he says.

As he was mulling ideas, his brother sent him a picture of an uncommon parquet pattern that got him thinking. “I had never seen that pattern in mixed species—only in oak or something along those lines. I was like, ‘It is just begging to have a contrasting weave pattern with those diamond shapes.’”

Garcia chose unfinished engineered walnut and white oak for the parquet and border. He knew how to tackle cutting the parquet using sleds on his table saw, but when it came to the border, he was unsure of how he’d go about creating the double helix pattern he envisioned. He posted a drawing of his idea on a wood flooring Facebook group, and wood flooring guru Lenny Hall of Endurance Floor Company in Miami reached out to him. “We basically did kind of a virtual training. He laid out all the steps I had to take to make it happen,” Garcia says. “I felt really honored that he would take the time to walk me through the whole process … he saved me a decade’s worth of trial and error.”

The key piece was a jig that allows the router to cut the groove on an arc, with each increment ending at the right spot. Garcia had built jigs before, “but nothing at that level,” he says. A key factor of the jig was adjustability—if it became a fraction of an inch off, it could be loosened and tightened back up instead of Garcia having to make it all over again. “That really was a key to pulling it off without pulling all my hair out,” he says.

With the tricky part figured out, Garcia still felt the corners of the border were a dead zone, so he added stars as a nod to the Lone Star State.

With the complex floor sanded, he coated it with oil finish, putting the final touch on an entry that makes a statement to customers about the skills that Craftsman Hardwood Flooring can deliver.

Suppliers:
Abrasive: Bona, Norton | Adhesive: Real Wood | Dust containment: Bona, Festool | Finish: Bona Craft Oil (color: Air) | Sanding equipment: Bona |White oak flooring: Teckton | Walnut flooring: Graf Custom Hardwood | Distributor: The Master’s Craft