FloorTalk – for all the latest flooring fashions

Submitted by: Steve Cooper

There are few greater annoyances—more than annoyances, really—than discovering scratches, scuffs, dents and other damage to new wood flooring. Makes you feel like beauty has become the beast.

Fortunately, avoiding damage is possible. It’s a matter of taking a smart first step when you buy flooring. Look for products made to resist everyday assault from dog claws, grains of sand, dining room chairs, high heels, and such. Brand-name companies continually work to harden their finishes.

Anderson Hardwood has built its reputation on floors that stand up to punishment while also attracting attention through the natural appeal of wood. Specializing in popular dark floors, the company offers exquisite products in oak, maple, hickory, cherry and birch. The company makes planks up to seven inches wide and some are hand-scraped, which makes for a memorable finish.

Homeowners can be confident that these will stand up to abuse because Anderson floors are made from the hardest part of the tree. Compared to wood flooring sold strictly on price, this makes their pecan planks 102 percent harder, maple planks 77 percent harder, and oak planks 41 percent harder.

Not strong enough for you? Anderson has now added a new finish called Luster-Lock Ultra, a proprietary smooth, glossy surface. This formula makes the floor six times more scuff- and abrasion-resistant than competing finishes.

Based on performance of the new finish, Anderson is doubling finish warranties on their 3/8-inch, 5-ply products to 30 years and their 1/2-inch products to 50 years. Smooth-faced products also get 30-year finish warranties and solid-textured floors get 50-year warranties.

No more beast. Just beauty.

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There’s more late-breaking news about Anderson Hardwood flooring:

1. All Anderson flooring is now GREENGUARD Children & Schools certified, which guarantees products will contribute to good indoor-air quality. For certification, flooring was tested for the presence of more than 10,000 different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and to make certain that formaldehyde is present only in exceedingly small amounts (less than 13.5 parts per billion). To maintain the certificate, flooring is regularly retested.

Go big green!

2. Flooring in the Tropical Reflections collection features Anderson’s exclusive PermaColor natural aging process. This process creates a deep, high-gloss finish without the use of stains, solvents or chemicals.

Breath easy, people.

Annette Callari, Allied ASID

Good design is all about solutions, and here’s a solution worth sharing. Glass tile is a shining star in both commercial and residential designs, bringing color, light and translucence to any interior.  Getting creative with glass tile nets big results, but can also net some installation headaches as well.  The crystal clear elegance of glass requires a grout that can enhance its beauty—and I believe I’ve found it.

StarGlass™ translucent grout from StarQuartz, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, offers the solution.  Regular grout products used in glass tile installations can bleed under the tile and give a muddy, irregular appearance.  StarGlass™ is designed to let your glass tile be the star, because it enhances the look of the glass.  Besides being translucent, it’s three-dimensional and reflective.  The secret ingredient to this grout is a round glass bead aggregate that combines with a urethane grout binder.  What a brilliant idea!  It brings out the beauty of the glass (or metal) tile without weighing it down.

The manufacturer states, “StarGlass™ can be used on vertical or horizontal surfaces for both interior and exterior tile installations.  Approved uses include grout for ceramic, porcelain, glass tile, metal tile, or natural stone tiles.” 

Here are some of the interesting features/benefits that I discovered:

• Pre-mixed, ready to use
• Excellent chemical, stain and mildew resistance
• Semi-flexible, low shrinkage, and high crack resistance
• No color fading, streaking or shading—even when wet
• Fast, easy clean-up when compared to epoxy and cement grouts
• Proprietary coloring system
• UV stable colors (non-yellowing)
• Self-sealing (no sealing required)
• Non-sag formula for vertical surfaces
• Installs up to 50% faster than other grout systems
• Contributes to LEED credits
• Contains over 80% post-consumer recycled content

Pretty impressive line-up of features, but most important, we finally have a product specifically designed for glass tile installations.  It’s possible your tile setter hasn’t even heard of it yet, but be persistent if this is what you want in your home or office.  A little research and your professional will be a convert too.  I believe in this product—to the point where I have specified it for a vertical glass tile installation in a commercial design I am working on.  With this product discovery, I brought something new to my company and to our installation crews.  StarGlass™ may now become a star player for all of our future glass installations. 

Before I close, let’s talk color for a moment.  This grout comes in 15 amazing colors (Diamond, Onyx, Opal, Jade, Bronze, just to name a few). The colors are gemlike and almost dance with reflective qualities. You can see the entire color line on their website, www.starquartz.com—and you need to know that Daltile is the national distributor for this amazing new product.  What fun!

Annette Callari, Allied ASID

This is the story of how a product started out as one thing, and evolved into something entirely different.  Back in 1943, a family-owned company named Richlite produced materials strictly for industrial purposes:  aerospace applications, fiberglass reinforcements for marine industries, and materials for commercial food industries. But in the late 1990’s architects and designers discovered Richlite and began specifying it for high-end residential and commercial countertops, as well as reception areas.  And, to date, this story just keeps getting better and better.

Richlite is made primarily from paper purchased from FSC-Certified sources.  The paper is treated with resin, then pressed and baked to create solid sheets of material with exceptional strength. Because of its blend of waste paper, corrugated cardboard, soft woods and wood fibers, Richlite is able to create Herculean surfaces that satisfy aesthetics as well as function. (And brings “Green” specification to a new level.)  If you are wondering just how strong Richlite could possibly be, it’s a fact that the action sports industry has successfully used this material for outdoor skate ramps!!!  Enough said.

These countertops have earned GREENGUARD certification for indoor use residentially, but are also approved for school and institutional environments.  The material has a natural appeal and matte finish that gives it a clean, architectural look–very urban chic by nature.  Its strength is inherent for the life of the product and enables the surface to accommodate long spans and cantilevers without extra support.  No wonder designers and architects love it.  Its uses, of course, are not limited to countertops.  The product can be used for interior wall cladding, wainscots, work surfaces, wall caps, stair treads, and even free-form architectural features. 

If you happen to be intrigued by this chameleon product, log on to www.richlite.com to find out more.  There you can also see the color choices, which include dark green, rich chocolate tones, deep blue, golden amber, light maple, and even a deep red.

I love bringing versatile, innovative products to your attention, especially when they further the cause of sustainability.  I’ve given you some interesting applications as food for thought.  But its uses are limited only by your imagination.  Now it’s up to you to get creative!  Let me know what you create and I’ll share your story with our readers in future blogs.

Submitted By:  Annette M. Callari, Allied ASID, CMG

Just in case you missed the latest post on WFCA.org “Designer’s Corner”, you might want to check out the article on “What’s Cooking in Kitchen & Bath Trends…PLUS COLOR”. It’s the “PLUS COLOR” part of that article that ties nicely into the subject of this blog.  Twelve stunning new colors for 2010 were introduced in that article—all will come into their own for home interiors over the next year. These rising stars on the color scene were all based on my on-going research and work with Color Marketing Group International. (CMG is the premier color-forecasting group in the United States. As a not-for-profit organization, color trend predictions are unbiased, sector-specific, quite accurate, and highly valued.)  Each member analyzes the raw data that comes out of CMG conferences and customizes it to their particular product line and market.  In my case—home interiors! 

One of the new color introductions included in that published forecast was Violet Satin.  This color was strongly influenced by the technology sector and is reflective of combining stainless steel with the softer side of purple.  The fashion industry absolutely loves it, and so do home interiors.  It’s a transitional color that we will see working effortlessly in everything from carpet and fabrics, to hard surface applications.  Consider that the 2010 color predictions for home interiors were decided early in 2008, and validation of these colors is now emerging—in a big way. Evidence of that was seen at the recent Cersaie Tile Show in Italy.  Sphere Trending, a respected international trend spotting company, highlighted this show in their recent newsletter.  In their own words: 

“As always, the tile and bath installations at Cersaie were simply stunning this year. Continuing in importance, as a softer statement in design, was the influence of inspirations from nature. Birds and butterflies came to life, subtle floral motifs took shape and shadowy trees, branches and leaves became an elegant statement.”

The link to Sphere Trending’s slide show is below (Lovely in Lavender). Be sure to click on ‘slide show’ in upper right of their page to see these images full-screen.  Enjoy this color-rich visual walk through of the exhibits at Cersaie, and watch as Violet Satin comes alive in some stunning and surprising applications.  This color is a blossoming winner already making international headlines, as you will see.

Submitted By:  Annette M. Callari, Allied ASID, CMG

I really wanted to get your complete attention on this blog—and what better way to do that than by leading with pictures of an awesome new collection of mosaic tile patterns from Nadeau.  Their creativity is showing–not only in the patterns introduced above (and these are just six of the twelve new mosaics), but in the marketing theme behind them. 

According to Nadeau Tile’s marketing department, “We are introducing the ‘TWELVE MONTHS OF MOSAICS COLLECTION’ which was inspired by the intricacies of Mother Nature.  Each design was hand selected with the essence of the weather and feel of each month.

So let’s have a little fun with this.  Can you identify which month each pattern represents?  You really have to analyze each pattern to see if you can find a theme, and the colors used might give you a hint as well.  If you’d like to see the other six months of mosaics not shown here, visit TheNadeauCollection.com for the complete line. 

Okay, I’ve teased you long enough.  Look below for the answers, starting with the top left pattern:

1. DECEMBER – The colors are cool and icy, and reminiscent of ice crystals taking shape under a microscope.
2. NOVEMBER – Winter is making it’s debut, and warm flannel blankets are coming out  of the linen chest.  This homey plaid speaks of bundling up in front of the fireplace on blustery nights.
3. OCTOBER – Look very closely at this pattern.  I definitely see black bats with wings spread.  The russet and gold colors are some of Fall’s best hues.
4. AUGUST – This one was harder to guess, but Nadeau describes it as being inspired by feathers, colored with the warm hues of sunny August.
5. MAY – Flowers in full bloom and garden-like colors inspired this design.
6. JANUARY – Winter white with a snow leopard pattern represents the month of January.  This one is a stretch of the imagination, but what a great pattern!

‘Twelve Months of Mosaics’ definitely qualifies as an innovative collection, and it’s just a sampler of what Nadeau can create. They encourage you– customers, designers, architects and specifiers–to contact them directly with your own ideas of patterns you want to create.  They will work with you as a team to develop the concept and composition of a floor or wall mosaic customized for your project.  Now THAT is mass customization at its very best.