Hardwood Special Issue

Hardwood floors are back & selling

lJannwooD FLooRS have I lreturned to style after a hiatus of 4O years, more or less. Once the symbol of luxurious and fashionable living as well as practicality, they became passe when carpeting was first approved as part of the federal home mortgage package.

Now hardwood is back, more lovely and just as livable as in the past. But the beautiful new styles of parquet, plank and strip are new to the current generation of baby boomers. It's up to the dealer to tell them the whys and hows of buying hardwood flooring.

Well trained salesmen, preferably ones who have taken training and been qualified as hardwood experts, striking displays and informative advertising are necessary to back up the interest created by the eye catching consumer ads and magazine articles.

The dealer who can make desires become reality has made a sale.

Hardwood wholesalers and manufacturers are behind the dealers with resources for training employees, preparing displays and providing educational materials for customers. Help is there for the asking.

Many dealers have found it helpful

Sfo4y at a Glance

Ways to profit from popularity of hardwood floors. strip and plank are favorites. installationcan be d-i-y with new products. .trained sales- to prepare simple instructions for installing as "take homes" for those considering hardwood flooring. Another brochure on care included with the purchase can add to customer confidence.

In many areas the plank and strip floors are gaining on the parquets because decorators feel they blend better with the contemporary country or western decorating themes. Parquets will always be in demand for those who want the traditional, so it is advisable to have all styles displayed and available.

With prefinished products, products that can be installed over concrete slabs or existing tile floors with mastic as well as the traditional nail in place, finish on the job-site hardwood floor products, the dealer can offer a choice to suit every purchaser, homeowner or contractor.

Hardwood Tally

(Continued from page 8) customer you're entitled to have things make sense to you.

Ultimately the best way to avoid sharp practices is to own a tally stick and to tally every piece of hardwood you buy. A tally stick is a flexible ruler about 40" in length that will measure the board footage in a piece of lumber. They are available from a number of companies or through your hardwood dealer. A reputable dealer will welcome the chance to help you acquire one and will show you how to use it.

Hang your tally stick where every salesperson who calls can see it. A tally stick is a talisman that wards off the shady dealer.

One caution when you start to tally hardwood, the National Hardwood Lumber Association allows a standard deviation of 590. Don't expect your tally to exactly match the dealer's tally. But they should be close. If they aren't close, tell the dealer you either want him to accept your tally, or you want him to retally the load while you watch. If you feel you've been cheated, and you can't get reparation in any other way, contact the state agency responsible for weights and measures.

Southern Chains Move West

Southern based warehouse retail chains are looking to the northeast and west for expansion in the years ahead.

Builders Square, a division of Kmart, headquartered in San Antonio, Tx., projects nine more stores this year and 20 more in the next two years with emphasis on the California market.

Hechinger, Landover, Md., will add two more warehouse stores this year and nine in 1986. Upstate New York, Long Island, New York, Western Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and South Carolina are potential sites.

The Home Depot, Atlanta, Ga., will concentrate on Detroit with some fill-ins in their edsting markets in Atlanta, Florida, New Orleans, La., Houston and Dallas, Tx., Phoenix, Az.. and Southern California. Thirteen stores are planned to open by year end with 20 more in 1986.

Homecrafters, Birmingham, Al., will develop markets in Salt Lake City, Ut., and Denver, Co., adding two stores in the next few months and one in '86. Mr. How Warehouse. Margate, Fl., has scheduled seven more units for this year and 18 more for '86, moving into Virginia, Missouri, Colorado and Indiana.

If you're tallying lumber that has been straightJined or surfaced on four sides, you'll have to make allowances. The waste involved in milling can be surprisingly high. By regularly tallying the lumber you received and by comparing your results with the dealer's piece tally of the same lumber before milling, you should be able to determine whether you got all you bargained for.

I want to emphasize again that most hardwood dealers are honest. Many of them publish price lists which state that their prices are based upon net footage only. In recent years one distributor has even given away thousands of miniature tally sticks.

Most hardwood dealers will welcome your questions and will encourage your desire to know you're getting a fair deal. The hardwood dealers I admire want an honest market place just as much as their customers do.

Always keep in mind that mistakes happen. Be willing to give a dealer the benefit of the doubt. From my own experience managing hardwood operations I know how easy it is to mistakenly leave a unit of lumber off a shipment, or even a few tiers off a unit. Ifyou've been shorted, give your dealer the chance to admit an honest mistake and make it right.

Hardwood Floor Use Increases

Use of hardwood floors in new homes has increased from less than l9o to 590 in the past l0 years, according to Bill Smith, who represented his company, Charlotte Hardwood Center, Charlotte, N.C., at the Southern Ideal Home Show in Charlotte in September.

He sees the market in the next few years returning to the figures of 30 yeilrs ago when 7090 of the homes used hardwood floors. More and more hardwood floors are installed by d-i-yers, up to 6090 according to Smith.

Yellow Poplar

(Continued from page 15) being closed-in. The yellow poplar lumber nailed easily and very few pieces split when nailed.

Two free publications on yellow poplar framing lumber are available for those interested in learning more about this product. One, "Yellow Poplar Framing Lumber" gives some general informationabout the lumber, its grades and uses. The other, "Grades, Design, Values, And Span Tables For Yellow Poplar Framing Lumber" is more technical and would be of interest to architects, designers, engineers and building code inspectors. A l2-minute, V2u VHS videotape showing a house framed with yellow poplar dimension lumber is available on a loan basis.

Write to Extension Forest Resources, North Carolina State University, Box 8003, Raleigh, N. C. 27695-8N3 to request the publications.

Hardwood Convention

The International Hardwood Products Association (IHPA) will hold its 3fth annual international convention, March 3-7,1986, at the Waiohai Hotel on Kauai, Hawii.

The IHPA convention is held annually to report the association's activities and further the aims of the forest products industry.

The World of Wood Exhibition will be held in conjunction with the convention.

Pacific Rim Mill Study Tour

The Hardwood Plywood Manufacturers Association, Reston, Va., is continuing with plans for a mill study tour of Japan, Singapore and Indonesia despite cancellation of the 9th Asian Plywood Manufacturers Conference and Malaysia Wood Expo'85.

Sylvia McDonald, tour coordinator, reports the trip will include visits to three mills in the Tokyo area, coordinated through the Japan Plywood Manufacturers Association. In Singapore the group will tour an adhesive mill. Mills in Jakarta, Banjarmarsin, Balikpapan, Samarinda and Jogyakarta will be other stops.