Economic Recovery? Not Yet.

Everyone is expecting tough economic conditions for building materials this winter. It seems to me that within the construction industry, the economy is getting slowly worse, not better. We are hearing about more people losing their jobs, and more companies going out of business.

We measure our web results very closely and this is an excellent indicator of how many people are actually looking for building materials within our main product sectors - Prefinished Flooring and Residential Hardwood Decking. We've been working hard on our web sites all year long. Our rankings on the search engines keep going up. But, our overall hits per day, week and month are relatively flat to slightly down. That's a bad sign. I think fewer people are looking for flooring and decking; fewer people are planning new remodeling projects; and, few people are building new homes.

So what do we do about it? We'll continue to push our marketing efforts as hard as we can.

1. We have a new flooring brand coming to market soon - this is very exciting for us and will be the first time we have attempted to push a branded product as opposed to generic, white box, no-name material. As soon as the new brand is officially released, I'll blog more. Can't wait for everyone to see the new logo.

2. We are working more Southeast Asian decking species into our mix - Our Nova Batu is a fantastic Red Balau / Dark Red Meranti product. We just completed brochures for this program and hope to soon establish distribution on the west coast to compliment our established east coast distributors. Nova Batu Decking

3. We'll continue to push our truck flooring programs with both direct sales and OEM sales. See our Trailer Decking page for more info.

Let's all hope that things start to improve for the construction industry by 1st Quarter 2010. Best of luck to everyone in this industry.

Wood Flooring - Nova Expands Oak, Birch and Acacia Hardwood Floors

Wood flooring is our specialty and we are pleased to announce that after almost one year of testing, our StoneWood Collection is here to stay. Based on the very best value in the industry, our StoneWood line consists of Acacia, Birch, Kempas and White Oak. We offer these products in a solid 3/4" thickness, and with selected options in engineered products for below grade applications.

Handscraped wood flooring is available in Acacia, Birch and White Oak. Our best seller year to date is by far the Acacia, but the latest product we added is handscraped Birch and we are anticipating the handscraped Birch to be even more popular than the Acacia due to its dramatically lower price point.

Here's a picture of the Birch Handscraped Honey, our best seller in the Birch line up:


Be sure to check out the web site for more details on these products. www.novausawood.com/stonewood-hardwood-flooring.aspx

Ipe Decking - Finishing Options

So you've just installed a brand new Ipe deck and you want to keep it looking beautiful, right? Finishing your deck with a high quality oil finish is the right choice, whether you want to preserve the beautiful rich red-brown color, or let it slowly gray or silver out.

There are a number of high quality oil finishes on the market today including: SuperDeck Duckback, Penofin, Mesmers and Extreme. We generally recommend SuperDeck Duckback in the Walnut color. The Walnut finish contains some pigment and will help preserve the color.

Even if you desire to let your Ipe decking fade to silver gray over time, you should still put an oil finish on the material. It will take a lot longer to fade to silver gray, but the oil finish will help prevent checking and cracking.

See our web page on Ipe decking for more information. Also, be sure to check out our installation guide.

Ipe Decking vs. Cumaru Decking

After working for several years promoting Cumaru decking, I think we finally are starting to make some progress. Ipe is a great species of wood and has proven itself as the best choice for exterior wood decking. Cumaru is a close second and costs about 20-30% less than Ipe.

Some of the key differences are highlighted in our new comparison page on www.novausawood.com - click here to go to the new Ipe vs. Cumaru comparison page.

In summary, even though Ipe has 90% of the tropical hardwood decking market in the U.S., we believe Cumaru will become a more popular choice over time. The key with Cumaru is that it must be kiln dried to 10-12% MC. It is similar in strength and durability and will provide a fantastic residential or commercial deck for many years to come.

Cumaru is in abundant supply from South America including Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru. We are expecting a strong supply of FSC - Forest Stewardship Council Certified material arriving by Fall 2009.

Patagonian Rosewood Flooring

Curupay, also known as Patagonian Rosewood Flooring, is one my favorite species. It has incredible strength properties, including a Janka Hardness rating of 3840 pounds. That's almost 300% harder than Red Oak.

See our Janka Hardness chart comparing all our popular hardwood flooring species. http://www.novausawood.com/woodhardness.aspx

Patagonian Rosewood is very sensitive to ultra violet rates and will darken on exposure. After installation, it is important to leave as much area as possible uncovered by rugs or carpets. The flooring will need a few months to darken.

We have recently begun adding a light red-brown stain to our Curupay flooring. We call this "Natural" and it effectively ages the product to its natural color. There will still be some darkening of the product after installation, but this new staining process will help the process and help protect the wood from extreme ultraviolet conditions which can eventually bleach out your flooring.

Modern windows are frequently coated with UV inhibitor or a thin film (typically made by 3M). This slows the natural darkening of the wood and can help to prevent bleaching. See 3M's Web Page about Residential Window Film for more information.

NWFA Preview

The annual NWFA, National Wood Flooring Association, trade show starts next week in beautiful southern California. We are hoping for great weather and a strong showing, despite recent economic conditions.

We will be introducing our Asian line of products: the Stonewood Collection. This collection includes Acacia, Asian Walnut; Birch; and White Oak - all available in a number of stains in both solid and engineered formats. We are excited about this new product line and have already had excellent feedback from many of our customers.

Acacia is by far the most popular of these new products, followed by our Asian Teak stained, handscraped White Oak. Please give us a call for more information:
Western US Flooring - Mike Bennett 503.419.6407
Eastern US Flooring - John McGlocklin 206.501.4432

Whack-A-Mole! Management Philosophy

Have you ever worked for a company where aspiring mid-level and senior managers are constantly being undermined by those above them? How about a boss or owner that routinely criticizes senior managers in front of middle managers? If so, you may have been working at a company that actively practices "Whack-A-Mole" Management Philosophy.



Let's say you come up with a great idea - maybe a better way to report cost accounting on a monthly basis. You go to your senior manager and he says, "I can't do anything without the owner's approval - and you know he won't give it." So, you go to the owner after hours and present your idea. The boss-man says, "Great idea, let's see your proposal in writing. And by the way, please give me a written analysis of all the ways in which we could improve the work of this senior manager..."

So you do as asked - big mistake - and turn in your report to the big boss-man. The boss then confronts the senior manager; whacking him squarely on the head. Then, of course, the senior manager strategically whacks you on the head as well, probably in front of the other senior managers and not with you in the room. You've burned the bridge, son. Time to find another place to work.

Yes, this happened to me. Undermining your direct manager is rarely a good idea. If the company in which you work practices "Whack-A-Mole" management, be especially careful.

Another common form of "Whack-A-Mole" is the classic management meeting during which a lot of good ideas are thrown around the room, maybe even written up on a whiteboard. One by one, the boss knocks down the ideas. Maybe he even takes a few shots at an employee's lack of experience or recent poor decisions. Anything he can do to put you down just enough so you know who's really in charge. You've been whacked; maybe whacked gently, but whacked none-the-less.