Today’s hardwood floors are vastly superior to those made in years past, so that’s one thing to consider before you take on a hardwood floor refinishing project.  Is the old floor worth it? Are you doing this to save time, money, or do you just love your old wood floor?

If it’s an issue of wanting to save money and you’re planning to have your hardwood flooring professionally refinished, the cost might be similar dependent on who performs the work. And you’ll want someone reputable, because the mess created by sanding and refinishing hardwood floors can remain in a home forever.

Tiny sawdust particles, finish chemicals and dirt permeate the air and if not properly removed can coat everything in your home. It’s nearly impossible to remove all of it, but there are companies who do a better job than others and the better ones will be higher on the price scale.

If you’re refinishing hardwood yourself, consider the above paragraph and get ready to encase the entire space in plastic, in addition to having a tedious project that could last days to weeks.

If you have the time, patience, tools and know-how, this could be a project that doesn’t concern you. But if you’re a casual weekend warrior, think carefully before you tackle this project and plan even more carefully.

If you’re planning to do the work yourself or even if you’re not, while a new hardwood floor will likely cost you more, it might not cost you that much more. You also get a better floor with a brand new warranty, superior manufacturer finish and if you like, one that will never have to be sanded and refinished.

The combination of floor manufacturing technology and the internet have made it so these floors are less expensive to produce, easier to install and less expensive. While at one time it could cost thousands upon thousands to replace a wood floor (and it still can), you can now install a new hardwood floor in an average sized room for under one thousand dollars. It’s an option to consider before beginning as large a project as hardwood floor refinishing.

Try not only to compare the actual costs, but also the amount of time it will take, if that time has a value to you, the benefits of having a new floor vs. an old floor, and whether or not it’s worth an extra minimal investment to have a manufacturer backed warranty and superior manufacturer applied surface protectant.

Will it cost more to get a new floor? Perhaps, but perhaps not. If you’re willing to install it yourself (which is much easier than sanding and refinishing a hardwood floor), then it might cost you about the same. You can buy new hardwood on the internet for a fraction of what it used to cost, so if it ends up costing around the same, the decision should be a pretty simple one.

Either way Mike has become a very salient and proud voice about the value of trade skills and classic good ‘ole hard work in an era filled with a culture pushing people to do less and less real work and rely on the government more and more.

Mike tell’s the best stories and makes the most compelling arguments about hard work and why there is extraordinary value in skilled labor for the individual who learns the trade and why there is such a critical need for it to make our world to go ’round. To check out his new site go here: www.mikeroweworks.com

For the official press release read below:

Mike Rowe Is No Expert, But He Knows Where to Find Them

After being an apprentice on nearly 300 dirty jobs, Mike Rowe is still no expert, but he sure knows where to find them. In 2008, Mike launched mikeroweWORKS, a website dedicated to championing the cause of hard workers and reinvigorating the skilled trades.  Since then, mrW has provided resources, news, and a community forum for folks from all kinds of trades. Now, with the launch of the Trades Hub, the goals of mrW can be expanded even further and across many more website portals.

Think of Trade Hubs as a “first cousin” to mrW. With this new platform, we’ll be able to pull together even more experts from such diverse trade fields as construction, plumbing, landscaping, manufacturing, machinery and HVAC just to name a few.

Here’s what you can look for at the Trades Hub:

More High Quality Content: The mrW Trades Hub will be pulling together all kinds of blogs, articles and news stories relating to the trades, by the trades and for the trades. They will be updated throughout the day.

One Stop Shop: With an easy to navigate site, users will be able to quickly source out those areas of interest that appeal to them on any given day. The links will take them right to where they want to go without sorting through all kinds of search engine pages for the right site.

Finding the Diamond in the Rough: When you consider the millions of new pages and posts uploaded across the internet everyday it’s hard to find the best representations for your interests. Trade Hubs takes internet searching to the next level by identifying those popular blog and websites that might normally go unnoticed if you’re not a regular subscriber.

Building Up the Trades Community: “The skills gap is a real concern that’s getting more worrisome every day.  Fewer skilled tradesmen in the workforce will affect us all.  Younger folks need to have a better understanding of how they can benefit from learning a trade, and parents need to encourage their kids to consider this worthwhile and important path.  mrW strives to reinvigorate the trades.  The mrW Trades Hub will help us in that effort.”

mikeroweWORKS would like to thank Tony Karrer with assistance from John Sonnhalter for their efforts in getting the Trades Hub up and running.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

They rightly point out that this is not about made in the USA vs. made in China. In fact this is a battle “pitting American flooring distributors against one another, as manufacturer-owned companies seeking the duties face off with independent firms.”

To read the full story go here: ENGINEERED FLOORING DUTY at WALL STREET JOURNAL

What this chart doesn't show is that the complaining US companies are buying alot of the Chinese wood and reselling it, therefore they haven't lost as much market share as this production chart indicates. Even the WSJ can make mistakes

Lately furniture has been getting absolutley hammered by the recession. Industry insiders often lament that the category is down 50%, some even say 70%, from it’s peak time. Of course the peak was driven by an unsustainable bubble, but it certainly has been a struggle for the furniture business.

Today more and more furniture is becoming something that is both affordable and fashionable. Instead of shopping at IKEA for a coffee table that will require 6 hours of assembly, although costs the same as a pack of gum, you can buy solid wood tables with zero assembly or light assembly that takes minutes for a very reasonable price.

Additionally around the world people are looking to the United States more and more often to see what fashions are driving buying in that key country. New York and Los Angeles often lead the fashionistas in the USA so it’s natural that inspiration emanates from there.

A very cool furniture website driving by these trends is called NYLAFurniture.com. The sleek selection and very attractive prices topped by the FREE SHIPPING on orders over a certain $$ amount make it a very interesting choice for furniture. The Outdoor Furniture selection was very nice and worth a visit in the spring time!

An with the exception of the outdoor selections it seems clear that furniture will be mixed with flooring in 99.8% of homes. That other .02% has decided that they don’t want furniture obstructing the beauty of their new flooring.

Outdoor furniture is extra exciting during the Spring!

Started as soley Bamboo flooring factory, Gala Manufacturing has grown into a full line flooring company. Gala has solid bamboo, engineered bamboo, strand bamboo, engineered hardwood, laminate flooring and furniture production facilities.

What’s more is that the solid bamboo carrying the Gala brand are 100% FSC certified and the engineered bamboo flooring is Mixed FSC Certified. Gala is unique because they own tons of forestry in China that is also FSC certified as well which means the raw materials of bamboo and the production process including the chain of custody have been certified by the FSC organization.

As a quick introduction we are including a video of the bamboo flooring process presented by Gala Manufacturing which is a nice summary of the process involved.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

gala manufacturing flooring and furniture brand logo featuring hardwood, lamiante, bamboo, cork and all kinds of furniture.

*This was not a paid placement – just a shout out about several really interesting new products from what seems to be a very high quality manufacturer. Here are some of our favorite collections:

http://www.galamanufacturing.com/Flooring/Stonewood

http://www.galamanufacturing.com/Flooring/New-Beginnings

http://www.galamanufacturing.com/Flooring/Natures-Choice

http://www.galamanufacturing.com/Flooring/Meadow-Park

Although end users of flooring don’t often see the direct cost of gas, freight is a big cost that is factored every time the flooring materials are moved. This doesn’t just include getting the flooring from a retailer to the end user, but every part of the raw materials before and during production, post production, distribution and ultimately to your local retailers like Home Depot, Lowes or flooring distributors. Every time the flooring is moved a layer of cost is added.

It has been calculated that as much as 25% of the flooring cost is the multiple layers of freight and that was during times when gas was less than $3.00 per gallon. More importantly that is an average impact. On lower cost flooring like laminate or entry level products the proportions are even higher – as much as 50%. Now with diesel fast approaching $5.00 per gallon one can only wonder that that will do the the cost of your flooring.

If you are looking to buy flooring anytime during 2011 it is recommended that you take a immediate look to lock in today’s rates before inflation at every level pushes the prices higher and higher.

However after having the opportunity to study flooring purchases from hundred of thousands of shoppers covering hundreds of millions of feet of floors there is a stark reality: MORE THAN 40% of PEOPLE DO NOT GET A RUG DESPITE ALL OF THE BENEFITS.

Firstly new flooring is beautiful, but rugs enhance that beauty they don’t detract.

Secondly rugs offer some protection to some of those new floors and can be a perfect accent.

And third – rugs are really affordable! This is the dirty little secret that people don’t fully realize. Rugs are much more affordable than you think.

In a blind study when 5 rugs are put in front of consumers the prices that consumer guess for the rugs is often 2 times more than they really are in some cases 20x more. That’s right they guess the rug retail is $4,000 and it is closer to $200.

Part of the reason is because high quality rugs are available online for lower and lower costs. In the old days if you walk into Macy’s for a rug you could expect to pay $2,000 – $4,000. However, today those exact same rugs which are still priced like that in Macys and other retail stores can be found online at discounters like ONLINE AREA RUGS at a fraction of the price because they have low overhead and direct ship from rug warehouses to homes, offices, hotels or wherever the customer requires.

Because of this massive shift toward consumer choice you have the ability to change rugs every few years instead of thinking of them as heirlooms.

We do want to be clear that there are still heirloom quality rugs and a very high end niche available in the market, but it is such a tiny fraction of the market it isn’t worth wasting time talking about. That segment is basically crazy rich people who want something totally unique and part of the story is that they paid $150,000 for this rug. That same rug could be custom made with the same exact specification for 90% less if someone wanted to.

So the question is why haven’t you found a perfect rug or replaced that ratty rug from a couple years ago. It’s easier than you think. By the way, rugs are great to give as gifts. Your friends or family will appreciate the lasting beauty and immediate impact of adding a rug to their home. And you don’t have to tell them the rug they think cost you $2000.00 – was only $400 – with Free Shipping and No tax.  ;)

I normally don’t depart from flooring topics, but this time I believe it is worth sharing this great video. Take a listen.

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