Eric Herman, CEO of State of the Art Wood Floor Gallery in New York City, recently undertook a remarkable flooring project at the prestigious Hudson Yards Sky Lobby. The project, spanning the 36th floor, involved 4,350 square feet of 5 1/2” wide European white oak prefinished flooring, with large-scale 51” diamond patterns crafted from the same 5 1/2” wide material.
“We learned about the project from a general contractor that we work with regularly,” says Herman. “The builder was highly involved and driving the schedule pretty hard. Given the high profile of the building, which features very high-end shops and stringent security, anyone who was going to work on the project had to go through an orientation about safety and building access, which was part of the process to work there.”
To finalize the floor’s design, Herman and his team collaborated closely with architects on color choices based on the provided ideas and renderings.
However, Herman discovered that creating large diamond patterns from random-length bundles of wood was a significant challenge and caused unforeseen issues.
“A valuable lesson I learned was the waste factor on a job of this nature was almost 50 percent. I had not assumed that,” he explains. “We ended up being about 1,000 square feet short, and it was a very time-sensitive project. There were already large holiday parties booked there, and we had to get it completed. We were down to the wire, but made it happen.”
To accommodate the shortfall, the mill Herman worked with prioritized the extra square footage and shipped it out immediately to his warehouse, allowing the team to complete the project.
“Logistically, all materials had to be delivered to the building between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. This made things difficult as we could not ship things there via a common truck or suppliers. Deliveries included 300 sheets of plywood and 200 bags of leveler, plus adhesive and flooring,” he says.
Despite initial estimates of needing six to seven weeks, Herman’s team found themselves needing to complete the job in around four weeks due to compressed timelines.
“You can stomp your feet or beg all you want, but at the end of the day, there are many trades working together to get the job done. You have to figure out a way to get the job done,” he says. “In this case, we started a bit later in the day, around 10 a.m., but worked until midnight.”
Another challenge arose with the stone border set around the perimeter of the floor. Originally, Herman’s team was to install the flooring first, but scheduling complications and logistics led to other trades working simultaneously. The stone ended up being installed before the floors.
“Less is more when you meet with clients. Never oversell or overpromise. Instead, listen to understand their goals and final vision. Then, come back with what you are 100 percent confident you can achieve.”
— Eric Herman, State of the Art Wood Floor Gallery
“We surveyed the concrete, pinning and lasering the whole floor, then built it up with self-leveler so that our wood would be perfectly flush with the stone,” he says. “This added a week to the project that was not considered in the original schedule. We worked day and night, often until midnight, with another crew in the daytime to push us through.”
The brass border around the perimeter was another difficult aspect. “The brass strip had an L shape at the bottom, which was intended to go under the stone, but the stone workers did not install it as planned.” he explains. “We found that butting it to stone created issues, being we had more than 1,000 cuts of the parquet to do and didn’t have room to use a saw or router. We then proposed and got approval to add a 1” piece of wood first touching the stone, then the brass which allowed us to use a router to cut the pattern as needed.” Herman’s team also had to bend the brass at the required radiuses – a challenging task, but one they accomplished successfully.
Working with high-profile clients requires a careful approach. Herman advises, “Less is more when you meet with clients. Never oversell or overpromise. Instead, listen to understand their goals and final vision. Then, come back with what you are 100 percent confident you can achieve.”
Ultimately, the project was a success. Herman concludes, “At the end of the day, they couldn’t have been happier. We got it done a day before the final walk-through. Everything went well, they got their certificate of occupancy, and they were able to have their scheduled parties. Sometimes you have to jump through hoops, and sometimes they are hoops of fire. You get it done, and it pays off.”
