www.nwfa.org

This is the official site for the National Wood Floor Association. An organization I help start and one in which I spent many years working on the board and serving as the founding chairman for such committees as the “Technical Manual Committee” and the “Magazine Committee”. There’s lot of good stuff on this site. If you’ve never been on the site before, it’s fun to look up the past and present “floor of the year” winners and entries.

Of the three wood flooring associations in North America (NWFA, NOFMA & MFMA) the NWFA is the newest, largest and most all encompassing. The NWFA boasts a membership of well over 3,000 wood flooring professionals from manufacturers (who were the primary if not exclusive membership in NOFMA and MFMA until recently), distributors, dealers and contractors. Architects, designers, consultants, writers, editors and even the public can find helpful assistance through the NWFA.

My current association with the NWFA:

I am a member of NWFA and teach an occasional school in advanced techniques. I will also occasionally answer a difficult question or help decide a complex issue when called upon.

More stuff on my history with NWFA – if you’re interested

For many years I worked establishing and helping teach various schools for the NWFA. After more than 10 years of this entirely volunteer effort, my wife and I decided I could use some of the money I was spending on air fare, hotel and restaurant food (not to mention the 6 to 8 weeks per year) in more commercial pursuits – like our business and our retirement nest egg. I have always enjoyed teaching and helping others but one day you wake up and realize there is no one taking care of you when you’re done. Since I’m not independently wealthy and am certainly not going to inherent anything. It’s all up to me. I would go back to teaching if I could afford it. Oh, well -- what will be will be.

The Technical Manual Committee first started as the Technical & Education Committee. We were charged with putting together technical information for the association and developing schools to help train folks in our industry. It was a perfect match for me since years earlier I had helped start the (National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association) NOFMA School. Its goal was to educate wood flooring mechanics. The NWFA schools were to have a much broader scope. They were to help educate all career types and to take wood floor mechanics from the basics all the way up to becoming expert artisans. I had also recently written the first comprehensive manual (a book entitled “HARDWOOD FLOORS) on the installation, sanding and finishing of all types of wood flooring published by Taunton Press and Fine Homebuilding Magazine.

While chairing the Technical Manual Committee we created the first manuals on wood species, grading, water & wood, installing, sanding and finishing, problem solving, etc. Everything anyone in our business might want to know about our business of wood floors.

While co-chairing the Magazine Committee we located a good magazine publisher (Athletic Business) and started the magazine now known the world over as the mouthpiece of our industry “Hardwood Floors Magazine”. (This is another of my favorite sites -- see www.hardwoodfloorsmag.com below) The biggest challenge in those days was producing enough accurate editorial material to interest our potential readers and generating enough advertising revenue to pay for it. I am still an occasional contributor to the magazine especially on areas like wood flooring over radiant heat, hand scraping wood floors and mixed media floors (wood, stone, tile and/or metal jointly).

www.hardwoodfloorsmag.com

This is a site where you can go for ideas and information even more than at the NWFA site. These guys really have it together editorially on wood flooring. This is another great spot to look for ideas on designs for wood flooring installations. They publish all the winners (and non-winning entries which are sometimes better than the winners) for the floor of the year contest.

www.nofma.org

This is the official site for the old National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association now referring to themselves as the National Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association. These guys are the ones to are most responsible for developing and upholding the grading rules for wood flooring – particularly oak and other indigenous hardwood flooring species. These guys used to be the go to guys when professionals in our industry and those in other associated trades needed rules and guidelines about our industry.

NOFMA just like the NWFA, has begun holding schools to train and certify inspectors of finished wood floors as well. I say as well, because they have long trained inspectors and inspected wood flooring at the mill level – and did a very good job of this in my opinion.

I’ve decided not to get involved in the finished wood floor inspectors schools either the NWFA’s or NOFMA’s inspectors schools to teach or to get certified. I’ll just keep my reasons to myself – unless of course I’m forced to go public.

www.maplefloor.org

This is the official site for the Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association. This is the granddaddy of all the wood flooring associations. Although started as more of a good ole boys club in the 19th Century than a regulatory organization, these days they do a great job of putting together sport floor manufacturers and their installers/finishers. Most sport floor manufacturers deal in sugar maple. This is the wood floor of choice for gyms and other indoor sports facility floors. Since many of the specifications and installation methods for such floor are proprietary, it’s natural for these manufacturers to want to help their installers to themselves. They train them and certify them in their own techniques.

When an installation comes up in an area where they have a certified installer – he gets the job (usually). Since all government and school jobs require a closed bid environment, an installer or two from a nearby area may get the opportunity to submit a competitive bid – or, a competitive manufacturer may submit a similar bid for an “equivalent or equal specification” on a project.

Virtually all NBA arenas and most colleges and universities require MFMA certified floors be installed in their sports facilities. This even includes some Canadian facilities as well as the USA. Ironically, there are at least two highly capable maple flooring sports floor manufacturers in Canada. Foreign manufacturers are still not allowed membership in the MFMA the last I heard.

www.weldonfloors.uk

This site belongs to a friend of mine in the United Kingdom – Nottingham most especially (they have two locations now I believe). Jasper Weldon, along with his associates Paddy and are some of the finest floor mechanics in all of England. One of their most famous installations was the re-flooring restoration of Windsor Palace after the recent fire damage ruined larges sections of the structure. Of course I have lots of other friends throughout the UK, not only in England but Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Each area has its own techniques and local procedures. For example, there are still solid wooden end grain blocks being installed in the centuries old method of “dry setting” outside some of the old chateaus as sidewalks, streets and cart paths. End grain block glued to stone or concrete with “hot glue” is still a favorite in Wales and Scotland. Although I haven’t personally witnessed it, I would expect it in Ireland, England and all over Europe as it was once a quite popular installation method.