Article Number : 706 |
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| Date | 11/18/2005 9:12:55 AM |
| Written By | LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services |
| View this article at: | //floorbiz.com/BizResources/NPViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=706 |
| Abstract | Hicksville, N.Y.—With increasing frequency, a growing number of hardwood flooring manufacturers have decided to go the way of laminate firms by offering glueless products... |
| Article | Hicksville, N.Y.—With increasing frequency, a growing number of hardwood flooring manufacturers have decided to go the way of laminate firms by offering glueless products. While glue-down products still represent the majority of installations in the wood flooring segment, and while glueless wood has yet to match the growth of its laminate counterpart, there are no doubt more mills are gauging the interest of industry pros by offering glueless wood to the marketplace. Harro Jakel, CEO of PanTim Wood Products and vice president of Nordstar Hardwood Flooring, said, PanTim’s 5/8-in. glueless hardwood product, called Great Northern, which is available in both longstrip and wide plank, is currently doing “well in certain markets, not at all [well] in other markets. So it, the glueless wood product, has its selected markets in the U.S. where they are acceptable, which is mostly in Midwest and on the West Coast, and a little in the Gulf States.” One of the reasons for the success of glueless wood flooring in certain areas, Jackel noted, has to do with radiant heating. “Wherever there is radiant heat, kind of a floating floor is preferred. And that leads into the glueless systems.” In the coming years, Jakel sees glueless wood flooring going into more areas of the country. “More installers who are comfortable with the glueless laminates will move over to the glueless wood products. And, because there is always a certain installation risk factor for the manufacturer, the mill’s driving to take the risk out of the product’s installation.” Jakel said, in certain jobs, especially in the contract market, installers prefer the glueless systems. “It has fewer callbacks for the contractor. There are several things that can go wrong with a glue-down. It just lends itself to doing a better job.” According to Dennis Mohn, vice president of marketing and sales for Alloc, regarding the company’s glueless wood product, “we have got some distributors who are do ing very well with it. Because of this, we just expanded our warehouse 75,000 square feet so we can bring in more inventory. “The response we have gotten so far,” he added, “has been positive.” Unlike glueless laminate, however, there has not been any patent issues with glueless wood flooring. “Once the installer sees how easy working with glueless wood flooring is, they like it,” he explained. “The newer technologies go together a lot better.” John Patterson, Scandian’s vice president of sales/marketing, North America, said the company has just purchased a license from Unilin for the Uniclic locking system. “We will be debuting it on engineered wood product by Surfaces. “If you had been at Domotex five years ago,” he explained, “you’d have seen a minute amount of glueless sold. All of a sudden, it has emerged. The year before last at the show, almost every company had a glueless floating wood floor. Europe has led this technology on laminate to wood and now, it is moving here.” Another point Patterson noted is, if someone wants to glue it, they still can but you have the locking mechanism to hold the boards so they don’t move around. It is another major advantage to glueless.” Another company involved with glueless wood flooring is Weyerhaeuser, which just launched 24 decorative options in engineered flooring for all applications. The company’s engineered flooring combines the beauty of solid hardwood, yet provides both a “click” lock along with a factory applied, fusion set adhesive system for a faster and higher quality installation, noted Mike Downing, the manufacturer’s manager for industrial and flooring segments, North America. In describing the patented system, he explained, “One adhesive actually bonds to another. The floor actually floats on the subfloor but it is locked together. “We’ve seen glueless wood flooring grow considerably in the last two years since we started,” he concluded. “I think it’s going to be a growing trend once people find out that it does, in fact, work just as it has in Europe.” |