Hardwood Flooring Installation School

aFIVER the years hardwood tTfloors have earned an enviable reputation. Prized for their beauty and durability, they have become a symbol of quality and luxury to the homeowners of America.

Unfortunately, despite their sterling characteristics and industry standards which assure the quality of every bundle of flooring produced, the improper installation of a floor can shatter the homeowner's dream of luxury. In an effort to insure that every installation meet standards, the Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association and the American Parquet Association originated the Hardwood Flooring Installation School in 1979. Now they have been joined by the Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association whose member firms are the primary manufacturers of athletic floor products.

Howard W. Brickman of the National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association staff is director of the school which also serves as a vehicle to counter a nationwide shortage of hardwood flooring installers. In addition to installers, students include flooring distributors, dealers, sales people and others who need to be able to judge the quality of a floor installed by someone else.

A broad cross-section of students attends every session. At a recent session the capacity enrollment of 5l included students from24 states, Canada and Holland. Classes were

Story at a Glance

Hardwood Flooring Installa. tion School guarantees labor pool of skilled workmen .. combats improper installa. tion, disappointed home. owners supporled by associations and manufac. turers.

held in the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis, Tn.

The four-day sessions open with an introduction to oak flooring and how it is manufactured. Lectures, demonstrations and practice work comprise the intensified curriculum. Among the many subjects covered are job-site preparations, installation of strip, plank, parquet and block flooring, sanding and finishing techniques, and trouble shooting. Sub-floored platforms are provided for students to do practice work in an almost exact replica of on-site conditions. With the addition of the Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association as a sponsor, the subject of gymnasium floors has been added.

Students tour a flooring manufacturing plant to see how the flooring is produced. Certificates are awarded in recognition of successful completion of the course.

The teaching staff is composed of members of the sponsoring organizations and other experts in various facets of the work. Representatives of manufacturers of floor nailing machines, sanding equipment, and finishing materials demonstrate their tools and products. Gray Moulthrop is school committee chairman for the National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association.

The next class session will be held March 22-25, according to Charles "Mickey" Moore, mgr. of inspection and school services for the OFMA.

HABDW00D FL00Rll{G Installation School studenls receive instruction in the use of a nailing machine to lay strip oak Jloors. The instructor is Pele DeVila, representative of Porta-Tools, Inc., Wilmington, N.C.

Trinity Forest Industries, Inc. is the new name for the old American Forest Products' Hurst, Tx., distribution yard, recently sold to Greg Ryback, a former AFP mgr. in Newark, Ca.; former Hurst mgr. Elmar Brock remains as buyer and consultant.

The American Forest Products distribution facilities in Tulsa, Ok., Houston, Tx., Birmingham, Al., andTamp?, H., haveallbeen closed since the first of the year. . . Moses and Cline, Inc., the 30 year old Dallas, Tx., lumber brokerage and wholesaler, has voluntarily liquidated, the result of soaring property values and the expense of relocation. . . Kaibab Industries has finished the shuttering of its Grand Prairie (Fort Worth) Tx., wholesale distributionyard...

American Standard Inc. (plumbing fixtures) is rebuilding its burned-out New Orleans, La., plant with full production scheduled for the end of the year . Nichols-Kusan, Inc., has completed a 65,000 sq. ft. expansion of its Old Jacksonville ceiling fan manufacturing facilities in Jacksonville,Tx....

Marvin Windows is six months into a three year developmental period in their new Ripley, Tr., plant . Louisville Tin & Stove Co., Louisville, Ky., has sold its manufacturing division to a group of employees; wholesaling and floor covering divs. have been purchased by Orgill Brothers & Co., Memphis, Tn., wholesalers

Gallatin Aluminum Products Co., Gallatin, Tn. , is scheduled to complete a $5CI,000 expansion project this month . . Amspro and KoolSeal divs. of Perfection

Industries have opened a roof coating manufacturing facility in Clearwater,Fl....

Manville Forest Products Corp. expects to complete a new computerized sawmill at Huttig, Ar., in 1983 . Masonite's Southern Lumber Div. has a cypress lumber mill under construction at Thibodaux, La., the first mill for pure cypress to be built in the South in years . .

The Buckeye Cellulose Corp. is testing its new Southern yellow pine sawmill at Barnesville, Ga., in preparation for starting with one shift a day on May l; Champion Internotional Corp. will handle the sales LouisianaPacific is acquiring a sawmill complex in Nashville, N.C., and converting their Corrigan, Tx., particleboard plant to Waferwoodproduction...

Boise Cascsde expects to be operational by June with the builder yard section of its new Houston, Tx., distribution complex; remainder of the 15 acre facility is planned to open in July...

F.C. Stearns Hardware Co., Hot Springs, Ar., a lOl-year-old wholesaler purchased by BlishMize Co., Atchison, Ks., is now operating as Blbh-Mize Co. . Genstar, Dallas, Tx., company belt-tightening over the past six months has closed the Shreveport, La., Mobile, Al., Little Rock, Ar., and Ft. Worth, Tx., bldg. mtl. distribution centers and mothballed the Midland/ Odessa and Beaumont, Tx., facilities. .

The Home Depot is expanding its four stores in Atlanta, Ga., by 25u/o,relaying floor space, chang-

Building Products Digest ing traffic flow, and dropping automotive sections Payless. Cashways is building new stores in Lewisville, Plano, Irving, Colleyville, White Settlement and Denton,Tx....

Home /Lumber and Hardware, Rosenberg, Tx., is starting its 5 I st year of business . . . Lindsley, Miami, Fl., is opening a new store in Dadeland, a Miami suburb . . Ras's Sentry Hardware, Pelahatchie, Ms., has held a grand opening for its newly remodeled store...

Handy City is redoing its stores, basing the new look on the Rivergate unit in Nashville, Tn.; expansion reportedly has been postponed until '83 . . HillBehan Lumber Co., Harahan (New Orleans), La., expects its new unit north and west of thecity to open this month Dart Drug, Landover, Md., has remodeled a combination drug store/home center in Burke, Va.

Lowe's, North Wilkesboro, N.C., has opened new stores in Lakeland and Port Orange, Fl., and re-outfitted stores in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Augusta and Columbus, Ga., and Asheville and Hendersonville, N.C. . . An experimental Thrifty store has been opened by Sco t ty's in Hollywood, Fl., with conventional units under construction in Tallahassee and Bayonet Point, Fl.

Union Camp, Pelham, Al., has agreed in principle to sell its 1OO-year-old Moore-Handley wholesale hardware, industrial supply and machine tool divs. to a private investor group headed by William Riley of New York and Pierce E. Marks Jr. of Atlanta, Ga., but will retain the 49 Homecrafters stores

For the 6th mo. in a row, Jan. housing starts (latest available figs.) were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate below I million; off 0.690 from the previous mo., they were only 894,000 on an annual rate . . bldg. permits for future construction were the bright spot: up for the 3rd mo. in arow.