Steve Marley is the technical director and claims manager for Johnson’s Premium Hardwood Flooring in City of Industry, California. Marley has more than 40 years of experience and is an NWFA Certified Commercial Inspector, Certified Installation Professional, Certified Sand and Finish Professional, Certified Sales Advisor, and Certified Wood Flooring Inspector. He helped create the NWFA inspector program and was an instructor for NWFA schools. Currently, he serves on the NWFA Technical Standards and Publications Committee and NWFA CP subcommittees.
Marley recently was featured on the NWFA Wood Talk podcast, so Hardwood Floors magazine caught up with him to ask him a few more questions.
Tell us something interesting about yourself. I grew up near a 15,000-acre ranch that a family friend owned. He ran between 400 and 600 head of white-faced cattle on the property and farmed about 1,000 acres of oat hay and other crops. My parents let my brother and me help him, which started a journey of us learning how to farm and care for livestock. It allowed me to understand what work was all about and that nobody should shy away from hard work.
How did you get started in the industry? I was working at a machine shop and foundry and tired of hearing the metal screeching. A friend who owned a wood flooring company offered me a job. I worked for him for more than three years; then, I went into business with a friend and later started my own business, Cal Coast Hardwood Flooring. I bought my materials primarily from Galleher Hardwood, where Fred Brotherly introduced me to the NWFA. I attended my first Expo in Reno, Nevada. From that point, I was hooked.
JOHNSON’S PREMIUM HARDWOOD
Who has influenced your career the most and why? It’s hard to pinpoint one person, but I would probably have to go back to Fred Brotherly because he was instrumental in taking me under his wing. He was referred to locally as the “wood flooring guru,” and fast tracked my journey. Right along with him are Daniel Boone, Chuck Crispin, Steve Seabaugh, Kevin Mullany, Jon Namba, and Birger Juell.
What is your favorite wood floor project that you’ve participated in? If I had to choose one, it was a basketweave. Our signature basketweave was using strip flooring, but this particular floor happened to be 4” wide solid Brazilian Cherry plank flooring, which we hand scraped on the job. We would line the inside of the basketweave with one-inch-wide material, and the corners would be alternating directions of American walnut, and we would pillow the edges on all four sides along with pillowing both sides of the picture frame. It was basketweave and then a picture frame within the basketweave, which we typically would fill with buxy limestone or some other type of stone.
What energizes you to stay in the wood flooring industry? Every day, as a technical director and claims manager, you can have the same type of claims, but they’re always different. It’s that challenge that I love to figure out. Listen to the floor and gather the evidence because, at the end of the day, you have to put every single piece of the puzzle back together again for you to draw a conclusion. I learn every day, and that’s what drives me. Then, being able to pass my knowledge down to other people who are willing to learn. That’s a major reward for me.
What keeps you busy outside of work? I’m an avid outdoorsman. I have more than 250 hiking miles under my belt. I’ve been over 10,000 feet hiking more than 16 times and to the top of Mt. Whitney once. On the weekend, I get up, I get the coffee going, and I turn on the hunting channel or the fishing channel. Also, we have six grandkids, three boys and three girls, ranging from 18 months to nine years old, so they keep us busy.
You can listen to a technical-focused discussion between Steve Marley and NWFA’s Brett Miller, as well as other hardwood flooring experts by visiting
hardwoodfloorsmag.com/nwfa-wood-talk-podcast.