SOLID AMERICAN BLACK WALNUT T&G FLOORING

Get your share of the high-profit holiday renovating/remodeling business with our newly inventoried 3/q" x 2rA" Walnut flooring' lMeets or exceeds same standards as set by N ational Oak Flooring M anufac turing Association )' show's professional Programming, said that "our 1988 theme will promote the concept that show products and information can help retailers find their own special comPetitive niche in the marketPlace."

Only solid, steamed, Black Walnut lJuglans nigra) lum-ber is used for this beautiful flooring' Available from stock. No more 6-8 week delivery schedules.

There will be new Professional programs running concurrentlY on Sunday, MondaY, and TuesdaY, dealing with operations and merchandising, CEOs and top management, human resources, and general interest topics. A new multi-media event, the National Home Center Show "Great Encounter," starring Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, will replace the show's traditional opening general session on Monday morning.

The annual National Home Center Show, produced bY Vance Publishing Corporation, is the world's largest exhibition of products, services and ideas for the $68 billion home center/home imProvement industry.

The four-day event is structured specifically to meet the specialized needs of home center and do-ityourself product retailers, their wholesalers and suPPliers.

gwnlUlnlpaaleLunbu

Growing Fused Panel Use

The use of thermoset decorative panels, labeled permalam panels by the American Laminators Association, is rapidly expanding in the marketplace for both vertical and horizontal surfaces.

The thermally fused panels are flat pressed from a thermoset polyester or melamine resin-impregnated web, then bonded under heat and pressure to panel substrates such as particleboard or medium density fiberboard. The pre-bonding eliminates later bonding of the laminates and backer sheets to asubstrate.

Permalam panels meet high ALA standards for strength, stiffness, impact resistance, wear, scuff, staining, cleanability, fading, temperature, radiant heat, boiling and durability.

The panels' popularity parallels the trend toward solid colors. While the use of solid color laminates has increased from 400/o in five years to over 50%, some permalam manufacturers report as high as 80% of production is in solid colors.

In Europe, producers reportedly use decorative panels for 90% of vertical surfaces, according to an ALA spokesman.

Close Grain Hardwoods Up

Close grain woods including Northwest alder, maple and birch gained slightly at the summer furniture markets in Dallas, Tx., San Francisco, Ca., and Atlanta, Ga. Their 3.80/o for alder and 2.60/o for maple/birch confirmed the trend to a more refined grain pattern. Oak and pine dropped slightly with pine at 8o/o of the total showroom presentations. Strong figured woods accounted for 44.50/o of the market, down slightly from 44.8% last January. Oak dropped to 34.30/o from 35.50/0.

The slight drop in the dominance of oakand pine was, in part, taken up by increased use of ash and elm, according to Arnold B. Curtis, president of Northwest Hardwoods, a division of Weyerhaeuser Co.