THE
BUZZ

Installers are sometimes asked by homeowners for their advice to correctly care for their new wood floor. So, The BUZZ asked an expert—the publisher of Hardwood Floor magazine, and our friends at the National Wood Flooring Association, for their advice to share with you. Here, with their permission, is what they had to say.

Editor’s note: Spring cleaning is upon us, and that means floors usually get more attention than normal. But improper cleaning or mishandling of floors can often be worse than ignoring floors altogether. Following advice from Gary in this regard is good to to keep in mind, whether you’re a homeowner or a flooring professional providing guidance to customers.

Today we are picking back up our series on understanding flooring adhesive terminology. In this section, Part 3, we will be continuing the discussion on some of the most important, and often misunderstood terminology regarding adhesives in the flooring industry. Let’s continue by examining “set”, “traffic” and “sound”.

Far too many installers fail to read and follow the flooring and adhesive manufacturer’s instructions when it comes to sheet vinyl. I have seen many failures that could have been easily avoided by simply following instructions. I cannot tell you how often I have been told, “The customer wouldn’t pay for substrate preparation,” or “We couldn’t acclimate the flooring because this is new construction.” I always tell these installers you should not do the installation if you cannot do it right.

Beauty is only skin-deep, or as they say in the flooring business, surface-deep. But being in the adhesives business as we are, we’d like to respectfully disagree. For us, the real Buzz about beauty comes from down below—the Substrate, that is. For most people, they never see it, much less think about it. For us, it’s the most important thing there is. It deserves your time and attention. Speaking of which, let’s Buzz about Time, too!