Coverings CANADA’S FLOORCOVERING MAGAZINE
May/June 2019
INSTALLATION BOO-BOOS: ANOTHER 1,000 WORDS TOLERATING MEDICAL CANNABIS MAY NOT BE MANDATORY COVERINGS SHOW REPORT
THEN-AND-NOW
Bioselect design for GTA seniors
Page 30
Value, nature and style: Canada embraces
HARD SURFACES
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Features 8 Hard as a rock
Coverings CANADA’S FLOORCOVERING MAGAZINE
May/June 2019
INSTALLATION BOO-BOOS: ANOTHER 1,000 WORDS TOLERATING MEDICAL CANNABIS MAY NOT BE MANDATORY COVERINGS SHOW REPORT
THEN-AND-NOW
Bioselect design for GTA seniors
Page 30
Canada’s solid reasons for embracing hard surfaces.
6 Commentary
Canada-U.S.A. cage match: who wins?
12 News
Tarkett announces executive changes; Maiden Domotex USA in the books; Havwoods unveils new showroom manager; Municipal construction procurement reform.
Value, nature and style: Canada embraces
HARD SURFACES May-Jun 2019 Coverings.indd 1
2019-04-17 9:49 AM
May/June 2019 Vol. 44, No. 3 www.coveringscanada.ca
15 Design
Kerry Knudsen Editor and Publisher kknudsen@wimediainc.ca
20 Installation
Steve King Associate Publisher
Associations 23 Canadian Flooring, Cleaning and Restoration Association
647-274-0507
sking@wimediainc.ca
905-703-6597
Mike Edwards Contributing Editor medwards@wimediainc.ca
Lee Ann Knudsen Art Director
lak@wimediainc.ca
nsGraphic Design Graphics nspence@wimediainc.ca
Omni Data Services Circulation
circulation@wimediainc.ca www.omnidataservices.com
Minimal: Design’s love affair with economy.
18 Law
Must employers accommodate medical cannabis? Failures as a teachable moment: Another 1,000 words.
Alliances promote education and value.
24 National Floor Covering Association
Making specifications current and meaningful.
Shows 25 Coverings 2019
Report on Orlando’s tile and stone extravaganza.
26 Products
Hardwood planks; acoustic underlayments; mosaic collection for floor and wall; one-step large tile mortar; Bluetooth moisture meters.
28 Bullets 29 Events and Advertisers 30 Then-and-now ISSN 0848-8339 PUBLICATIONS MAIL SALES 2012 AGREEMENT #41203050 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: Coverings C/O 365 EVANS AVENUE, STE #L10 TORONTO, ON M8Z 1K2
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.
Canada’s floorcovering magazine
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COMMENTARY Reflections spanning the border
On being Canadian VIRTUALLY EVERY CONVERSATION between newly acquainted Canadians and Americans begins with health care. Which system is better? Twenty-five years ago, the call seemed to go to the U.S., based on expenditures, wait times, spectrum of services covered, etc. Now, no so much. Currently, both Canada and the U.S. are growing their expenditures for health by about 4 percent per year, so that’s a wash. The U.S. spends $3.5 trillion U.S. annually, versus $242 billion Cdn. in Canada. If you adjust for currency at 3 percent, Canadians spend about $170 billion U.S. Using the old rule-of-thumb by multiplying everything Canadian by 10 to account for Kerry Knudsen population, we are still spending half what the Americans do each year. Per capita, the Americans are spending $10,739 per year, while we are spending $6,604. Again, their dollars are theirs, and ours are ours. Translated, that means we pay about $4,600 per capita. As a percentage of GDP, they spend 18 percent and we spend 11.5 percent. I am not vouching for those figures. There is no way to tell whether they are apples-to-apples comparisons, as “health care” may or may not include hundreds of variables, from ambulance rides to prescription drugs. Without further research, they are just talking points, but interesting. If valid, the U.S. has lost its argument. As an aside, you could almost argue that the States has had socialized medicine for decades. If you define socialism as collecting from everybody, keeping a majority for yourself and then redistributing what’s left to the masses, you have a fair portrait of American health insurance companies. In the States, that’s capitalism. In Russia, it’s an oligarchy. There are plenty of magnificently wealthy service providers in dictatorships and republics, alike. The difference is largely a matter of words. Pushing on, words are important. We in Canada seem to want to distance ourselves as much as possible from Americans by way of words. For a quick ex-
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ample regards the letter o, we can see that Americans and many Canadians pronounce produce (as in fruits and vegetables) with a long o, while a substantial number of Canadians pronounce it with a short o. That cannot be described as a function of a regional dialect, since the opposite usage occurs with the word process: process prawcess; prawduce produce. To echo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, let’s call the whole thing off. Americans have a different view of history. By and large, they think WWI lasted two years and was over before half of their recruits were done training. Similarly, WWII for the States began in December of 1941, by which time the Brits had beaten the Luftwaffe and was pretty much in control of North Africa. I’m not disparaging the Yanks. Their contributions to both wars were both extensive and decisive. It’s just that they see things differently. Back home, I learned from a Toronto area-rug seller a decade ago that it is nearly impossible to sell navy blue area rugs in Canada. Our preferred base colour is black. Conversely, blue is the colour (or should I say color) in the States, and black will sit on the rack. This may not be true in Alberta or Quebec, and I’d like to hear. Anyway, it’s almost as if Canadians reflexively do the opposite of what the Yanks are doing. Look at the metric system. It could appear that we jumped and adopted it just to beat the Americans, and then they went the other way. Irksome, since we now carefully cultivate an official metric standard, but buy our food in ounces and pounds, run our ranges in F and still try to figure 2 x 4s and mpg. Tires are in psi. In my view, they beat us on that one. But now, just take a look at our chief executives. Can there be any two leaders more diametric than Trump and Trudeau? It almost seems as if those two have taken reflexology to a new level, nearly guaranteeing that whatever Trump signals, Trudeau will buck and run. So far, that has been more funny than costly, but it raises the concern of what happens if our cultural dynamic tension snaps and things become adversarial. After all, there is only one reason Trudeau can ignore national defence (defense); Trump will protect us. Probably. Comment at www.coveringscanada.ca
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CANADA’S SOLID REASONS FOR EMBRACING HARD SURFACES
FOLKS IN THE FLOORCOVERING BUSINESS are passionate about what they offer, none more so than tile and stone suppliers. With all of the materials competition in Canada — carpet, resilient, hardwood, engineered floors — what makes solid surfaces such as tile and stone so appealing? In some cases, the economic argument to the client becomes too compelling to consider anything else. George Kneider, principal of Kneider Architects in Toronto, Ont., put together just such a monetary case in front of a local school board a few years ago. Kneider found that schools at the time were particular towards using vinyl tile, especially in the face of unit cost comparisons to porcelain tile. “I said, ‘I want to put porcelain tile in the corridors and some of the classrooms because it is cheaper than vinyl tile,’” says Kneider. “They looked at me like I’m crazy. I said, ‘let me explain to you why it is.’” His case wasn’t immediately obvious, but when 88
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he got them to examine how they were running the school at Christmas, Easter and summer holiday breaks, the penny dropped. “They empty out the classrooms and strip the vinyl tile, wash it, then come back and wax it and polish it and bring the desks back in to every room. They do that three times a year. “So, I said, ‘run your costs on that as to what it costs to leave them in the room and just wash and clean the floors and let them self-dry when the school is out.’ “We ran the numbers over a five-year-period, and they saved $2 million.” Taking into account the initial cost of the tile — both vinyl and porcelain — over that period of time was how much money the school saved in labour. SPEC FOR DECADES According to Kara MacGregor, principal at Mac Interior Design in Halifax, N.S., time scale is also important to her many commercial clients. “The other big selling feature is if you have a client who is looking at a five-year product installation versus
material that they want to last a decade or longer, like a hotel lobby, a mall or a big corporate building. “They don’t want to be replacing their floors every five or 10 years — it is way too inconvenient. Tile can last decades.” MacGregor observes that there is a “buy local” trend happening in many industries in Canada, affecting many choices by those in the A&D (architect and designer) community. “People want to eat local, buy local and they want things made local,” says MacGregor. “Canada has this great granite industry that if people are interested in local, they can draw upon this natural resource. It is a really good, durable material. If you go back to Italy, stone has been around for hundreds of years.”
well as marble, granite, Caesarstone and quartz, so it needs to be properly educated by companies such as Stone Tile on these surfaces to ensure its clients get a material that works for them and their budgets. According to Kneider, his firm might do four major building projects in a year, so it relies on suppliers to furnish the proper information. “Those people do it every day because that is their business. I rely heavily on them.” TRUST FOR THE LONG HAUL He has a word of caution for those businesses that might take advantage of his firm: “I have said to many of them, ‘you can do the first job for us, but it will be two jobs if you don’t do it right. It will be your first and your last job.’ “Interestingly enough when they hear that they say, ‘well.’ I say ‘I want you to give us the right answers. I can give you the next 30 jobs, but you have to earn our respect for what you are telling us because we rely on you to tell us the goods. I don’t want you to upsell me on something just because it’s a better commission. That is nothing to what you could get over a period of ten years.’ “They then begin to realize this, and it is amazing with some of them how their attitude totally changes. They say ‘We do know our business. We know it very well.’ I have always said, ‘I have to surround myself with the right people because they do their job every day.’” Stone Tile prides itself on its outside sales force that visits architects, designers, builders and contractors. In conjunction with its four showrooms across the country that are also open to the public, Benchimol says, “we are constantly visiting architects, updating the libraries, bringing new stones, talking about new stones, making presentations.” Technical information that is imparted by suppliers to the A&D community naturally becomes knowledge that can be shared with both commercial and residential clients. In the end, it always comes down to what works best for the client’s project and the budget, according to MacGregor. For example, she can tell a client that solid body porcelain is distinct from glazed porcelain tile. “Solid body porcelain tile has that natural, deep abrasion resistance,” says MacGregor. “It still is one of the best
“IT WILL BE TWO JOBS IF YOU DON’T DO IT RIGHT. IT WILL BE YOUR FIRST AND YOUR LAST JOB.”
LIVING STONE President and c.e.o. Sylvia Benchimol of Stone Tile International in Toronto believes that people can be genuinely attracted to stone. “They are driven more by the romance of stone and the idea of having a piece of nature in their house,” says Benchimol. “These are people who don’t care about the maintenance and will forgo practicalities for beauty.” Stone Tile, also with locations in Montreal, Que., Calgary, Alta., and Vancouver, B.C., has noticed that in the Toronto market at least, there is a trend for customers looking to have their stone cut to size. “They are not really looking for tile that is in stock but what they or their designers want,” says Benchimol. “I find that more and more, we are just selling slabs cut to size, and less and less tile. Consequently, we are inventorying less tiles and more slabs. Whether it’s commercial or even high-end residential, I find a huge switch to cut to size in the last few years.” She adds that the most important thing about stone is that the client user has to be willing to maintain it and must understand stone. “We train our people to really manage our clients’ expectations of the stone. People pick a stone a year in advance. The blocks come in and they look different. “When you sell stone, it is a little more complicated then when we sell porcelain. There is a lot of training of salespeople and how they sell — how they manage their clients’ expectations.” Kneider Architects specifies porcelain and ceramic tiles, as
Canada’s floorcovering magazine
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“IT IS REALLY ABOUT LOOK AND FUNCTION”
ways to get a full high slip resistance rating and is technically more durable than granite. “Every different porcelain has its own technical characteristics. But generally speaking, for solid body porcelain, you get a price point that it is obviously much cheaper than granite.”
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May/June 2019 May/June 2019
MacGregor knows that you can get really good quality LVTs that have ceramic bead coatings that make it much more scratch resistant. “But then you get up to premium dollars for that premium product — and it usually falls out of the budget,” she says. “You could get a porcelain tile in for much cheaper.” The porcelain tile still is probably going to have better scratch resistance than even the top end LVT with ceramic beads, according to MacGregor. “It is really about look and function. If you have any vehicular traffic, for example, like car dealerships, or wheeled traffic, like hotels with luggage carts and in retail settings the grocery carts, it really does drive a porcelain tile as the most durable solution. Because the price can vary so much it can be really cost effective as well. UNIQUENESS “To me what still wins for natural stone is that every particular stone has its own technical characteristic. Some are harder and some are softer. Some are more prone to acid spills some are not. So, if someone spills a Coke, you have to get right at it — or it will probably be OK for a little bit.” In Canada’s colder climate, infloor heating systems are increasingly an alternative source of warmth and a technology that requires porcelain and ceramic tiles for the most part. However, Benchimol doesn’t see in-floor heating as that commonplace. “Homeowners do it sometimes in bedrooms because people walk in their bare feet in their bedrooms. But don’t forget in Canada, that since the homes are heated not a lot of people go through that expense of heated floors.” Kneider, however, is currently designing a country home that will be entirely tiled in porcelain and ceramic with in-floor heating using a geothermal technology to create a net zero energy house. His firm is also building a barn to house 100 dairy cows on the property. This where one architect has had to stand on his toes to learn something new — the owner wants to use methane gas to heat and cool the barn. “If people ask me what I’m doing these days,” Kneider laughs, “I’m studying methane from cows.”
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NEWS Tarkett announces executive changes Paris, France,-based Tarkett has announced changes to its executive management committee. Pierre Barrard is appointed Strategic Marketing, Digital and Innovation executive vice president
Pierre Barrard
Antoine Prevost
(evp). Antoine Prevost, Operations evp, is appointed Research and Development and Operations evp. Until now, the company’s research and innovation capabilities were headed by Anne-Christine Ayed. In addition to these changes, Tarkett also announces a new leadership in North America with the appointment of Jeff Fenwick as Interim president and ceo of Tarkett North America. He will succeed to Andrew Bonham who has resigned from his position for personal reasons. Fenwick will Jeff Fenwick join the executive management committee and will remain based in Tarkett’s North American Headquarters, in Solon, Ohio. The company also reports that it collected 102,000 tons of flooring from 2010 to 2018 through ReStart, Tarkett’s flooring collection program in Europe and North America. 12
May/June 2019
Through Tarkett Academy, the company says, over 23,000 professionals or students were trained in flooring installation techniques from 2012 to 2018. TISE partners with new Asia event The International Surface Event (TISE) is in development on a surface and design trade event in Asia for late this year. The Surface + Design Event China will be held on December 11 – 13 at Shanghai New International Exhibition Center in Shanghai. Organized by UBM China, the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters, in partnership with TISE in North America, the event will showcase stone, tile, floor, and wall-covering products, installation, and maintenance tools, and technologies. Domotex USA in the books
More than 280 exhibitors from 25 countries showcased their latest products in Atlanta, Ga., to kick off the first edition of Domotex USA from February 28 to March 02. More than 57 percent of the exhibitors who presented their products were North American flooring suppliers, while 43 percent of the trade show represented international exhibitors. The inaugural show secured 5,130 registrants; about 70 percent of the first show’s attendees are located in the Eastern U.S. The next edition of the shoow will take place from February 5-7, 2020.
Armstrong Flooring sees sales increase For the full year 2018, net sales at Armstrong Flooring of Lancaster, Pa., increased 3.4 percent to $728.2 million US from 2017. Don Maier, c.e.o., said fourth quarter 2018 results that were down 3.5 percent to $153.8 million US were affected by soft end-market Don Maier demand, along with the timing of customer purchases in response to delayed U.S. tariff increases. Mohawk reports Q4 results Calhoun, Ga.-based Mohawk Industries has announced 2018 net sales for the fourth quarter of 2018 were $2.45 billion US, up 3 percent in the quarter. For the fourth quarter of 2017, net sales were $2.37 billion US. However, Jeffrey Lorberbaum, chairman and c.e.o., stated, “The period was affected by significant inflation, slowing Jeffrey Lorberbaum markets and LVT impacting sales of other products.” During the quarter, as a result, the Flooring North America Segment’s sales decreased 3 percent. Start-up costs for the quarter were higher than projected, with LVT production improving slower than anticipated. I4F partners with CFL Flooring Willemstad, Curaçao-based I4F, a group of companies providing patents and technologies to the flooring industry, has signed a patent partnership agreement with exporter CFL Flooring of Jiaxing, China, for a new engineered stone, wood veneer composite base flooring board.
The new sound absorbing board provides a stone-wood composite base that keeps the wood veneer level, dry and heat resistant by retaining moisture and heat within the stone-wood base. Unilin files unlicensed product complaint Flooring Industries (Unilin IP), of Calhoun, Ga., together with its affiliated companies, Mohawk Industries and IVC US, filed a complaint in March in the U.S. based on Section 337 of the U.S. Tariff Act before the International Trade Commission (ITC). The complaint requests an exclusion order preventing the unlawful importation of vinyl products that infringe certain Unilin IP patents, U.S. Patent No. 9,200,460, U.S. Patent No. 10,208,490 and U.S. Patent No. 10,233,655, relating to the (1) angle-folddown locking mechanisms,
including in resilient flooring panels and to (2) glueless rigid or multilayered vinyl flooring panels. According to Unilin’s Bart Van der Stockt, “We were also confronted with a competitor in the licensing business, In novations 4 Flooring or I4F, which wrongly informed the market that the Unilin patent portfolio is not relevant when using their locking Bart Van der Stockt embodiment. Anatolia recognized for a third time Toronto-based Anatolia Tile and Stone has been named one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for a third time and
second year consecutively. Anatolia has been awarded for its outstanding business performance and sustained growth with Canada’s Best Managed Companies. Legislation promotes prompt payment to contractors The National Trade Contractors Coalition of Canada (NTCCC) has expressed its strong support for the federal government’s move to make prompt payment
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Canada’s floorcovering magazine
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NEWS
the law on all federal government contracts in Canada. According to Sandra Skivsky, chair of the NTCCC, the coalition has led efforts to have prompt payment introduced federally. Ontario passed Canada’s first prompt payment laws just over a year ago with the introduction of the Construction Act. According to Skivsky, Canada has lagged behind other countries and now has the opportunity to learn from best practices internationally and domestically. Payment delays have risen steadily in Canada since the economic downturn in 2008, she says. Havwoods adds new showroom manager After Havwoods International recently opened its first Canadian showroom in Toronto, Ont., it introduced Dana Bronikova as the showroom Dana Bronikova manager. Bronikova, who comes from a background in luxury retail and furniture sales, will drive the development of the Havwoods brand in Toronto and the surrounding areas. Designs revealed for Park Hyatt Hotel Oxford Properties Group has revealed designs for its redevelopment of Park Hyatt Hotel in Toronto, Ont. Long considered to be one of the most venerable sites in Toronto, and one of the most iconic addresses, Park Hyatt Toronto will be fully modernized through Toronto-based Oxford’s plans that will restore the buildings to their true landmark status. The plans create 65 luxury rental apartments at Two Avenue Road, the site’s heritage South Tower, 40,000 square feet of high-end
retail and restaurant options throughout the complex, and a 219-room luxury Park Hyatt hotel in the site’s North Tower. The heritage-designated South Tower will be completely retained and restored, making it the first high-rise in Toronto to be totally retained in an adaptive re-use project. Municipal construction procurement reform The Ontario Sewer and Watermain Construction Association (OSWCA) of Toronto applauds the passage of Ontario’s Bill 66, with a specific interest in Schedule 9. This Schedule brings fairness back to the municipal construction procurement process in Ontario by allowing all qualified contractors to bid on projects funded through the public purse.
Developer plans project at former GM site London, Ont.-based developer Farhi Holdings is hoping to have shovels in the ground this fall on a $100-million project that would transform the 60-acre former GM Trim site in Windsor, Ont., from an industrial wasteland into 387 homes, a hotel and commercial space, according to the Windsor Star. The plan for the land includes: 119 detached residential lots; four townhouse blocks with 48 units in total; five condo-type buildings with a total of 230 units; 7.8 acres of commercial land; and a seven-storey hotel.
LETTERS Columnist Christopher Capobianco gets the Readers’ Choice award this month: Good afternoon Christopher, I just finished reading your “Worth 1,000 words” column in Coverings. This is a format you’ve used before and I must tell you that I find it’s the most informative for myself and my sales teams. Even after 30 years in this business, I continue learning and your column is one of my favorites to read. I hope you continue using this format often, if not exclusively! My only wish is that you would publish more often. Perhaps you should consider a blog. Jocelyn Huot, Director of Sales, Eastern Region, Shnier, Gesco L.P.
Hi Christopher, I am a service manager/quality control person for Atlanta Flooring in British Columbia. I just finished reading your article in Coverings March/April issue about problems and mistakes. I loved your article! At the end of it you mentioned to let you know if we liked the format, so I’m letting you know. These are the types of things I’ve been seeing on a daily basis for the last five years (23 years in the industry). Like you, my phone is filled with photos of flooring problems and solutions. It still amazes me to this day that as fast as we can find solutions, the universe continues to deliver problems, old, new, and forgotten. Anyhow, I loved the article and please keep them coming! Ryan Cooper, Mission, B.C.
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May/June 2019
DESIGN
Minimal
I’ve been intrigued by minimal expression for a long time: practically as long as I can remember. There were pictures of the cave paintings at Lascaux in the encyclopedia that we had at home, when I was a child, and I marvelled at how much was accomplished with so little. At the gestures that spoke beyond their size. That seemed to be the essence of it: achieving a lot with a little. And I think that this was the path that brought me to design, and specifically Industrial Design. In that design discipline, unlike some others, there is an obvious benefit to achieving things economically. In fact, to one way of looking at it, efficiency is the ultimate objective. We seek to do a lot with as Paul Epp little as possible and then keep doing it over and over, maximizing the benefits to consumers and to the capitalists behind the venture. Before I had decided on a career in design, I came upon the book How to Wrap Five Eggs, and I was once again struck by an intuitive satisfaction at the achievement of outcomes with little apparent effort. This wasn’t Industrial Design, but even I could sense the applicability. So that became a kind of animating force for me, to do as much as I could with as little display of means as possible. If this is the discipline, then every gesture counts. There is a kind of perfection that is sought, and elegance, through economy and efficiency which I find to be innately satisfying. Now, at times, I feel a bit old fashioned for thinking this way. Modernism, of course, has always displayed a strong interest in the minimal. Witness Van der Rohe’s famous mid-century dictum, “Less is More.” Recall as well, Robert Venturi’s late-century, post-modern rebuttal, “Less is a Bore.” At one time, to be minimal and efficient were seen as honourable objectives, virtuous in their own integrity. Minimal design seemed appropriate for many reasons, even ethical ones, like not wasting resources. And the challenge, well met, was acclaimed. Time changes everything, to misappropriate the title of a song. Modernism has been buried and resurrected numerous times and been supplanted by all manner of alternatives. Minimalism isn’t gone; it’s just
Maarten Deckers
Design’s love affair with economy
not as important as it used to be. Maybe that is how it should be, everything in its turn. The late, great German designer, Dieter Rams, was a kind of priest of minimal modernism. And he still has his followers, although I sometimes wonder if Apple products aren’t also a bit of caricature. The opposite of minimal would be maximal, and this, too, has its place in design. Although, to show my time-worn prejudices, I sometimes think of the maximal as having more to do with decoration than design. But I certainly appreciate decoration, despite finding myself inadequate in its practice. Besides Modernism’s minimalism, the challenge of minimal display achieving greater results has been an objective of many historical and current artists, poets, and other creative people. It’s a challenge with great potential to satisfy. I remain captivated by the style of printing usually called wood-block, although now much of it is fully digital. Why not? The computer is a wonderful tool. In this style of work, there are great limitations on the range of colour used and on the shapes and forms that delineate the image. How much can be done with how little? It may be ironic to consider that a minimal visual expression, like one of these pictures, can also be decorative? Twitter has, in its requirement of concision, replaced telegrams, which I used to delight in. Haiku is another example of severe constrains yielding strong effects. Poetry used to be based on the strict limits. Minimalism, in its various forms, is an intellectual challenge as well as a practical one, and probably will continue to enchant some of us for a good while yet. Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, (a fragment of a poem by A. E. Housman) Paul Epp is a professor emeritus at OCAD University, and former chair of its Industrial Design department.
Canada’s floorcovering magazine
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LAW Must employers accommodate medical cannabis?
Maybe not
The emphasis is in “may not”, or at least that is the conclusion reached by a court in Newfoundland. In International Brotherhood Lower Churchill Transmission Construction Employers’ Assn. Inc. v IBEW, Local 1620 (Tizzard), Re, 2018 CarswellNfld 198, the court found that the employer, Valdar Construction LP (“Valdar”), did not make a mistake when it dismissed an employee who was vaping medical cannabis. The court came to this conclusion because Valdar has a safety-sensitive workplace, and because Valdar did not have a way to measure the employee’s Junaid Malik impairment. Generally, employers must make reasonable accommodations for their employee’s with
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disability-related needs. And, while the obligation to accommodate is not endless, it is typically a heavy burden. The courts use the phrase “undue hardship,” that is the point at which an employer is not required to accommodate the disability-related needs of an employee. Undue hardship depends on the context, and International Brotherhood is a refreshing reminder that, in certain circumstances, an employer may suffer undue hardship by attempting to provide any sort of accommodation. Background Valdar engages in the construction of towers and related infrastructure for the delivery of electricity from Labrador to Newfoundland, as such the workplace is safety-sensitive. The dispute involved an employee who is a construction worker with over thirty years of experience; he worked with Valdar for a little over a year. The employee suffers from osteoarthritis and Chron’s disease. As a result of his medical conditions, the employee endures severe chronic pain and discomfort. He began using medical cannabis as a form of treatment, after obtaining approval from his healthcare providers. The employee vaped about 1.5 grams of cannabis every evening after work. He reported his cannabis prescription to his direct supervisor. For several months the employee’s use of cannabis coincided with his work on the job, though the employee was not involved in any safety-related incident during this time. Valdar laid off the employee. Despite there being a number of vacancies, Valdar refused to hire the employee due because of his medicinal cannabis use and the safety concerns present in these positions. The employee’s union launched a grievance, and took the position that Valdar had breached a term of the collective agreement by failing to provide priority hiring to a union member. Moreover, the union alleged that the refusal to hire the employee was an act of discrimination — arguing that the employee’s pain constitutes a disability. The arbitration Valdar took the position that the employee’s use of medical cannabis made it impossible to determine impairment. This situation, Valdar argued, made it impossible to accommodate the employee without sustaining undue hardship given the safetysensitive nature of the workplace. The parties put the grievance to arbitration, in accordance with the collective agreement. The hearing before the Arbitrator was lengthy, as it involved numerous lay and expert witness. Ultimately, the Arbitrator held in Valdar’s favour, ruling
that Valdar was unable to measure impairment of the employee’s cannabis use, based on currently available technology and resources. And an inability to measure that risk of harm constituted undue hardship. The union appealed the arbitrator’s decision for judicial review. The appeal On appeal, the court ultimately upheld the Arbitrator’s decision, finding that Valdar could not assess the risk the employee imposed, and because of the safety-sensitive nature of all of the vacant positions, Valdar would not be able to accommodate without enduring undue hardship. The court identified several findings made by the Arbitrator which are worth considering: • Using cannabis can impair the ability of a worker to function safely in a safety-sensitive workplace; • Cannabis impairment can last up to 24 hours after consumptions; • The user may not know that they are impaired; and • There was no available means or method for accurately testing cannabis impairment in the workplace.
Takeaway Even though the dispute in International Brotherhood has been held in Valdar’s favour, it would be unwise for an employer to treat claims for accommodation related to medical cannabis use with a relaxed attitude. Furthermore, it is unclear how this decision will be treated by tribunals and courts in other provinces. The recent legalization of cannabis use for recreational purposes has added to the current uncertainty. Time will tell whether the drug’s consumption will tend more towards alcohol versus tobacco consumption, from a regulatory standpoint. Lastly, undue hardship is a high bar, and while the employer in this case was able to establish undue hardship without making any efforts to accommodate, this case demonstrates the court’s emphasis on context. Where questions of accommodation arise, both employers and employees should be critical in assessing safety implications in the workplace. And if impairment is involved, they should ask whether the employer can measure it. Junaid Malik is a litigation associate with Lawrences Lawyers of Brampton, Ont.
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INSTALLATION Failures as a teachable moment:
Another 1,000 words First, I want to thank the readers that reached out to me about my last column “Worth 1,000 words.” I asked about how you liked the format and the reaction was very positive. Some of those letters can be found on page 14. Here are a couple of examples of problems I saw recently that are nothing new, but installers still made an old mistake; the two situations I encountered recently were preventable problems related to floor covering installation. Floating floors It’s all about expansion! The first time I worked with floatChristopher ing floors was with engineered wood Capobianco products in the 1980s, but the industry learned about them quickly when laminates took the industry by storm in the mid ‘90s. Point being, this is not a new category, yet I continue to see problems related to ignorance of proper expansion. Engineered wood, cork, linoleum and laminate floors have a wood or high density fiberboard (HDF) core, and the written specs call for those products to be installed with space at the perimeter for expansion, expansion joints with t-moldings on runs longer than 30 to 40 feet (depending on the product) and around heavy items like millwork, cabinets or reception desks. Been that way forever, right? Still, seems some people don’t know that. Over the past eight months I’ve seen a plank floor in an office corridor was installed tight to the walls and in the middle buckled over two inches off the floor. Talk about a speed bump! I saw two commercial applications recently where these types of products were installed with heavy cabinets on top, and the joints in the floor were opening all over because the floor could not “float.” I once saw a beautiful laminate floor in a law firm that was installed in a 55-foot run with no joints AND had a reception desk on top of it. The gaps were over ½ inch in some places! Photo one shows an example – the molding on the left side of the photo was nailed down through the planks, locking them in place and causing the end joints to let go. Forgive me, but these 20
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products have been on the market for over 30 years, so there is no excuse for making these kinds of mistakes. While we are on the subject, the newer category of WPC, “rigid core” and other floating vinyl products are often sold with claims that expansion joints aren’t needed. Well, Photo 2 shows an example of a large commercial project where that assumption was made, and the product did not perform; the end
Photo 1
Photo 2
joints didn’t hold, and gaps opened up in several locations. This led to all kinds of finger-pointing and eventually the floor got replaced. My advice, based on this bad experience is if you are installing these products in large areas, make contact with the manufacturer, let them know exactly what you are planning on doing and get their recommendation in writing to cover yourself! Stair treads: To caulk or not to caulk? I recently inspected a rubber stair-tread installation in a college that was fairly new. What I saw lead me to think it might be worth a few words this month, since it’s been over 10 years since my column on stair tread installation here in Coverings. While we talk about proper installation of all types of flooring here, I think stairs are maybe the most critical. Because of the way we walk, steps take a lot of pounding, not to mention
beneath the tread and that’s where the problem was. The job had been specified using stair tread adhesive and epoxy nose caulking, but the caulking was not applied properly, which caused cracking under the heavy traffic the steps were exposed to. Now, I realize that some manufacturers are saying you don’t need nose caulking and others list it as optional. However, I am old school on this one. Regardless of manufacturer’s recommendations, this “belt and suspenders” approach assures success, especially in the high-traffic commercial spaces where these treads are often used. Some think the caulking is there to adhere the tread, and, while that is somewhat true, that’s not the reason it’s there. The caulking acts to fill any voids between the step and the tread, since the profile of the step and the shape of the stair tread are not always the same, especially if the step is damaged. Epoxy cures “hard as a rock” so there is no “flex” of the stair tread. Without the caulk, movement occurs and eventually the tread may crack. You can see this in photos 4 and 5 (these are photos from American Biltrite) where the lack of nose caulk leaves a void and the caulked option is filled. The epoxy caulking can be ordered in cans, mixed and applied with a small spatula or putty knife, but it’s a lot easier to order in tubes that fit a special caulking gun. Follow the instructions and completely fill the angle under the nose of the tread. Apply adhesive to the rest of the tread and firmly set the tread so that the epoxy molds to the shape of the step and the tread. While we are on the subject, substrate preparation is worth discussing as well. Use a very high-quality patching
Photo 3 that once in a while someone may drag a cart up or down the steps. Failures of stair treads or other floor coverings on stairs can create serious hazards and someone could get hurt badly if they trip down the stairs. So, preparation and installation are that much more critical in this case. The problem I looked at was cracking of eight treads out of 30 that were installed, as seen in photo 3. As you can see by the photo, they cracked right at the corner of the nose. This prompted an examination of the adhesive
Photo 4
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INSTALLATION
Photo 5 compound to fill in any low steps. Make sure to use a patch that is rated for heavy traffic and mix it properly to assure it dries as hard as possible because steps take a pounding like no other floor covering. The mix is important. Wetter is not better! A stiff mix is stronger, so follow the exact recipe of powder and water. When covering metal stairs, clean the surface by wire brush, sandblasting, or other mechanical methods, and then
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prime with the recommended primer, per the stair tread manufacturer. For ceramic or terrazzo stairs, sand thoroughly to remove any glazing and then fill grout with a heavy-duty patching compound. If there is an existing star tread or other resilient flooring on the steps, they must be removed, and so must all of the old adhesive. The most important part of the preparation of a step is the nose itself — the very edge of the step where feet hit as people are walking. If this edge is damaged or wavy, this will be a point of weakness that will cause the tread to crack and might cause someone to trip. Epoxy nose filler can be used to take care of minor irregularities, but any major damage needs to be fixed with a patching compound before the treads are installed. If the tread cannot be installed with a relatively tight fit at the nose, don’t proceed with the installation. 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.
CFCRA Alliances promote education and value
New partnerships We may not have been able to bridge our connections in Canada completely yet, but the CFCRA has been making great inroads with many other organizations locally and around the world. The Institute of Inspection Cleaning Restoration Certification, also known as the IICRC, has been asked to team up with the ISSA Canada show. The ISSA is the world’s largest cleaning association and has recently acquired the Canadian Sanitary Supply Association (CSSA). Their first trade show in Canada will be June 11-13 in Toronto. The CFCRA is a shareholder of the IICRC and is one of the sponsors of the show. The joint venture trade show is a joint venture of with the International Facility Management Association and the REMI Lee Senter, network. CFCRA President The education offered by ISSA is not limited to cleaning of floorcoverings but they do cover a lot of it in their various basic skills classes and CIMS classes. The ISSA recently became a shareholder of the IICRC and the hope is that the ISSA classes will be stepping stones into the IICRC’s certification classes. The IICRC Resilient Floor Maintenance Technician (RFMT) class has not been released yet for beta testing. This class is the work of many volunteers including representatives from some of the major resilient manufacturers like Tarkett, Mannington and XL North. The rest of the committee is made up of individuals and service provider organizations that offer a complete view of how this class should be carried out. It was our hope that we would preview this class at the ISSA Canada event but the RFMT technical advisory committee is not quite finished and wants it perfect first. The IICRC Wood Floor Maintenance Technician (WFMT) class was recently held in Dalton, Ga., with several manufacturer’s reps represent. We hope to put this class out for review soon. If anyone is interested in participating in this revision please contact the writer of this column.
The CFCRA will also be present at the Canadian Sustainability Conference at the Congress Center in Toronto. We will be promoting our members that provide green, sustainable floor cleaning processes. Our members get significant discounts on admission to the show. The previous paragraphs lead into the announcement that the CFCRA is working with the My Flooring Warranty program. My Flooring Warranty is supported by the World Floor Covering Association (WFCA) and Shaw Industries. What the program does is provides flooring warranty information to purchasers of flooring. It also provides reminders on when your flooring should be professionally cleaned so that your warranty will not be voided. Typically, flooring retailers associate themselves with floor cleaning contractors who in turn provide free spot removal services to their customers for the first year. It’s a win-win situation for everyone. My Flooring Warranty is providing services for purchasers of carpets right now. The problem with providing the service for resilient and wood has been that many manufacturers do not tell the end user how to clean the floor, instead they tell the client what not to use. We are hoping that the development of the ISSA and IICRC classes will finally offer guidance on how to properly maintain floors. This is an important step forward for our industry. Finally, we held Certified Flooring Installation classes again in Toronto. We hope that our friend Drew Kern will be approved as a CFI instructor. We also had Richard Deamude up from New Brunswick to start the process to become a Canadian resilient floor CFI trainer. We will be announcing new CFI class dates soon. Lastly, it’s renewal time. You will be receiving renewal offers with some significant benefits. If you are not a CFCRA member we have some great offers to ask you to join. Feel free to contact me at lsenter@cfcra.ca for more information. Without your membership we cannot afford to bring the required training on the installation and maintenance of floorcoverings to Canada for your employees! 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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NFCA Making specifications current and meaningful
Right spec; right process NFCA had the opportunity to speak to the Ottawa chapter of Construction Specifications of Canada (CSC) on March 20 — an important audience for our industry considering the role CSC plays in delivering written instructions that drive pricing, schedule, conditions and actions on-site. The audience included the full range of construction parties, specification writers, architects, engineers, general contractors, floor covering contractors and manufacturers’ representatives. The hour-long presentation, “Understanding and preventing floor-covering failure,” was intended to help everyone in the audience understand that the complexities of floor covering installations are often Chris Maskell, underestimated and the risks are not NFCA c.e.o. worth it. Our goal is to offer the various construction parties a place to go for good information that everyone can trust and that will guide logical, fair process. Over time, this will bring positive change. The alternative is the status quo. Not good because site conditions for installers aren’t going to get better by themselves. Fast track construction will likely accelerate if interest rates increase and raise the cost of borrowing. Will this further compress the construction schedule? If so, who gets squeezed in the middle? The sub-trade. We assume the consultant and construction manager know about what we need for acceptable conditions on site, but many in our own trade don’t fully understand the basics of what many products need for success. The important difference between “cured concrete (seven to 28 days) and thoroughly dry concrete (180 days +)” usually illustrates the point. Meanwhile, the one thing we do all know too well is how to brace for that moment of tension on site. How stressful must it be as a specification writer to write instructions that direct actions on site when you don’t/can’t fully understand the intricacies of what is needed. To under-specify or over-specify… that is the question. Not a position I would want to
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be in. So, our message to CSC was clear. We want to help. We know we can help with accurate floor covering specifications everyone can trust. The best-kept secret in flooring some say is the Floor Covering Reference Manual of Canada. However, as good as the manual’s content is, it can’t remove the inevitable log jam of trades racing for the deadline. But it will help to drive proper planning for the arrival on site of our trade — something any good construction team would value. During the presentation, we reviewed a few sections of the manual. “Scope of Work” was one that’s particularly important. This section clearly outlines work included and not included for the floor covering installer. When specified, this language directs responsibility for such things as moisture tests, slab correction, contaminants removal, pouring of toppings and floor protection where they belong: with the construction manager. Staying with the times Boilerplate specs (old specs copied into new documents) don’t help. Specifications, like anything else, need to be updated. They need to keep pace with the changing times, as manufacturers have to re-engineer products to cope with ever tightening environmental laws. A great example of this is the change in adhesives over the years. Adhesives of old, were much stronger when VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) were not so tightly controlled. Old Black Cutback adhesives offered significant resistance to moisture and alkalinity in a way that today’s water-based adhesives do not. Today we must understand slab and site conditions at a whole new level and consciously specify products and procedures that will tackle conditions that in the past weren’t considered that problematic. I’ll be speaking at CSC’s National Convention in Regina on May 24 and looking forward to another opportunity for some great discussions. The National Floor Covering Association (NFCA) promotes industry standards for resilient, carpet, hardwood, laminate, cork and bamboo floor covering installations. www.nfca.ca
SHOWS
Stone and tile flexed marketing muscle in Orlando
Coverings 2019
Coverings is an annual stone and tile trade show that attracts thousands of distributors, retailers, fabricators, contractors, specifiers, architectural and design professionals, builders and real estate developers. This year in Orlando, Fla., featured 1,100 exhibitors from over 40 countries, 26,000 visitors and was the stage for introducing some of the most innovative tile and stone products in the world. The exposition serves as a valuable resource for continuing education, with 50 informative, accredited seminars and live demonstrations throughout the show, all free of charge. At the event, Anderson, S.C.-based show co-sponsor Tile Council of North America (TCNA) executive director Eric Astrachan noted that 2018 tile consumption in the U.S. exceeded the pre-recession boom of 2004-2006. He also said the some water, scratch and dent proof claims by plastic-based material (PBM) flooring are disingenuous, with resilient manufacturers saying one thing in their marketing claims, but another in their specifications. “Their product may be unchanged by water,” says Astrachan, citing an ongoing industry study at Clemson University’s Advance Materials Research Center in Clemson, S.C., “but not the floor substrate. Conditions are ripe for mold to occur, which can release VOCs and phthalate plasticizers.” Trends were a big topic, as usual. Both the TCNA and Tile of Spain pavilions featured tile producers ea-
ger to stay on top of, and to lead, fashion. Delta, B.C.-based Ryan Fasan, creative development, at Bellavita Tile spoke at the Tile of Spain press conference about how square tiles are making a comeback, along with art deco styles. “Watch for bolder colours and pattern variations,” says Fasan, “and era mashups from the 1950s to 1970s.” The heat-resistant properties of ceramic tile are getting a workout, too. Ascale by Tau of Onda, Spain, in the Tile of Spain pavilion revealed it is working with an induction stove company to incorporate special, fashionable tile materials for cook top counters. Once the heat is turned off, the stovetop area becomes part of the rest of worktop surface for other activities. The 2019 Best Booth Awards honoured exhibitors in six categories. The Overall Best in Show honor was presented to Torrecid of Madison, Tenn., which showcased a gastro pub. Earning the most Inspirational Design was Castellarano, Italy, Fiandre in the Ceramics of Italy pavilion for its homage to old world Italian vintage ceramic workshops. Lamosa of San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, earned the Best Use of Tile award, while the Urban Modern honour was presented to Bologna, Italy-based Cooperativa Ceramic D’Imola. The Lifestyle Honor was presented to Villareal, Spain-based Living Ceramics, and Ceramiche Refin of Salvaterra, Italy, earned the On Trend In Smaller Space award. In addition to the TCNA, other show sponsors are Ceramic Tile Distributor Association, Tile of Spain/Spanish Ceramic Tile Manufacturer’s Association, Ceramics of Italy/Confindustria Ceramica and National Tile Contractors Association. Show manager Taffy Event Strategies will present Coverings next year in New Orleans, La., from April 20-23. Canada’s floorcovering magazine 25
PRODUCTS Hardwood planks harken back 100 years
Inspired by the clean lines of 1920s American architecture, Prospect Park is a 7 1/2 in.-wide, white-oak plank from Mannington. Subtle, muted colours, combined with multiple stain layers, elegant wire brushing and a premium sliced face are said to make the product suitable for any room in the home. The hardwood planks are available in four colours: Arch, Breeze, Stone and Trail. www.mannington.com Line additions to hardwood flooring offer more colours, textures
Hardwood flooring brand Mirage has added two new textures, Brushed and Engraved, to its Admiration Collection. The new textured Oak surface is brushed so it conceals everyday scuffs and marks. The slightly bolder Engraved Maple surface features colour and texture variations which add a distinctive look to the floor, the company says. The two new textures are available with the collection’s Charcoal, Rio, Savanna and Isla colours. All variations are combined with the company’s DuraMatt finish for added durability. www.miragefloors.com 26 May/June 2019
Sound-reduction acoustic underlayment membrane The Mapesonic RM acoustic underlayment from Mapei is a rubber membrane designed to reduce the passage of ambient and impact sound transmissions for ceramic tile and stone installations. Composed of dense, post-consumer rubber, the product is available in thicknesses of 3/16 in. or 5 mm (Mapesonic RM 5), as well as 3/8 in. or 10 mm (Mapesonic RM 10). The rubber reduces impact noise when used as an underlayment as part of a tile or stone installation system. Impact Insulation Class (IIC) acoustical testing yields results of 50 to 64, depending on floor/ceiling assembly. In addition to noise reduction, the product helps to prevent existing and future in-plane substrate cracks with movement up to 1/8 in. (3 mm) from transmitting through ceramic tile and natural stone. The underlayment passes the requirements of ANSI A118.12, Section 5.4. In addition, because it contains 82 percent post-consumer and 1 percent pre-consumer recycled content, it is GreenCircle certified. www.mapei.com Resilient tiles reveal abstract and organic visuals
The Monochrome and Surface Tone resilient tile collection from Patcraft features abstract visuals through the use of variation in the tile’s finish. The collection offers contrasting matte and gloss textures that enable designers to play with the effects of light. Monochrome Matte is available in 18 x 36 in. tiles, and the complementary Monochrome Gloss accents are available in 9 x 36 in. tiles. Intended only for accents and borders, Monochrome Gloss’s installation is limited to no more than 20 percent of a space. Surface Tone is available in 11 refined colourways ranging from neutrals to brights and is offered in 9 x 36 in. tiles. Featuring a 20 mil wear layer for durability, the collection is polish and buff optional. The 5 mm product construction allows for installation alongside carpet without the need for transition and an ExoGuard finish provides scratch and stain resistance. www.patcraft.com Grey color latest addition to granite collection
Granite and Trend Transformations has announced an addition to its granite collection, Titan Grey. The new product is engineered with Bianco Montorfano, a granite quarried in the northwest of Italy. The granite features a white base with top blends of white, grey and black crystals that are of fine to medium grain. Product benefits include: scratch resistant; stain resistant; crack resistant; heat and burn resistant; low maintenance; nonabsorbent and nonporous; mold and mildew resistant; flexural strength; colour consistency; immunity to freeze and thaw; and, easily cleaned with soap and water. www.granitetransformations.com Mosaic collection suitable for floor and wall surfaces The Fusion collection from Nemo Tile + Stone is said to be a versatile glass mosaic
Four-collection launch of rigid LVT products The four-collection launch of Pergo Extreme rigid LVT from Mohawk provides 60 higher-end wood and stone looks. Even more appealing to owners of active
installation. Units fit neatly between rows of tile and do not require any materials or fasteners to penetrate the waterproofing membrane on the walls. Five different shapes and sizes are available. www.schluter.com Tile alignment spacer also sets grout spacing
available in four textural patterns: piccolo, hexagon, penny and tweed. The piccolo, hexagon and penny patterns appear in a varying gloss and matte finish mixes, providing depth, sheen, and an illusion of a 3D mosaic, the company says. The tweed pattern comes in a matte finish. In addition to the pattern variety, the collection is available in a 14 colourways. Mesh mounted on 12 x 12 in. sheets to ease the installation process, the collection is suitable as both a floor and wall surface for residential, commercial and hospitality settings. www.nemotile.com Bluetooth connected moisture meters for mobile devices Flir Systems has announced two moisture meters with Bluetooth wireless connectivity: the MR59 ball probe moisture meter
homes, the collections are said to be 100 percent kid-proof, 100 percent pet-proof and 100 percent waterproof, and come with a “Worry-Free for Life” No-Dent Warranty that applies to a Lifetime Residential Warranty and a 10-Year Medium Commercial Warranty. The collections are: Wood Originals, a wideranging array of over 30 wood visuals with genuine texture and multiple plank size options; Wood Enhanced, seven realistic visuals with added touches such as painted bevel and EIR finish; Wood Wider Longer, five options offered in a bold 10 x 72 in. wider, longer plank size; and, Tile Options, an assortment of 15 stone patterns in three oversized tile sizes. www.mohawkind.com
Pearl Abrasive has introduced Tuscan SeamClip TruSpace, an all-in-one tool that brings tiles into alignment and sets the grout spacing without the need for additional spacers. Clips hold tiles in place until they are set, then are easily snapped off leaving a level tile surface. Units are colour-coded for set grout sizes of 1/32, 1/16, 1/8 and 3/16 in. The product eliminates steps and speeds installation time, the company says. www.pearlabrasive.com One-step large and heavy tile mortar
Brushed stainless steel shower shelves
and the MR55 pin moisture meter. The MR59 is a pinless moisture meter, unique for its ball probe sensor, which helps users cover larger areas in a shorter time, the company says. The ball probe makes it easy to measure in corners, over uneven surfaces, and around baseboards without leaving marks, it adds. The unit can also help detect moisture below a surface when there is no visible presence. The MR55 is a pin meter with a built-in library of 11 building material groups such as wood, drywall, concrete and brick. The user can tune the meter to the most appropriate test material to improve measurement accuracy. www.flir.com
Laticrete has announced Multimax Lite, a one-step, non-sag, large and heavy tile mortar for interior and exterior ceramic Schluter has introduced a line brushed tile, porcelain tile, glass tile and stone stainless steel shower shelves said to be installations. The 25 lb bag is said to have fast and easy to install, as well as bring a the coverage of 50 lb traditional mortar. new design element to tiled showers. Equipped with anti-microbial technology Although they can be used in any setting, to protect the treated article, the product the shelves are designed to complement contains no silica sand and has a 40-minthe company’s Style shower grates. ute open time. The mortar is said to Shelves are available in both the Curve exceed the industry’s highest perforand Floral patterns to match its point and mance standard for a cementitious-based linear drains with the same designs. Made adhesive mortar and can be more easily with 5/32 in. thick stainless steel, the transported and troweled. shelves require no special tools for www.laticrete.com Canada’s floorcovering magazine 27
BULLETS Current business highlights Canadian municipalities issued $8.4 billion worth of building permits in January. In the residential sector, the value of building permits increased 1.6 percent from December to $5.4 billion in January and rose 1.3 percent year/year. Both single-family and multifamily dwellings posted gains. —Statistics Canada Total investment in building construction rebounded in January, up 6.7 percent from December to $14.8 billion. Gains in the residential sector (9.0 percent to $10.4 billion) led investment for the month. —Statistics Canada The number of Canadian job vacancies increased by 78,000 (16.6 percent) from the fourth quarter of 2017 to 548,000 in the fourth quarter. At the same time, the job vacancy rate was up 0.4 percentage points to 3.3 percent, the third successive quarter above 3.0 percent. This was also the ninth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year increase in both the number of job vacancies and the job vacancy rate. —Statistics Canada Brazil’s wood-based panel exports rose 4 percent in 2018, with 1.3 million cubic metres being exported, a record year for the planted forest sector in that country. The trade balance in the sector advanced 28 percent due to an increase in exports of pulp, wood-based panels and paper. —Lesprom Year-on-year, Japan’s January 2019 wood window imports rose 12 percent but were little changed from levels in December 2018. After falling sharply in December following a surge in imports in November 2018, the value of imports steadied in January coming in at around the average for the previous year. —Lesprom U.S. demand for decorative tile in flooring applications is forecast to climb 2.3 percent per year to 3.5 billion square feet in 2023, according to the study, Decorative Tile. Porcelain tile will see the fastest growth rate through 2023 of all decorative tile materials. —The Freedonia Group The national median monthly rent jumped to $1,747 in February, up close to 6 percent from January, and further gains are expected. —rentals.ca A quarterly housing report says that Ottawa, Ont., will see work begin on an additional 7,650 units this year. That’s coming off 7,539 housing starts in 2018 — already well above the 10-year average of 6,167 starts over the past decade. —Altus Group 28 May/June 2019
The apartment market saw a $2 US rise in average U.S. rents in February 2019 and year-over-year growth of 3.6 percent. This growth is the highest since late 2016, which point to the multifamily industry’s continuing strength, according to a new report. —Yardi Matrix The Canadian economy is expected to grow by 1.4 per cent in 2019. Despite a pullback in energy exports, total exports are expected to gain 2.0 per cent this year. The outlook for the following year is much brighter with investment spending forecast to help the economy post growth of 2.0 per cent. —The Conference Board of Canada Homeownership is viewed as the most coveted part of the American dream, but nearly two-thirds of millennial homeowners (63 percent) in the U.S. expressed regrets about their current home purchase — the highest share of any generation, according to a new survey. Overall, 44 percent of homeowners said they had regrets about their home purchase while 56 percent had no buyer’s remorse. Homeowners (18 percent) cited unexpected maintenance or hidden costs as their biggest pain point, with a quarter of millennial homeowners indicating this as their top regret, the survey found. —Bankrate The U.S. resident population has grown from 310,360,851 in December 2010 to 328,082,386 in December 2018 or 5.7 percent. —U.S. Census Bureau Retail sales in Canada were $50.1 billion in January, up 1 percent from the same period last year. Sales at building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (1.4 percent) increased for the second month in a row, following five consecutive monthly declines from July to November. —Statistics Canada On average, American households subscribed to three paid streaming services in late 2018, and notably, more U.S. households subscribed to a video streaming service than traditional pay TV for the first time ever. A survey found that 69 percent of households said they had a subscription to a streaming video service in late 2018 while 65 percent were paying for traditional TV. —Deloitte The notified area of final tree felling in Sweden increased by 18 percent in February compared with the corresponding month in 2018. It is the highest monthly recorded data for the whole country in February month during the last 12 years. —Swedish Forest Agency
EVENTS
May 1 – 3 NWFA Expo Fort Worth, Tex. www.nwfaexpo.org May 9 – 11 CGFF Asia-Pacific Floor Fair Guangzhou, China www.cgff.net/ May 24 – 26 Canadian Furniture Show Toronto, Ont. www.canadianfurnitureshow.com
ADVERTISERS Ardex Tile and Stone Installation Systems www.ardexamericas.com . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Custom Building Products www. custombuildingproducts.com . 11, 31 Floors@Work www.floorsatwork.com . . . . . . .
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Laticrete www.laticrete.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Mapei www.mapei.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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June 10 – 12 Neocon Chicago, Ill. www.neocon.com
Mohawk www.mohawkflooring.com . . . .
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NAC www.nacproducts.com . . . . . . .
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Primatech www.primatech.ca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Proma www.proma.ca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 17 Schluter www.schluter.ca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Tarkett www.tarkettna.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
June 18 – 19 GreenBuild Mexico Mexico City, Mexico https://greenbuild.usgbc.org Oct. 15 – 18 SICAM Pordenone, Italy www.exposicam.it/en/ Oct. 19 – 23 High Point Market High Point, N.C. www.highpointmarket.org Nov. 20 – 22 GreenBuild Expo Atlanta, Ga. www.greenbuildexpo.com
to reach Canada’s vibrant market? Everybody reads
Nov. 27 – 29 The Buildings Show Toronto, Ont. www.thebuildingsshow.com April 20 – 23, 2020 Coverings New Orleans, La. www.coverings.com
SALES: Stephen King | 905-703-6597 | sking@wimediainc.ca
Rates and details available at: www.coveringscanada.ca Canada’s floorcovering magazine
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THEN-AND-NOW
Serene surfaces inspired by nature
residents get the most from their environment. Assisting with the interior design of Westney Gardens was Andrea van der King, principal interior designer at van der King Design Group in Toronto, Ont. One of her guiding principles is bioselect, or the process of bringing in natural materials such as wood and plants into the design environment. “In terms of the aesthetics of the bioselect design,” says van der King, “the dining room is designed to look like pebbles. The corridors look like a gradation of a pebbly path. In the lower level in the lounge area, it looks like a combination of stone and grass. These are all materials that were inspired by the natural elements. “We also used porcelain tile, wood look porcelain tile, and a cork-backed product that has a wood look surface. So, thinking about how these cushioned materials are better for seniors and how the transitions meet up. You don’t want to have anything that causes any kind of trip hazard or any kind of barrier for seniors.” Amenities at the residence include a fitness centre, a creative arts studio, a theatre and even a golf simulator. Wearable technology allows a resident to instantly request assistance anytime, and from anywhere in the building, and eliminates the need to carry suite keys.
Retirement resonates LAST FALL, MORE than 350 resident seniors, their families, community members and dignitaries celebrated the official Grand Opening a new retirement community in Ajax, Ont. Westney Gardens was the brainchild of Revera, an owner, operator and investor in the senior-living sector, who invested $50 million to bring the modern, environmentally friendly, 132-suite retirement residence to the area. The community is the 76th retirement residence in Ontario built by the Mississauga, Ont.-based Revera. According to Mike Brcko, vice president, Property Development, “there was about three years of design and construction was about two years. We want to make sure that we are designing a feature-focused product that will facilitate people to age in place in a friendly manner.” Revera has around 350 staff in areas that relate to seniors’ housing specifically and also has teams that focus on details such as culinary and recreation so that 30 30
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The residence also targeted LEED Silver certification through water conservation and energy efficiency, something that van der King was able to complement in her material choices. These included recycled material, VOC-free, 36-ounce minimum carpet tiles for interface carpeting. Brcko notes the high-occupancy rate at Westney Gardens is a tribute to the planning of the residence and van der King feels the retirement — and local — community has embraced it. “You want to feel that it is appropriate to that community and it feels relevant so people can connect with it.” 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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