Top Companies Lean in and Embrace Change

One thing all companies at the top of their game have in common is the ability to anticipate and adapt to change.

Whether it’s new technology, new methods or materials, style trends, consumer expectations, or changes in the business landscape, top companies lean in and react quickly. These 2022 National Wood Flooring Association Wood Floor of the Year (WFOY) awardees are great examples.

The winner of WFOY’s 2022 Best Use of Technology award, Czar Floors, a designer and producer of floor medallions, borders, custom inlay, and decorative flooring, has long been a standout for innovative craftsmanship and design in flooring installations as well as technology innovation.

“Innovation was our approach from the foundation of our business in 2004,” explained Edward Tsvilik, co-founder of Czar Floors. “When my business partner, Val Platonov, and I first got involved with floor inlays, our goal was to improve on them and make floor decorations more affordable and accessible.”

For its 2022 winning application, Czar Floors utilized special CNC equipment designed and fabricated in-house to create a uniquely curved staircase and adjacent curved walls. “The pattern on the floor is a simple continuous basketweave pattern made from Ash and Rift and Quarter Sawn White Oak,” Tsvilik said. “But nothing was straight in the room; every wall had a curve to it.”

“The CNC router has many advantages over laser cutting, which used to be the industry standard. We built a CNC router in-house and designed it so that it was able to shape curves and carve very precise corners. Later on, we added multiple router heads and were able to increase productivity six-fold.”

Other technology keeping Czar Floors at the top of their game includes a Leica geo-system laser scanner that does the job of paper templates. The scanner can scan an entire room and generate a very precise auto cad. What once took weeks of time is done in half an hour, according to Tsvilik.

In addition to advances in equipment technology, Tsvilik spoke about the impact the internet and social media have had on the flooring industry. “Floor customers are generally not repeating customers. Virtually all our clientele comes to us online, mainly through visual platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram.”

Brett Miller, V.P. of Technical Standards, Training, & Certification at NWFA, also remarked on the impact of social media. “What we produce is very visually stimulating, so the ability for businesses to market themselves through story-telling, videos, and photos has opened up almost unlimited resource for business owners, as well as consumers,” he said.

The WFOY 2022 Best Staircase award was earned by Woodwright Hardwood Floor Company. Woodwright’s winning staircase was designed by Corgan Architects for the Keurig Dr. Pepper headquarters in Dallas. “The design team wanted the look of 6” beam treads but in a very contemporary style. We produced an engineered floor plank with a 4mm lamella (top wear layer) that was resawn from our typical edge grain tread blanks,” said Rick Farrell, architect and design consultant at Woodwright.

THE PROJECT INVOLVED A LARGE, ODD-SHAPED CURVED STAIRCASE WITH ADJACENT CURVED WALLS. CZAR FLOORS FIRST MADE A GIANT PAPER TEMPLATE OF THE ENTIRE AREA. ALL MITERING PARQUET PRE-CUT WAS DONE AT THE FACTORY TO ENSURE SIMPLE INSTALLATION. THE LABELED SEGMENTS WITH AN INSTALLATION MAP WERE PROVIDED TO THE JOBSITE.

The staircase was produced using Rift and Quartered White Oak which then translated to a plain sawn butcher block effect. The hollow box tread components were shop finished and installed over an elaborate steel structure, incorporating a massive steel shoe to house the glass railing. Woodwright custom fabricated, shop finished, and installed over 100 treads, each containing over 10 parts.

Watch NWFA’s Video Describing More About this Floor.

Farrell noted that flooring companies are challenged to stay on top of evolving industry demands such as the shift to pre-finished products. “Short construction schedules were the primary catalyst for this shift,” he said. “Over time, we have found a niche in the commercial flooring world, working directly for general contractors whose construction schedules are often very tight. A site-finished floor takes twice as much time as a pre-finished floor. This shift opened the market for other custom prefinished applications, such as walls, ceilings, tiered seating, and stairs as well,” he added.

Farrell pointed out that the growing importance of sustainability and escalating client demands for sustainability creds is another trend. “In the commercial world, LEED and other sustainability requirements are becoming more and more important,” he said. We need to bring products to the table that offer sustainability credits. Fortunately, we saw this trend coming and embraced it early on.”

NWFA’s Miller spoke about several other cutting-edge technologies also impacting the industry, including automated manufacturing robotics equipment and species identification tools that enable U.S. Border Patrol and Customs agents to identify lumber and flooring types, as well as their sources.