Mirror Image – 2021 WFOY: Best Use of Technology

Photos courtesy of Czar Floors

The floor representing the best use of technology was designed to precisely replicate a reflection of the room’s ceiling beams onto the floor – a complex feat made possible with the use of laser measuring and layout tools.

“The residence was built in the 1920s and had been completely renovated by the homeowners. We were referred by their designer, who had discovered our work online,” explains Edward Tsvilik of Czar Floors. “Other than this room and this project, we were not involved in other areas of the house. This room had our full focus, which it certainly required, as they wanted the pattern on the floor to exactly mirror the reflection of ceiling beams. We had to figure out how to do that.”

While Tsvilik was able to access architectural information about the ceiling to aid with the floor’s design, he leaned on his company’s technological prowess to ensure the measurements were precise.

“With the use of laser tools, we took exact coordinates of the beams to replicate onto the floor design. We then used tools made by Leica to extract multiple measuring points that we could plug into AutoCAD and feed to CNC equipment,” explains Tsvilik. “In addition to measurements, we also started planning to produce the flooring. The owner really wanted to make sure that we did most of the work on the floor and he wanted it as perfect as possible. As such, we constructed the entire floor as a set.”

To maximize ease-of-installation, Tsvilik and his team pre-cut the pieces and created exact instructions on how to lay out the floor.

“We wanted to send it like a Lego set that has instructions on how to put it together. We sent the installers everything they needed to install and glue down everything as a set. We made all the borders pre-cut at the shop, we then stained them, and sent them off,” explains Tsvilik. “Hundreds of feet of custom border with precut sharp-angled corners and square corner blocks were built. It was a big challenge for us, but we laid out the entire room in our yard just to make sure everything would come together correctly.”

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