Nov-Dec 2019 Coverings

Coverings CANADA’S FLOORCOVERING MAGAZINE

Not always easy being green

TECH PRESSURE

November/December 2019

THEN-AND-NOW

Montreal yoga and wellness centre

Page 30

SURVEY RESULTS: YOU SMILED INSTALLATION Q&A IS BACK

BY POPULAR DEMAND CANADA NIGHT AND MORE AT TISE

The Largest North American Floorcovering, Stone & Tile Event

REGISTER

TISE for

EXHIBITS 28-30 January 2020 EDUCATION 27-30 January 2020 Mandalay Bay Convention Center I Las Vegas

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Coverings CANADA’S FLOORCOVERING MAGAZINE

November/December 2019

THEN-AND-NOW

Not always easy being green

Montreal yoga and wellness centre

TECH PRESSURE

Page 30

Features 6 Technology under pressure

Advances in products and adhesives don’t necessarily make business faster and easier.

20 Reader survey

Respondents expect many positives in 2020.

4 Commentary SURVEY RESULTS: YOU SMILED INSTALLATION Q&A IS BACK

BY POPULAR DEMAND CANADA NIGHT AND MORE AT TISE Nov-Dec 2019 Coverings.indd 1

2019-10-16 3:41 PM

November/December 2019 Vol. 44, No. 6 www.coveringscanada.ca Kerry Knudsen Editor and Publisher kknudsen@wimediainc.ca 647-274-0507

Steve King Associate Publisher sking@wimediainc.ca

416-802-1225

Mike Edwards Contributing Editor medwards@wimediainc.ca

Lee Ann Knudsen Art Director

lak@wimediainc.ca

nsGraphic Design Graphics

Indelible boyhood experience relates to the meaning of work.

9 News

Mapei chairman Squinzi passes; U.S. tariffs tackle China’s flooring imports; Aspecta appoints Canada account manager; Boa-Franc acquires Ten Oaks.

12 Law

Social media: A new workplace policy to enforce.

14 Shows

TISE 2020 returns to Las Vegas.

18 Design

Design personalities make ostentatiously humble dinner partners.

24 Installation

Q&A returns: Your problems, addressed.

Associations 19 Canadian Flooring, Cleaning and Restoration Association

Recognition and training: Past president of FIO/NFCA to be honoured.

nspence@wimediainc.ca

23 National Floor Covering Association

Omni Data Services Circulation circulation@wimediainc.ca www.omnidataservices.com

24 Products

Cover photo: David Boyer

Specs matter: Managing the end at the beginning.

Carpet cutting machine; colour-consistent grout; waterproof hardwood flooring; moisture meters; resilient floor profiles.

28 Bullets 29 Events and Advertisers 30 Then-and-now

Restaurant transformed into a wellness destination.

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Coverings is published six times annually, Jan./Feb., Mar./Apr., May/June, July/Aug., Sept./Oct. and Nov./Dec., for Canada’s floorcovering industry. Subscriptions are free to qualified participants in Canada’s floorcovering industry.

Subscribe at www.coveringscanada.ca. Readers from outside Canada may purchase subscriptons for $55 Cdn. For subscription inquiries, e-mail subscriptions@wimediainc.ca or fax 1-866-698-9061 Published by W.I. Media Inc., Box 84 Cheltenham, Caledon, ON L7C 3L7 © 2019 by W.I. Media Inc. All rights reserved.

W. I. Media Inc. and Coverings disclaim any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect to the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. The opinions of the columnists and writers are their own and are in no way influenced by or representative of the opinions of Coverings or W.I. Media Inc.

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COMMENTARY Management training for the next generation

Illegally blond

ACCORDING TO A NEW STUDY in the Harvard Business Review, half of millennials and 75 percent of Gen Z-ers have quit their jobs for mental health “reasons.”

Cute, eh? I used to know somebody that would take off every legal sick day as a “mental health day.”

My dad would have kicked my butt if I had done that. I know. I tried. Whenever it was my turn to wash dishes, or if there was a project due at school, I tried to “call in sick.” It never worked.

And I mean never. Looking back, it’s a good thing I never broke an arm or caught pneumonia on a test day. It would not have worked. I had no credibility with dad.

Kerry Knudsen On the other hand, I was a kid.

Kids aren’t SUPPOSED to have credibility. They are supposed to acquire it. Learn it. And they learn it from their parents. Fathers, it seems.

I stole some blond hair colouring in Grade Eight.

Everybody was shoplifting and bragging about it, so I resolved to do it, too. It is terrible for a kid to be “different.”

It is worse to shoplift, and the guilt got me. I figured how somebody had been watching from one of those glassed-in offices above the store floor, or had made a video and would see me when they reviewed it. And when my dad found out … Dead. That would be the end, and it would be painful and eternal.

I would be separated from the family, from life and from legend. I was the one that didn’t work out. Pastor Blegen would condemn me. He had already caught me smoking instead of showing up for confirmation class.

I couldn’t deal with it. I can’t explain it. You couldn’t understand. Everything was wrong. To top it off, I had no need on earth for blond hair colouring. I was already light blond, and I actually had hair.

I resolved to meet my fate, hid the dye box in a bag and began the last, long mile. The end. I had to face the music. The death march was about eight city blocks, and then the drug store sign edged into view.

My feet weighed a ton. My heart was beating its rapid last.

In some kind of haze, I entered the store, went to customer service and asked for the store manager. It seemed he was ready for me — waiting to pounce. He had those unforgiving owl-eye glasses, a white shirt and vest and no hair. Everything there is to hate in an adult by one who will now never know what it means to be one. But I could not quit.

I handed him the bag with the unopened box of dye and confessed with one blurted assertion: “I stole this.”

He stared at me the way only adults can, looked into the bag a few times to be sure he had the full picture, and said, “Thank you.”

Baffled, I said, “Huh? Is that all? Aren’t you going to report it or something?”

“No,” he said, “I don’t think we need to do that. I don’t think you’ll be stealing anymore.”

He was prescient. I didn’t. Don’t. It is not worth throwing my reputation away, and my life and freedom, and my selfesteem, for a box of blond hair colouring. Or a new car. Or a day off work.

Work is who I am and what I do. It is how people know me. I own a business, so if I steal a day from the company, I am not only stealing from myself, but from all the people that rely on me, the credibility of Coverings and the trust my readers and advertisers place here.

Somebody needs to tell the millies and zed-ers you don’t quit a job for mental health excuses. In fact, if you do that enough times, you may find yourself someplace you never imagined in your future. Once you set your foot on life’s path in a certain direction, once you take every step along the way, you can’t be surprised when you end up where you were heading.

Society needs workers. Workers become managers.

Managers become owners. Owners become leaders.

Don’t quit for mental health excuses. Straighten up. Like the drug-store manager, I have either quit or got fired from every job I ever had but this one. When I quit, I made sure it was a story worth telling. When I was fired, the same. I think everybody should be fired at least once, for two reasons. First, you know what it feels like and won’t fire others pointlessly. Second, you find out it’s not the end of the world.

Quitting for mental health excuses is.

Comment at www.coveringscanada.ca

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November/December 2019 November/December 2019

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TECHNOL

UNDER PRESSU Homeowners are lining up at the big-box stores to take advantage of the latest flooring sales.

In a few weeks, some percentage of those once-enthusiastic redecorators will be lining up again — this time to abashedly ask a professional to help them recover.

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November/December 2019 November/December 2019

OGY

URE THE WORD “AMATEUR” may be the key. How far back do you go? Ground-breaking U.S architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956 created one of his most famous home designs, Kentuck Knob, near Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Wright incorporated hot-water, in-floor radiant heating in the home, not a new technology at the time, but a technology that has remained without repair since its installation.

Another kind of technology is a gadget with a limited lifetime and a trip to the landfill. “Smart” phones, televisions and an array of kitchen gadgets fit that bill.

Back in the ‘80s, the newest technology included the PC — the personal computer, with designs being presented by Microsoft and Apple, among others. Those modern wonders had a whopping 64k removable drive and could deliver data over a telephone line at 300 baud.

It was not long before Apple introduced its Macintosh, along with a suite of programs, along with QuarkXpress, it called “desktop publishing,” and amateur night in media was born. Anybody could be a publisher, including illiterates, juveniles and poseurs. The First Amendment and the then-newly formed Charter of Rights and Freedoms saw to it that nobody needed any sense to publish.

The digital world of desktop publishing soon provided eager markets for digital imaging, and the first digital cameras came along, as did “processing” programs for images, soon to be dominated by Photoshop and Adobe’s own subsequent suite of DTP programs to include Illustrator, InDesign, and so on… Soon, the professionals had to step aside, along with their sets of protocols, and let the kids drive.

Photo was followed by video, and print was supplanted

Bad materials, amateur installation, and no accountability add up to losses in the thousands of dollars, and they want you to fix it.

So is technology a boom or a bust?

by “digital.” Print, after all, costs more than most Facebook pros’ allowance. Clearly, the world of the professional is under fire, and good enough is the enemy of best.

THERE IS AN ARGUMENT TO BE MADE that the floorcovering industry is suffering more than its share at the hands of modern technology. According to Chris Maskell, c.e.o. of the National Floor Coverings Association, construction projects across Canada are booming, yet the general contractors are using old scheduling protocols while the demand for new technologies has extended the time necessary for proper installation.

According to Maskell, adhesives are the unsung heroes of flooring installation. They connect the slab to the floor in a critical and irreplaceable marriage. However, a common problem has evolved, and new, non-VOC (volatile organic compound) adhesives cannot combat moisture the way the “old” adhesives did, and improper application can result in a moisture-related breakdown of the adhesive into a slippery goop.

Essentially, says Maskell, “green” technology leads to adhesive breakdown because of moisture.

Maskell points out that VOCs are chemicals in adhesives formerly made from bitumen or petroleum – the black mastic of days gone by. Federal regulations demanded the replacement of VOCs with non-VOC products in order for builders to win contracts under the LEED system.

According to Maskell, the LEED system, for all its good intentions, demanded actions that led to unintended consequences.

For example, products needed to be produced within 500 miles

Canada’s floorcovering magazine

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of the job site on the one hand, while points were also scored for using bamboo flooring instead of wood because bamboo is more renewable. Clearly, bamboo is rare in industrial quantities growing in Canada, so specifiers find themselves in a quandary of making up lost points, sometimes at the expense of function.

An unintended benefit of the mastic was that it had a moisture barrier built-in. People didn’t notice that as a quality, Maskell says, until the industry ran into adhesion problems with products designed to be used at a specific moisture content or less, and the contractors were demanding that flooring be installed over concrete that was cured, but not dried. The distinction was not obvious to the contractors, but it is obvious to flooring professionals.

The fact is, Maskell says, what once was provided by the contents of one can now requires three or four different products.

The general contractors, Maskell says, really don’t know very much of what is going on. The same is true of specifiers. The products being specified are much more complex, yet much less strong. This has led to a paradigm shift in which the industry is demanding schedules to accelerate, so they allow for shorter

lead times in an environment where a concrete slab may take weeks or even months to get “up to spec.”

Add to that an increasingly litigious environment and the cost of time and money, and the general contractors and builders started demanding that the flooring installers bear the entire responsibility for installation on schedule, on the one hand, and accountability for material failure on the other.

Essentially, green adhesive products cost more, do not work as quickly and are not as strong, leading to the obvious conclusion that flooring professionals will be pressured by amateurs that can “get the job done more quickly,” by general contractors that want to release tied-up money months before the specified adhesives can be properly installed and by follow-up trades that want access to the site so they can get paid, as well.

Are there any options? Sure, and they are evolving, as well.

As far as flooring specs and applications, continue to watch Coverings magazine as we provide that data as it becomes available.

Maskell and the NFCA are creating standards and specs you can use to educate your customers and use as guidelines that can illuminate the legal and fiscal pinch-points before they bite. As Maskell says, transparency kills corruption.

As far as the future of construction, Maskell says don’t expect costs to go down. For better or worse, green is here to stay.

We simply need to adjust to accommodate it.

Comment at www.coveringscanada.ca

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November/December 2019 November/December 2019

HYDROMATIC CURE CHEMISTRY

NEWS Mapei chairman Giorgio Squinzi passes Giorgio Squinzi, chairman of Milan, Italybased Mapei, passed away in October at the age of 76. The flooring and construction industry giant was founded in 1937 by his father Rodolfo Squinzi, with Giorgio joining the family business at an early age. Graduating with an industrial chemistry degree from the University of Milan in 1969, he became manager of research and development, leadGiorgio Squinzi ing the company in different roles until his death. Squinzi was also an industry leader, winning awards and heading Italian associations such as Federchimica, the National Federation of Chemical Industry, and Confindustria, the General Confederation of Italian Industry, Squinzi also oversaw the company’s first manufacturing expansion outside of Italy in 1978 with the establishment of a Mapei plant in Canada. As a great fan of soccer and especially cycling, he led Mapei to sponsor professional teams in both sports, in addition to youth development programs. His selfprofessed motto was “mai smettere di pedalare” (“never stop pedaling”). He was also a member of the board of directors of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Squinzi is survived by his wife, Adriana (married in 1971), son Marco and daughter Veronica.

All three hold senior positions at Mapei, continuing the tradition of the family business.

U.S. duty investigation targets ceramic tile from China The U.S. Department of Com-

merce (DOC) of Washington, D.C., has announced a preliminary determination in the countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of imports of ceramic tile from China, finding countervailable subsidy rates ranging from 103.77 to 222.24 percent. The DOC will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of ceramic tile from China based on these preliminary rates. In 2018, imports of ceramic tile from China were valued at an estimated $483.1 million US. The petitioner is the Coalition for Fair Trade in Ceramic Tile (www. ceramictilealliance.com). The members of the coalition are American Wonder Porcelain (Lebanon, Tenn.), Crossville (Crossville, Tenn.), Dal-Tile Corporation (Dallas, Tex.), Del Conca USA (Loudon, Tenn.), Florida Tile (Lexington, Kent.), Florim USA (Clarksville, Tenn.), Landmark Ceramics (Mount Pleasant, Tenn.), and StonePeak Ceramics (Chicago, Ill.). The DOC is currently scheduled to announce its final CVD determination on or about January 22, 2020.

Leadership transition for TISE The International Surface Event (TISE), including Surfaces, StonExpo/Marmomac and TileExpo, welcomes Dana Hicks as the new show director for the event. After 19 years of service to the flooring, stone, and tile industry through events, promotions, sponsorships, and community involvement, TISE Dana Hicks says goodbye to Amie (Gilmore) Gonzalez as she transitions the event to Hicks. With a strong background in the events space with close to 20 years dedicated to the trade, Hicks has previously serving for 10 years in hospitality and events with Marriott International, followed by 17 years in the tradeshow arena ending as the v.p. of events for

Informa Markets/Virgo where he led a top portfolio event in the food ingredient sector. His recent venture for the past two years was into the world of surface materials, working as a design consultant at Baker Bros in the Phoenix, Ariz., market, focusing on sales and fulfillment of residential flooring — hardwood, LVP, laminate, tile, carpet and area rugs.

Aspecta appoints account manager Norwalk, Conn.–based Aspecta North America has announced Murray Graham as commercial sales/national account manager to cover the Canada territory.

He will work closely with Aspecta’s Canadian distributor G. Murray Graham Shnier/Division 9.

Graham has 20 years of experience in flooring sales for both commercial and residential markets with an emphasis on LVT and maintains strong, longstanding relationships with major accounts throughout Canada. He has been a top producer with other major flooring manufacturers, the company adds, in growing the marketplace’s contribution to North American sales and has trained distributors and commercial specification representatives in resilient flooring. He lives in Caledon, Ont.

Magazines Canada taps Coverings to rewrite association code Kerry Knudsen, editor and publisher of Coverings magazine, has been asked to join the National Task Force of Magazines Canada to rewrite the association’s Code of Reader and Advertiser Engagement. According to Knudsen, the media needs to ask itself a simple question: how would it look if everything we thought we knew was wrong? This was the basis for Knudsen’s presentation last May to the American Society of Business Publications Editors at the Poynter Institute Canada’s floorcovering magazine 9

NEWS for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla. Knudsen says the current protocol describing the relationships of magazines, readers and suppliers has failed, and is looking forward to re-engaging the topic on a formal basis.

Job hazard bulletins for polishing concrete The Concrete Polishing Council (CPC), a specialty council of the St. Louis, Mo.based American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC), has developed seven Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) sheets for tasks primarily related to the process of polishing concrete. JHAs are used on the jobsite, prior to starting work each day, to remind craftsmen of the risks inherent in the work for that day, and the precautions that must be taken to avoid accidents. Tasks covered in the polishing JHAs are changing pucks, safe procedures for emptying the vacuum

and filter changes, sealing concrete floors, work location set up, portable generator set up, and fueling generators.

Boa-Franc announces the acquisition of Ten Oaks St-Georges, Que.-based Boa-Franc has acquired Ten Oaks, in partnership with the Williams and Birkett operator-families. The main benefits of Ten Oaks are the quality of its workforce, its location and lumber supply, according to Boa-Franc, with the values of the family and its people being similar to its values. Pierre Thabet, president of Boa-Franc, told the Henry County Enterprise, “We visited many locations.

When we visited Ten Oaks, we found all the key elements.” The two facilities are located specifically in Stuart, Va., where mostly produce red and white oak unfinished hardwood floors are produced. This is the first U.S. acquisition for Boa-Franc.

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University of Maine testing confirms performance of sub-flooring At the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center, wood scientists have tested Nashville, Tenn.based LP Legacy sub-floor panels alongside commodity OSB and plywood

in a four-phase, 14-month study designed to simulate the potential extremes of a real jobsite and wear in a finished home.

The study consisted of four phases, including: fastener holding capacity tested by creating small-scale floors of oak hardwood flooring stapled to the sub-floor and pulled off with a specially designed test jig — the panels offered a 35 percent higher withdrawal capacity compared to the other two subjects; testers subjected the panels to a simulated rainstorm for eight hours, brought the panels back down to their original moisture content for 48 hours, and then repeated the process two more times; testers simulated seasonal moisture variations that exist in most homes by taking the samples from the Phase 2 wetting cycle, attaching hardwood flooring, and cycling between moisture extremes in a conditioning chamber; and finally, the panels underwent a 50,000-step-load simulation. After four phases of testing, the sub-floor panels showed no reduction in fastener capacity, the university found.

Concrete polishing curriculum announced by Install Glassboro, N.J.-based Install, a flooring industry training organization, has announced a comprehensive concrete polishing curriculum. The organization has worked hand-in-hand with manufacturers, contractors and industry experts over the past few years to craft a new curriculum based on real-world challenges. The training curriculum is currently nearing completion and will soon be implemented across the U.S. and Canada.

Key Resin announces leadership change Following a distinguished career spanning more than 19 years with the company, Key Resin Company of Batavia, Ohio, has announced that president Jeff Cain elected to retire. As a second-generation family leader of the polymer flooring manufacturer, Cain has served as president for the past seven years. With Cain’s departure, Key Resin has introduced Eric Borglum as its new president. Borglum began his career at

Key Resin as a sales representative in 1996, a sales manager in 2000, vice president of sales and marketing in 2004 and most recently executive vice president in Eric Borglum 2011. Borglum is a graduate of Purdue University, where he studied business, chemistry and biology.

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LAW A new workplace policy to enforce:

Social media

Social media has had a profound impact on our lives and that impact has extended beyond our personal lives and into the workplace. Just a few years ago, social media was considered a leisure activity and distraction to be avoided at work. Today, organizations use social media to further their strategic objectives and gain a competitive advantage — they advertise job openings and scout new recruits on LinkedIn, rely on Facebook forums to engage and communicate with their customers, and update Instagram to promote new products and flash sales. The prevalence of social media in our lives and in the workplace means that it makes sense Joe Figliomeni for organizations to develop a social media policy to mitigate the potential risks associated with social media’s power to facilitate the quick and irretrievable exchange of messages, information, audio and video.

Many employees don’t see a connection between their social media presence and their jobs. This is particularly true when employees are online outside of work hours. For most, the perception is that if they are “off the clock,” they ought to be entitled to do what they want, say what they want and share what they want, without any regard for what their employer might think. To some extent that’s true; generally speaking, an employee’s off-duty conduct ought not

to be of concern to the employer, unless there is a real and material connection between the off-duty conduct and the workplace.

Some recent Canadian case law highlights the point that, where an employee’s social media activity negatively impacts the employer’s business in a real and substantial way, the employer is usually justified in administering some form of discipline, which can be anything from a written warning to termination of employment. Discipline has been found to have been warranted in circumstances where one employee posted offensive comments on a social media site, which upset his colleagues and led to disruptions in the workplace and conflict among the workforce. In another case, where Facebook comments made by an employee disparaged the company’s main customer, the company’s decision to terminate the offending employee for just cause was approved and upheld. Of course, the level of discipline imposed ultimately depends on the severity of the employee’s conduct and on the circumstances of each case.

There is also an emerging number of cases where employees are demanding that their employers implement measures to protect their individual privacy and reputational concerns. For instance, employees are entitled not to be harassed by their employer’s customers and employers should be implementing measures to protect their employees from being identified publicly in disparaging remarks or reviews posted to the organization’s social media sites and such public forums as Google.

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November/December 2019

In light of these and other potential risks, it is imperative that organizations have a clear and well-written policy to mitigate the potential damage and liability associated with the use of social media. A well drafted social media policy will: • Inform employees about the organization’s expectations with respect to using social media accounts, both during and after work hours • Make it clear that the prohibition against bullying and harassment in the workplace is equally applicable outside of the workplace and that cyberbullying and comments that are discriminatory will not be tolerated • Warn employees to use caution and good judgment as their personal online presence may have implications for the organization’s public reputation • Reinforce the organization’s confidentiality and privacy obligations with a reminder that all employees have a

duty to protect the organization’s confidential information, which includes trade secrets, supplier, and customer information • Identify a person within the organization that all employees can contact and report to if they have any questions or concerns related to social media and the company’s social media policy.

Like any workplace policy, a social media policy must be made known to employees and be consistently enforced. The policy must also be enforced in a consistent and timely manner, with appropriate discipline imposed whenever the policy is breached.

Joe Figliomeni is a commercial litigation lawyer at Lawrences Lawyers, Brampton, Ont.

Canada’s floorcovering magazine

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SHOWS Canada in the spotlight

TISE 2020 Las Vegas The International Surface Event (TISE) in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 27-30, is a mega-event comprised of three tradeshows, all under one roof. Comprised of Surfaces, StonExpo/Marmomac and TileExpo, organizers say that there is nowhere in the industry which combines this level of products, services, education and demos for the floorcovering, stone and tile industries.

TISE is also the place for where we Canadians can congregate away from home. Come join us at the third annual Coverings Canada Night on Tuesday, Jan. 28 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Border Grill restaurant. The location is just outside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on your right as you head out after the show. Drinks and munchies for Canadian delegates are free, courtesy Coverings magazine, with the valued support of our sponsors.

The National Installer of the Year Installation Competition returns at TISE 2020 where a panel of judges will review project submissions and select the top 3 finalists in each category — wood, tile/stone and carpet — to compete live in an installation competition at TISE 2020. The winner of the installation contest in Las Vegas will be crowned The National Installer of the Year, receive a prize package, and own incredible bragging rights in the industry and to their customers.

At TISE 2020, the Converge education program launched last year continues to offer training, knowledge and information. The Hammer + Nails track targets installers, fabricators, builders, contractors and remodelers, and is open to anyone wanting to learn more about how the products they sell or specify are installed to avoid job failures and issues. The Suits track offers business-related topics targeted towards retailers, dealers, distributors, sales associates, busi-

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November/December 2019

ness owners and other industry professionals. This program is open to anyone who wants to learn more about industry forecasting, show room strategy, or other pertinent industry-related, business management success tools. The Creatives track covers creative and design-related topics geared towards designers, architects, marketing professionals and small business owners who have to do it all. This program is open to anyone who wants to learn more on design trends, colour forecasting, product photography, social media or any creative elements that helps industry businesses grow.

Surfaces is the flooring event serving all of the floorcovering industry. It brings together buyers and sellers from around the world to see the latest products, tools, trends, services and technologies. The official sponsor of Surfaces is the World Floor Covering Association, the industry’s largest advocacy organization representing floorcovering retailers, contractors and allied service providers throughout North America.

StonExpo/Marmomac is the event for the stone industry professional, featuring specialty stone and machinery areas with exhibitions of stone and stone supplies, plus stone tools, equipment, services and demonstrations from leading manufacturers and associations. Home to the new Natural Stone Institute Pavilion, the official sponsors are the NSI and the Natural Stone Council.

The Marmomac International Pavilion includes exhibitors from India, Italy, Portugal, San Marino and Turkey, showcasing a large selection of stone materials — including marble, granite, quartzite, onyx, travertine, and porphyry — engineered stone, ceramic stone — and engineered stoneprocessing machinery, systems for wastewater purification and filtration, software, products for the polishing and care of stone surfaces, diamond tools for cutting and processing marble, storage systems for slabs, floor grinding products and tools.

In addition, the Marmomac Academy Program gives architects and designers the chance to earn continuing edu-

cation credits through a program conceived to educated participants about stone design. The program includes a onehour session, walking show floor tour, and a reception at the conclusion.

TileExpo is a tile industry event serving distributors, retailers, installers, builders and design professionals. This event features tile manufacturers and suppliers displaying products from artisan to ceramic, decorative to glass, and others. Official sponsors of TileExpo are the Ceramic Tile Education Foundation and the National Tile Contractors Association.

Canada’s floorcovering magazine

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DESIGN Ostentatiously humble dinner partners

Dining with saints Recently, I was having dinner with a colleague in Sweden, and our conversation turned to dinner companions. I like having dinner with people who make things, and, as it turned out, so did she. We agreed that we actually prefer it. There is something about these kind of people that we find particularly agreeable. Maybe it’s the combination of humility and presumption that animates them.

She called herself a potter, but most observers would describe her as a ceramic artist. There may be a difference, but at bottom, she just likes to make things. In her case, they are lovely and complex and reflect a great deal of virtuosity. But they are still things.

Of course, people vary tremendously, even makers. Many years ago, Paul Epp and also in Sweden as it turns out, I was a student of a cabinet maker named Jim Krenov. I was astonished to realize that he would happily take an hour of my time to describe exactly how humble he was, and he did this frequently.

I thought he might realize the contradiction? No. In contrast, a feuding colleague of his in the U.S., Wendell Castle, had a large neon sign that said ‘Humble Craftsman’ with an arrow pointing to his studio. Wendell wasn’t actually all that humble, but I liked his sense of humour.

I used to ask my first-year students at OCAD University why they were at this particular school.

The most common answer, by far, was the observation that they just wanted to make things. I trust that impulse and was happy to support their ambitions.

Many went on to do less making and more researching, conceptualizing, marketing and managing and the various other things that are peripheral to the making of things, as their talents and opportunities dictated. That is as it should be. But, most likely, they were still pretty decent people.

My Swedish colleague and I went on to identify types of people that were a little less convivial as din-

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ner companions. She had found that sculptors were often too full of themselves to be easy to relax with. I made the same observation about some designers. Of course, those are very unfair and incomplete generalizations. Many of my friends are designers (I call myself one) and others are sculptors. But I think a point of interest was being made and I think it has a lot to do with ego.

I have been fortunate enough to have met and gotten to know a fair number of prominent people. And a conspicuous thing they have in common is their preoccupation with themselves and a competitive nature. Maybe that’s a prerequisite for their prominence? It takes a lot of focus to excel (and maybe a few sharp elbows) and I tip my hat to them.

A popular quotation by Will Rogers is ‘I never met a man I didn’t like.’ That sounds warm and fuzzy and actually kind of foolish.

What Will actually said was, “I joked about every prominent man in my lifetime, but I never met one I didn’t like.” That makes a lot more sense and I agree with him. I’ve never met a prominent person I didn’t like either. They may be exciting and interesting dinner companions, but also not so easy to relax with because there is usually only one topic of conversation.

Making things is a fundamental human activity. Some of us are more disposed to it than others are. And that’s a good thing. Some of us need to be leaders, or salespeople, or athletes, or entertainers or any other of the huge range of things we collectively occupy ourselves with. I feel really lucky that I ended up in the tribe of makers. We are often (sort of) humble, and simultaneously audacious enough to want our vision to prevail. We learn how things are made and then usually insist on doing them well. But there might be something about actually manipulating materials that keeps us grounded and not too full of ourselves. It may be that because our focus is on the things we make, there is less focus on ourselves and some of us (I can’t speak for myself) are less self-centred. I consider that a good thing, however much of a generalization it is. Eating together has a long history of being a social adhesive. I know who I prefer to do this with.

Paul Epp is an emeritus professor at OCAD University, and former chair of its Industrial Design department.

CFCRA Past President of FIO/NFCA to be honoured

Recognition and training The CFCRA is a non-profit organization that used to be known as the Floorcovering Institute of Ontario. The Floorcovering Institute of Ontario was one of a group of associations that were members of the National Floor Covering Association (NFCA). The NFCA has taken on a new life as an association pushing forward a national quality assurance program.

One of the reasons both associations exist today and survived through the turbulent times is because of the leadership of their former president Paul Skeels.

The CFCRA is going to present the Jim Darling Award to Paul on November 25, 2019. This event is a wonderful night out where the CFCRA, Lee Senter, as an IICRC Shareholder, reports to CFCRA President its members the status of the IICRC and the CFCRA, and reports on the upcoming classes and seminars planned for the following year. There will be great food and music and more importantly than all of that is the camaraderie with all our fellow members both past and present.

Please go to our website to register for the event.

The CFCRA is excited to be planning on holding the new IICRC Resilient Floor Maintenance Technician (RFMT) class. This class is the first IICRC class to be put together by the resilient floor manufacturers. It has taken a couple of long, hard years of work but it is ready. We have also been talking with the legendary Paul Pearce to come share his wisdom on how to clean specialty carpet such as viscose, tencel and silk. Both classes will be in March.

The big property management show, PM Expo, is coming up soon and I see that NFCA is making a presentation on the quality assurance program. I

look forward to it. Construct Canada and the concrete show are being held at the same time. The CFCRA has passes to this and the ISSA show in Las Vegas. We will be circulating at these shows looking for allies in the cause of pushing certifications for flooring installers and specialty maintenance procedures of both hard and soft surfaces.

The manner in which floors are being manufactured is changing frequently. As a result of these changes, the installation guidelines change as well. As a flooring inspector I must say that the industry is in a near crisis situation. Lets make the tasks of concrete moisture testing and levelling substrate common knowledge in this industry. We must get the word out that education is available.

For the third year in a row the CFCRA will be holding the Certified Flooring Installation (CFI) classes in Toronto. We will be holding the basic classes to start in the two weeks starting Feb 3, 2020. The classes will include: carpet installation, wood and laminate installation, resilient installation and substrate/subfloor preparation. If all goes well we will consider holding advanced classes in early spring.

Lastly, I want to reach out one more time to the flooring manufacturers, distributors, large wholesalers and dealers to put some investment into training of our installers. I have yet to see anyone who attended these classes who did not walk out saying that they learned a lot. We hope to finally certify our first Canadian instructor for CFI. But we need more. If you would like to get involved, please email me at lsenter@cfcra.ca The Canadian Flooring Cleaning and Restoration Association (CFCRA) was preceded by the Flooring Institute of Ontario (FIO), a not-for-profit organization which proudly served the needs of flooring industry professionals in Ontario since 1962. www.cfcra.ca

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Positive results from Coverings reader survey

PROFESSIONALS TAKE A SELFIE

BACK IN 2013, we asked you whether you think Canada needs its own trade show for the floorcovering sector. At that time, 75 percent of you said yes, Canada needs a trade show for the floorcovering sector. This year, that number is 73 percent, which is within the statistical margin of error.

Readers need to understand that Coverings readers have been very loyal to the magazine and find it trustworthy, so they respond very well to surveys when they are not invasive. Therefore, we generate responses, such as this one, that hit marks of 75 or even 95 percent for some questions. This is unheard-of in

mass-media surveys. Usually, anything over 60 percent is viewed as nearly unanimous, since there are so many fliers — so many unrecognizable or invalid responses.

Clearly, Canada is ready for a flooring show. In addition, 69 percent of you said that you would travel to such a show in Toronto, while Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver were essentially tied at 45 percent, 43 percent and 43 percent, respectively.

Further, we had some expanded comments on such a show, should it ever come to pass, with one reader saying, “If a trade show evolves, keep it for our industry to show our wares.

Do not let the circus of microphones and slice-and-dicers in. It

What do you expect the size of your

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to do over the next six months?

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the show does not look “empty.” Personally, between an empty booth and Chinese phone chargers, I’m with our reader. Let’s keep it in the industry.

Moving on, 89 percent of you said Coverings is trustworthy. The other 11 percent said, “Don’t know.”

Nobody said no. This is of critical importance to advertisers, for sure. The vast majority of magazines — especially trade magazines — have elected to represent the interests of the suppliers to any industry TRUE? over the interests of the readers. This means they demand all kinds of “clever” ways to influence beyond simply buying ads. These can include sponsored editorial, adjacent ads to editorial, editorial mention, exclusion of competitors, etc. Coverings puts the interests of the readers first, and you can see it. This FALSE? is the reason the editor of Coverings has been asked to form part of the national task force of Magazines Canada to rewrite the Code of Reader and Advertiser Engagement. (See page 9) In the same vein, 97 percent of you say you value original content. I wish other publishers could 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% “get it.” If you wanted somebody to play all day searching and regurgitating the internet, you would has to be for prospective renovating and building clients.” hire a kid. To be fair, the internet has a stunning array of breadth.

A little inside baseball: the microphones and slice-andTo be even more fair, it has an even more stunning lack of depth. dicers this reader refers to are one way to gauge the health of a People want information from their magazines. Specific indusshow. A good show can sell most or all of its inventory to industries require specific information. That means original content, try suppliers because they are getting good exposure with qualwhich, of course, costs money. We could ask whether you would ified, energized and loyal attendees. Those would be you. When like us to send you 20 cut-and-paste product releases and interthe show does not sell off its available space, then it opens that net blather twice a day. We didn’t. space to non-industry hawkers and carneys as “remainders,” so And still in the same vein, 56 percent of you see social

GROWTH TREND

Is this:

Rate your relationship with your

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for Canada’s industry. Is this:

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to do over the next six months?

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media as a business threat. We would have predicted higher, since the rash of disgruntled employees, hysterical ex-customers and wanna-be litigants without a case has driven the costs of guarding a reputation through the ceiling. And that does not even consider digital blackmail, identity theft, ransomware and

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See you in Vegas!

Tuesday, January 28 at TISE, 5 p.m. at the Border Grill For sponsorship info contact Stephen King, sking@wimediainc.ca

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other ills. Just as back in the ‘90s when “everybody has to have a website,” now everybody needs to have a defence plan. Internet costs are rapidly outpacing its benefit. Even the Russian military, I hear, has gone back to typewriters and paper for its most-sensitive information. .

CANADA NIGHT 22

60%

NFCA Managing the end at the beginning

Specs matter

Yet another construction manager called me recently, distressed and looking for answers. He shared the details of his situation: Fifty thousand square feet of 5-inch-thick concrete slab poured eight months previously, half of which was on grade, the rest poured into second floor Q -Deck (steel pan).

Moisture test results confirmed a 99 percent Relative Humidity (RH) when tested using the In-Situ Probe Test according to ASTM F-2170. The QDeck space, lower at 90 percent which was unusual since a slab poured into a steel pan should take much longer to dry.

The adhesive and floor covering manufacturers’ installation guidelines Chris Maskell called for test results to confirm 75 perNFCA c.e.o. cent RH. With deadline looming, now what?

The problem is usually a combination of issues. This particular case was no different. Now, with everyone paying attention, the problem appeared to have stemmed from the instructions set at the beginning of the whole process in the written specifications.

These were followed to the word, which ultimately guided process on site as they should. But in this case, that meant an overly smooth, power-troweled concrete surface was delivered. Now, the general contractor was left with a terrible problem. With an overly tight dense concrete surface, the water ingredient used in the concrete mix could not escape as it would normally.

With time running out, spare budget long spent to afford any kind of Plan B, what is the general contractor to do?

Kill five birds with one stone It’s scenarios like this that we are all trying to avoid. No one wants to see the construction team go through project hell trying to figure something like this out. The best thing to do is to be proactive. That means working with the spec writing community wherever possible so that they have access to correct language that drives

correct actions on site. We also know that concrete slabs deflect, shrink and change shape, and therefore some measure of Hydraulic Cement Underlayment (topping material) will just about always be required.

Solutions: • NFCA installation guidelines specified on every project.

These assign responsibility to the correct party for the provision of acceptable conditions, including a flat surface, to the floor covering trade.

• Replace (or add quantifiable terms to) typically used language in the specifications such as ‘Provide a smooth and un-burnished surface, free of ridges’, with quantifiable terms such as ‘General Contractor to provide a Concrete Surface Profile of 3’ and surface porosity according to ASTM F-3191, or as required by the next scheduled product before placing any Hydraulic Cement Underlayment.

• Replace steel blades on power troweling machines with plastic blades designed to build the desired (or close to) profile into the concrete surface at time of curing.

The result: • The slab dries faster as a profiled slab has more surface area for vapour emissions to escape.

• No shot blasting to profile an overly smooth surface.

• Conversation starts early around the obvious, such as ‘all windows installed and main heat on’ prior to any flooring products being delivered to site.

• Thoroughly dry concrete, needed by the floor covering trade, will more likely be provided.

• Porosity automatically built in for mechanical bond of adhesives.

• Overall less chance of slab rejection.

It should be noted that no one solution will fit all scenarios and that in some cases shot blasting is likely a necessary process prior to floor covering installation just to remove surface contaminants and months of surface use and abuse from general construction activity.

The National Floor Covering Association (NFCA) promotes industry standards for resilient, carpet, hardwood, laminate, cork and bamboo floor covering installations. www.nfca.ca

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INSTALLATION Revisiting a popular format:

Installation Q&A It has been over a year since I did a Q and A column, and the questions keep coming. So, here are some recent ones that I’ve been asked, or are based on situations that I have run into.

Q: What problems do you see most often in “click” floating floors?

A: This category continues to grow as more products with synthetic cores (WPC, HPC, rigid core, etc.) are entering the market and traditional products with HDF (High Density Fiberboard) core (laminate, cork, etc) are still going strong. From an installation point of view, some of the challenges are the same in both groups.

Christopher The answer to this question boils Capobianco down to two issues; expansion and floor flatness. I’ve had to look at a number of different projects in recent years with different click products that had failures. Ignoring the need for expansion space was one of the causes in several cases. My first example was a product with an HDF core that was installed in three rooms and a hallway without any expansion joints being allowed. As a result, the floor was gapping in several areas. The installer repaired it by taking up portions of the floor, adding an expansion joint with a T molding and reinstalling the material. A carton or two of new material was needed because the tongue of the “click” tongue in groove joint had broken.

In another case, an HDF floating plank floor was installed in a large commercial space, with a large cabinet on one side of the room and a soft drink machine on the other; both on top of the finished floor. There were a number of gaps in the end joints because these heavy pieces created “pinch points” that did not allow the floor to float. The way to avoid this would be to install the cabinet before the flooring, and to isolate the area where the machine was by adding an expansion joint with a “T Molding.” They wound up doing it after the fact, which was a lot more difficult. One more example in the opposite direction is the failure to allow for expansion space against walls, which I’ve seen in synthetic core products and HDF core products. When

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material is installed tight to a wall or other fixed object, “tenting” can occur at the joints on the sides or the ends, because the floor has nowhere to move when expansion occurs, so it lifts at the joints. The most extreme case was an installation where the HDF floor was had buckled over a two-foot-long area, as if there was a beach ball beneath the floor. Miraculously, the click joints held tight, and the installers were able to take the floor apart, add an expansion joint, and re-install the material.

HDF core products have been on the market for decades, and one would think that it’s common knowledge to allow for expansion, not only around the perimeter, but also in doorways and over long runs over 35 or 40 feet. I guess it’s not co common knowledge after all. On the other hand, synthetic core products are often sold as not needing expansion space. This may be true in doorways and over some longer runs, but perimeter expansion is usually recommended, so don’t assume you can install tight to a wall. Very long runs in areas like a corridor or other large commercial space may need expansion in the field area in addition to the perimeter. I’ve seen failures of synthetic core products in both examples, so don’t make the assumption that these materials don’t require expansion. Check with the manufacturer’s technical department to be sure.

With regard to floor flatness, this has become a problem in a lot of cases. The assumption that “floating floors can install over anything” is getting a lot of people in trouble. Sure, floor smoothness is not as critical as it is with a glue down floor, but floor flatness is even more important. If there is any kind of a

Failure to allow for expansion in doorways can result in uneven expansion and contraction of “click” floating floors, causing gaps in the joints.

dip in the floor, it creates a hollow area that allows the material to move up and down. Over time, the tongue can weaken and break, causing gapping. It’s important to check the floor flatness before installing a floating product. Use a long metal straight edge, a laser, or other method to make sure there are no dips in the floor.

Q: (From an architect) I’m considering using (glue-down vinyl) plank flooring in a residential basement. If we install on an existing slab, should we do some kind of vapour barrier on top of the slab to make sure we don’t have moisture migration?

A: I have been writing on this subject for decades, so I’m always glad when someone thinks to ask this question. I’ve seen more moisture related failures than I can remember and volunteered to help write industry standards for how to test and why.

However, making assumptions like “the concrete looks dry… feels dry…smells dry” continues to get people in trouble and failures are still happening. On top of that, as I said in my July column, the term “waterproof” is being misused so much in our industry that moisture emissions are being overlooked. My answer to the architect was a simple one: The need for moisture mitigation will depend on the moisture levels. It’s the same rules for any floor covering you’d install. There is an industry standard, ASTM F710 (Standard Practice for Preparing Concrete Floors to Receive Resilient Flooring) that says, “All concrete slabs shall be tested for moisture regardless of age or grade level.“ The best test is the relative humidity (RH) method, ASTM F2170, that measures moisture inside the slab. A lot of flooring contractors do this test regularly so you should include that in your specifications. If the results are within the manufacturer guidelines, then the job can proceed and if not, a mitigation coating can be applied.

Failure to allow for perimeter expansion can cause side joints to “tent.” In this case, screws were used as an emergency repair measure.

To my readers that are not yet versed in concrete moisture testing, there is no time like the present. RH testing is imprtant to do and there are kits available that make it easy.

Q: (From an installer) We removed a VCT floor and scraped the black adhesive residue, so the concrete floor is smooth. Can we glue down the new carpet tile right over this?

A: I am always nervous when new adhesive goes over old adhesive, because chemical reactions can occur that make the new adhesive fail. Luckily, there are some great primers, patching and leveling compounds on the market today that can go over many types of adhesive residue and provide a good substrate for the new floor covering. Be careful, however, because if the residue is a water-based adhesive, total removal may be necessary. Check with the preparation products manufacturer to be sure. In this case, there was a “skimcoat” product available to go over the black adhesive residue so that took care of the situation. Yes, it was an extra step that added cost to the job, but it’s a good bit of insurance to be sure that the new floor covering is well bonded and stays that way.

So many questions and so little time… If you have any questions of your own, please drop us a line here at Coverings! I’d enjoy some direct Q&A with our readers!

Christopher Capobianco has been in the floor covering industry since the 1970s in various roles including retail and commercial sales, technical support, consulting, journalism, education and volunteer work. He currently is part of the sales team for Spartan Surfaces in New York City. You can reach him via christopher@SpartanSurfaces.com.

Using an acrylic latex adhesive over a black “cutback” adhesive caused a failure in this LVT floor.

Canada’s floorcovering magazine

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PRODUCTS Cyclonic dust extractor The iQ426HEPA cyclonic dust extraction vacuum has been announced by iQ Power Tools. The unit has been tested to pick up 50 pounds of drywall dust in 30 seconds and is said to have the highest output vacuum motor in its class.

Units feature advanced cyclonic technology, double filtration (HEPA and Durabond), a four-stage filtration system and iQ Smart Power Management System. www.iqpowertools.com Carpet cutting machine

Designed to accommodate the largest rolls of carpet and heaviest rolls of vinyl, the X-77 carpet cutting machine from Accu-Cut has a “clam shell” load cradle said to process cut orders accurately and efficiently. The load cradle can be adjusted in three ways: shuttle forward or backward for positioning, pivot for squaring the material and use the “clam shell” design to adjust for roll diameter.

The air-powered load cradle, hold down arm, cutter hold down bar, roll-up arm and material removal mechanisms are also said to make the machine effortless to operate. Electronic eyes and pneumatically controlled shuttle load cradle adjust the roll to automatically eliminate any walking or coning. Program in the desired measurement and press the “Go” button, 26

the company says. The 17 ft, 1 in. long x 19 ft, 9 in. wide x 3 ft, 10 in. high unit will advance the material, lower the hold down arm, reset the counter, begin the roll-up process, monitor and adjust the roll as necessary, then stop precisely at the programmed length. The machine meets all UL and CSA safety standards. www.accu-cut.com Cement grout provides colour consistency

Prism Ultimate Performance cement grout from Custom Building Products is said to offer an exclusive, calcium-aluminate formula that controls hydration to ensure colour consistency without shading or mottling, regardless of weather conditions. In addition, the product does not contribute to unsightly efflorescence, the company says, which means callbacks to address installation problems can be avoided. Dense grout joints are also said to resist stains better than any other cement grout. CustomLite technology combines lightweight, recycled glass spheres with specially selected fine aggregate sand for superior handling, the company adds. www.custombuildingproducts.com Water-based, acrylic, textured concrete coating Elastocolor Texture from Mapei is a coating for use on exterior, above-grade, new and previously coated concrete and masonry surfaces. The coating’s unique blend of aggregates produces an attractive, high-build, textured finish, the company says, and is suitable for use on restoration projects to reduce the

November/December 2019

appearance of surface imperfections and repairs or wherever a uniform textured finish is desired. The product is said to remain highly flexible and offers excellent filling properties and adhesion to prepared substrates. Features and benefits include: suitable for use on all cementitious substrates including EIFS systems, stucco, concrete, concrete masonry units (CMUs), cement board and a variety of other building materials; vapour-permeable to allow the passage of water vapour into and out of the substrate; and, UV-resistant for better colour retention. www.mapei.com Waterproof hardwood flooring Hydropel, a waterproof, 100 percent hardwood flooring product from Bruce, has been announced by AHF Products.

The product is an engineered hardwood

infused with proprietary technology to resist water for up to 36 hours so that it can be installed anywhere, in any room of the home, the company says. A coating protects the hardwood from scratches, scuffs, and stains and indentations, and the product’s angle locking system makes it easy to install because of its large and wide locking profile; no glue or nails are required. Available in low gloss oak and hickory, in smooth, scraped, and brushed textures, the product is available in five-in. planks up to 48 in. long. www.ahfproducts.com

Profiles for resilient flooring in brushed finishes Schluter-Systems has announced a line of profiles made specifically for resilient flooring applications. Schluter-Vinpro profiles provide finishing, transition and edge protection for resilient floors, stairs and wall coverings. The durable metal

profiles are also said to provide unobtrusive installations with a sleek, minimalist reveal that blends in with any décor. The products can be used in new and retrofit situations, so they are suitable to upgrade the look and performance of an existing installation. The profiles are available in three complementary brushed aluminum finishes — bronze, nickel, and chrome.

The profiles are suitable for coverings from 1/8 to ¼ in. thicknesses and feature a tapered anchoring leg to ensure a smooth transition between the substrate and the profile. www.schluter.com

Hard surface protective foam Providing scratch and dent protection, the 8801 CoverGuard hard-surface protective foam from DriTac is for newly installed floors and surfaces to prevent damage from occurring during and after the installation process. The foam can be used on concrete, linoleum, countertops, wood, LVT, furniture, tile, WPC, cabinets and stone. The product is resistant to water, stains, tears and punctures, as well as aerated and breathable, while lying flat and flush to prevent tripping. Features include: 1.85 mm thickness; 4 x 150 ft = 600 sq. ft./roll; and, anti-crush mechanical properties the floor. www.dritac.com Moisture meter kit

features colourful accents and neutral colours inspired by textile arts and natural materials to create organic, balanced spaces. Winner of a Best of NeoCon 2019

Gold Award, the collection provides flexibility in pattern with realistic and interesting visuals, including a jacquard look, the company says. Available in 9 x 36 in. tiles, the 3 mm luxury vinyl tile collection features an ExoGuard topcoat for performance against scratches and stains. Products carry a 15-year limited commercial warranty. www.patcraft.com Handheld concrete moisture meter

Recyclable event carpet

Beaulieu Flooring Solutions has introduced Rewind, a latex-free carpet designed to help the trade show and special events industries. Every year, more than 100 million square meters of carpet is manufactured for corridors, fair stands, entrance halls and other event spaces.

Traditional carpet ends up in an incinerator or as landfill because it contains latex.

Rewind is 100 percent polyolefin, which means it is 100 percent latex-free, and compared with traditional carpet, no water is used. The product also has low VOC content with a Bfi fire classification. www.rewindcarpet.com

Inserting moisture meter pins into hard material can be a difficult job without bending or breaking pins. To address this, Lignomat recently launched the D-4P kit.

The included mini-Ligno DX/C is set up for the floor installer and inspector with 42 wood group settings to measure domestic and tropical hardwoods as well as different subfloors, drywall and plaster. In addition, The Electrode E14m and EG pins are strong enough to withstand pounding with a hammer, even when measuring materials such as strand bamboo and MDF boards. www.lignomatusa.com Resilient tile collection Patcraft has launched the Handloom resilient tile collection. Featuring two coordinating styles, Painted Weft and Wooden Warp, the textural collection

Wagner Meters has announced a handheld electronic concrete moisture meter for comparative measurement of concrete and other surfaces. The C555 provides non-destructive preliminary moisture measurements on smooth, firm concrete to help pinpoint problem areas and determine where to place Rapid RH L6 smart sensors. Built-in sensors measure ambient temperature and relative humidity to a depth of 0.5 in., while an on-demand calibrator comes with everything needed to perform the test outlined in ASTM F2659. Relative mode can be used on other materials such as concrete block. www.wagner-meters.com

Canada’s floorcovering magazine

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BULLETS Current business highlights The value of building permits issued by Canadian municipalities rose 6.1 percent to $9.0 billion in August, largely because of increases in multi-family and industrial permits.

Gains were reported in seven provinces, with over one-third of the national increase in Quebec. —Statistics Canada According to the 2019 Real Estate Bubble Index, the disparity between a growing population and increasingly limited housing has moved Toronto, Ont., to second from third place in the annual index. The average cost of a house in Toronto has basically tripled over the past two decades, and new restrictions and regulations have not done much to slow it down. Vancouver also made the list, coming in at sixth place. Starting with Munich at the top, and then Toronto, they are followed by Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Vancouver, Paris, Zurich, London and San Francisco. —UBS A 2019 study reports that 71 per cent of Canadian organizations reported experiencing at least one cyber-attack that impacted the organization in some way, including time and resources, out of pocket expenses, and paying ransom.

—Canadian Internet Registration Authority Around 6 percent of global furniture sales is currently driven by the e-commerce channel. While world furniture consumption increased by 5 percent on average between 2016 and 2018, the online sales channel had a 27 percent average annual growth rate over the same period. —CSIL Total imports of real-wood flooring into the European Union (EU) increased 6.2 percent to 29.52 million square meters in 2018. Tropical countries accounted for only 9.2 percent of total imports in 2018, down from 11.1 percent from the previous year and close to 50 percent before the financial crises. —ITTO As a result of weakening global demand, the value of China’s wooden furniture exports fell 10 percent to $9.8 billion US in the first half of 2019. Of the total, the value of China’s wooden furniture exports to the U.S. was $3.807 billion US, a year-on-year decline of 18 percent. —Lesprom The EU’s trade in tropical wood products was more buoyant in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2018. Total imports of all wood products in the EU from tropical countries in the first half of 2019 were 1.24 million metric tonnes, 16 percent more than the same period in 2018. Import value increased 15 percent to €1.26 billion. —TIN 28

November/December 2019

The U.S. 2019 Remodeling Impact Report, an examination of 20 projects, surveyed realtors, consumers who have taken on home renovation projects and members of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. After completing a remodeling project, 74 percent of owners have a greater desire to be in their home, 65 percent say they experience increased enjoyment, and 77 percent feel a major sense of accomplishment, according to the survey. Additionally, 58 percent report a feeling of happiness when they see their completed projects, while 38 percent say they have a feeling of satisfaction. —National Association of Realtors In July there was a 12 percent year on year rise in the value of assembled flooring imports to Japan and a 26 percent month on month increase. Assembled wooden flooring accounted for most of the July assembled wooden flooring imports, with China shipping 61 percent, Indonesia 10 percent and a further 10 percent from Thailand. —ITTO The total number of tariffs the Chinese have placed on U.S. goods now numbers over $97 billion US. In that same vein, U.S. tariffs targeting Chinese goods now total around $240 billion US. Likewise, the EU is now pushing back with tariffs targeting U.S. goods totaling around $3 billion US, followed

by Turkey ($1.8 billion US), India ($1.4 billion US) and Russia ($430 million US). —Statista Employers added 136,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in September, resulting in the unemployment rate falling to 3.5 percent, its lowest level since 1969. —Statista The U.S. imported 2.66 million light vehicles worth a total of $52.6 billion US from Mexico in 2018. Vehicles from Japan were valued at $40.3 billion US and those from Canada were valued at $38.4 billion US. —U.S. Department of Commerce Nationally, new housing prices in Canada were up 0.1 percent in August, the first increase since July 2018. —Statistics Canada Data shows that since 1950, Americans have been tying the knot later and later in life. From 22.8 years for men and 20.3 years for women at the start of the fifties, there has been a pretty steady upward course to the present-day averages of 29.8 and 27.8. —U.S. Census Bureau The Hispanic population of the U.S. as of July 1, 2018 was 59.9 million, making people of Hispanic origin that nation’s largest ethnic or racial minority. Hispanics constituted 18.3 percent of that country’s total population. —U.S. Census Bureau

EVENTS

Nov. 20 – 22 GreenBuild Expo Atlanta, Ga. www.greenbuildexpo.com Nov. 27 – 29 The Buildings Show Toronto, Ont. www.thebuildingsshow.com January 10-13 Domotex Hannover, Germany www.domotex.de/home January 13-19 IMM Cologne Cologne, Germany www.imm-cologne.com

ADVERTISERS

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NAC Products Inc.

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TISE, The International Surfaces Event

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January 21-23 KBIS Las Vegas, Nev. www.kbis.com January 27-30 The International Surface Event Las Vegas, Nev. www.intlsurfaceevent.com Jan. 28 Coverings Canada Night at TISE Las Vegas, Nev. March 24 – 26 Domotex Asia ChinaFloor Shanghai, China www.domotexasiachinafloor.com April 20 – 23, 2020 Coverings New Orleans, La. www.coverings.com Apr. 28 – 30 NWFA Expo Milwaukee, Wisc. www.nwfaexpo.org

SECOND TO NONE IN

ORIGINAL CONTENT SECOND TO NONE IN

CANADIAN CONTENT SECOND TO NONE IN

BUSINESS CONTENT CALL US TO DISCUSS MARKETING PLANS THAT WORK! Stephen King | 416-802-1225 | sking@wimediainc.ca Rates and details available at: www.coveringscanada.ca Canada’s floorcovering magazine

29

THEN-AND-NOW

Restaurant conversion space promotes good health

Design for Zen and now A RESTAURANT SPACE in Montreal, Que., has been converted to foster refreshed bodies and peaceful minds. Design agency IssaDesign was mandated to develop the Evolution Wellness Centre in a decades-old, non-descript building in the Nun’s Island neighbourhood to accommodate a yoga studio and physiotherapy clinic.

According to Marie Eve Issa, founder and project director of Montreal-based IssaDesign, her firm was approached by a client who was renting the space. “The challenge was more about the layout. Because they required areas to have meetings with nutritionists, doctors and massage therapists, we needed to create a lot of small rooms in the space.”

During the construction phase, the old kitchen and restaurant equipment had to be removed, creating more work for the contractor. “We put the showers for the yoga studio near where the old kitchen was so that everything fit.

Then, we put the open area in front near the street because it is all windows.”

The creative balance across the entire centre between wood, concrete, white and black results from an ingenious combination at all levels, whether in the rhythm 30

November/December 2019 November/December 2019

of lighting or custom furniture. Because the studio space also faced a parking lot with vehicle and pedestrian traffic, the glass was frosted for privacy while still permitting natural light to come in.

“The client wanted something very contemporary with natural materials,” says Issa, “but not too much. They wanted a Zen space. That is why we chose plywood accent furniture and cabinet pieces for a natural feel.”

Adding warmth to the yoga studio space are hardwood floors, stained to coordinate with the plywood. The rest of the centre is exposed concrete floors, notes Issa, but “there were spaces where the concrete wasn’t nice enough.” Wood floors were laid over the flawed concrete to maintain the aesthetics of the design.

Overall, Issa wanted to foster an open concept so that light would flow through the spaces, included LED general lighting where windows could not provide illumination. “We have a lot of suspended lights because the ceilings are pretty high — both in the corridors and in the treatment room.”

In order to provide a functional venue in all seasons, a storage area has been defined at the entrance to store winter boots and other shoes. These wall brackets, being custom built, continue to the reception desk and form the shop area where health care products are displayed. As a result, the reception area is multifunctional and profitable.

“Business is really good,” says Issa. The client loves the space — and they are pretty busy.”

The finished Then-and-Now project is featured on each issue’s cover.

Please submit project suggestions to news@wimediainc.ca.

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