Craftsmanship, Creativity, and Community on Display at NWFA’s New Home

The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) recently moved its headquarters into a new building near St. Louis, Missouri. As one might expect, wood floors take center stage throughout the facility, which, in addition to serving as the home for NWFA staff and technical training, also is imagined as a hub for members to host trainings, architect and designer events, and customer outings. The floors featured throughout the facility represent what the NWFA is all about: promoting beautiful real wood floors, providing the education and training to have successful installations, and bringing the wood flooring community together.

Wood floors cover around 6,000 square feet of the building, with different floors installed in 20 rooms. NWFA members answered the call to be part of it with incredible generosity. More than 35 companies donated products, from flooring and finish to adhesive and abrasives. On top of that, nearly 30 volunteers gave their time to assist with the installation, as well as nearly 20 students from an NWFA Advanced Installation Course.

“Like our last headquarters, we wanted the students to design and install the office floors based on the material that was donated,” says Brett Miller, VP of technical standards, training, and certification for NWFA. “We had amazing products to work with, and the students created some unbelievable floors. We were focused on using domestic species throughout, showcasing different cuts, styles, patterns, colors, and categories while embracing craftsmanship, as well as simplicity. As always, the end result exceeded our expectations.”

Like most jobsites, the project did not come without challenges. Miller explains that the existing slab was nearly 1 1/2” out of flat within a 6’ span in many areas, walls were out of square, and the HVAC was not properly operating at times. But if anyone could rise to the occasion, solving problems and sticking the landing, it was the NWFA team and members, including some of the industry’s brightest minds.

“This was not your typical floor installation in a new construction project. There were as many as 20 people on site during the installation of the floors, and we made sure to have adequate tools and materials,” shares Miller. “Everyone who participated in the installation and finishing of the floors helped us achieve an end product that everyone was proud of.”

While designing the plan for the floors, Miller notes it was a priority to highlight different elements of the industry, as shown in the NWFA technical publications.

“There is a diverse layout of floors, including straight laid materials, simple parquet patterns, complex custom parquet patterns, extreme wide width and long length products, a 5/16” top nail floor, starburst, bent wood, prefinished flooring, metal inlays, solid and engineered flooring, end grain, and reclaimed,” he says.

Miller was floored (pun intended) by the response of the NWFA community and their willingness to help make the vision of these floors a reality.

“The support from our members throughout this process was incredible. Whether it was donating materials, time, or labor to the cause, we couldn’t have completed this without them. It was done with our members, for our members,” says Miller. “I hope the floors inspire our visitors, and that everyone who comes through the new building will appreciate the craftsmanship and creativity that those who participated in the entire project put into making it come to life.”

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See the new headquarters! See the new floors in person at the NWFA’s Leadership Development Summit on October 10-12, 2024, including NWFA’s open house and NWFA Education & Research Foundation golf tournament.

NWFA appreciates the many donors, volunteers, advanced installation course students, and staff for their efforts:

Donors:

AdvanTech/Huber Engineered Woods
Allegheny Mountain Hardwood Flooring
Basic Coatings
Berger-Seidle
Bona
Bostik
Carlisle Wide Plank Floors
Dinesen Floors
DuraSeal
Floor Protector Fidbox
Gemini Coatings/Glitsa
Goodwin Heart Pine Company
Hassell & Hughes Lumber Co.
Hull Forest Products
Integrity Floors (Corey Cathcart)
Kaswell Flooring Systems
Lambright Flooring
Lauzon Distinctive Hardwood Flooring
Lebanon Oak Flooring
LED Coating Solutions by Archetypal
Loba Wakol
Middle TN Lumber
Negative Air Systems
Norton Abrasives
Odie’s Oil
Olde Wood Ltd.
Peachey Hardwood Flooring
Professional Coatings Inc.
Rubio Monocoat
Sheoga Hardwood Flooring
Smart-Plank Hardwood Floors
Titebond
Uzin Utz
Vermont Plank Flooring Co. LLC
Waterlox Coatings Corp.
WD Flooring

Volunteers:

Apex Wood Floors (EJ Jordan, Gerald Vassel, William Whitaker)
Berger-Seidle (Damian Bush)
Bona (Mike Dittmer)
Cardona Flooring (Cesar Cardona, Harvi Josue Rivera, Helder Valle)
Coastal Inspection Services (Willie Short)
Endurance Floor Company (Lenny Hall)
LED Coating Solutions by Archetypal (Avedis Duvenjian)
Loba Wakol (Jeff Kersbergen)
Luminous Flooring (Chandler Lewis, Devin Mullins)
Maple Ridge Handscraped (Todd McDonald)
Middle TN Flooring (Wayne Lee)
Rubio Monocoat (Johannes Boonstra)
Seabaugh Custom Floors (Enrique Barron, Pablo Barron, Oswaldo Morales, Juan Pablo, Steve Seabaugh)
Uzin Utz (Corey Dickerson, Michael Drechsel, Gene Jarka, Jason Mack, Josh Neuberger, Collin Throm)

Advanced Installation Course Students:

B. Powell Flooring (Bill Powell)
Coastwise Hardwood Flooring (Brandon Gross)
Costa Floors (Igor Costa)
Floorcraft Designs (Michael Mann, Floyd Ross)
Grain Design Flooring (Max Engelhart, Alex Hamilton,
Matthew Placke, Jason Strunk)
Integrity Floors (Gustavo Borja, John Caine, Gilberto Hernandez, Gabriel Herrera)
Klausenburg Hardwood Floors (Dan Cohut)
Master Flooring Floor Design (João Paulo Silva)
Metropolitan Hardwood Floors (Mike Frilund)
Supreme Hardwood Floors (Blake Cadman, Alan Monti, Eric Rathhaus)