St. Louis—In response to the growing demand for certified industry professionals, the National Wood Flooring Association ( NWFA) has launched NWFA Certified Professionals, a stand-alone corporation that will offer a variety of certification programs for the wood flooring industry. Installation certification with NWFA includes both a written exam and a hands-on exam. The written portion is a three-hour on-line exam that consists of questions based on the NWFA’s Hardwood Flooring Installation Guidelines. The exam is designed to identify an individual’s knowledge of wood flooring through a comprehensive review of installation processes.

The hands-on portion is a three-hour test designed to demonstrate technical mastery of wood flooring installa tion skills. Sand finish certification also includes both a written and hands-on exam. The three-hour on-line written exam is based on NWFA’s Hardwood Flooring Installation Guidelines. The exam is designed to identify an individual’s knowledge of wood flooring through a comprehensive review of sanding and finishing processes. The hands-on exam is designed to demonstrate technical mastery of wood flooring and finish skills. Inspector certification includes a written exam, a submission of five inspection reports to the NWFA Certified Professionals Panel for review.

The written exam consists of 360 multiple choice, true/false questions, that will test knowledge in five key areas: Substrates; Maintenance; Problems, Causes and Cures; Installation and Sand & Finish; and Report Procedures. The primary reference materials and study guides for the test questions include NWFA’s Hardwood Flooring Installation Guide-lines, NWFA technical publication No. C100 titled, “Maintenance and Recoating,” and the organization’s technical publication No. C200 titled, “Problems, Causes and Cures.” In addition, the exam includes two Inspection Report essay questions in which the applicant will be presented with two scenarios simulating a complaint to be inspected. The applicant is to review the scenarios and complete a full inspection report using the NWFA Standard Inspection Report form, which will be provided.

After confirmation is received that the written exam has been passed, the candidate is awarded “provisional” status an an NWFA Certified Inspector. This provisional status will remain in effect until the candidate has submitted five inspection reports to the NWFA Certified Professionals Panel for review. Once five reports are completed and approved, full NWFA Certified Inspector status is awarded. Additional certification programs currently are being developed for Factory Finished Installation, and Wood Flooring Sales. “The whole idea for this new organization is that it will live, breathe and sleep pushing these programs,” said NWFA’s executive director, Ed Korczak. “The organization has a separate board of directors, and is, in fact, a separate incorporated association. “The tests will be held all over the country,” he explained.

“Four times a year, we will work with six different distributors in four parts of the country, so they’re really held in 24 places a year. Costs vary from the sales at $100 to the installation sand and finish and factory finish at $200. The inspector program is $250. “Certification is only good for three years,” he added, “and during that three-year period you earn continuing education credits by going to school, so by the end of the three-year period we know you’ve always kept up with your craft. If you take a written test that proves to me you can talk the talk, but it’s only unless I see you demonstrate it that I know that you can walk the walk.”

Retail wood flooring veteran Joe Audino is the president of the new organization. Don Conner of Mullican is also a board member, as is Don Millard of Millwood Flooring, Rick Jones of Columbia Flooring and Steve Osterlind of Veritas Assessment Systems. “We’ve done this,” said Korczak, “to make sure the industry will continue to be served by professionals.” Additional certification programs are currently being developed for Factory Finished Installation and Wood Flooring Sales. For more about the NWFA’s Certification Programs, visit www.nwfa.org, and click on the Certification menu link, or call 800/422-4556. In other news, NWFA is accepting entries for its 2005 Wood Floor of the Year Contest. Based on member feedback from previous competitions, the contest has undergone some major changes.

The most significant change is in the categories eligible for the contest. All categories have been reorganized to reflect the changing nature of our industry, said Korczak, and the needs of the NWFA membership. The new categories include the following: Best Kitchen/Dining Room, Best Living Room/Family Room, Best Library/Office, Best Bedroom, Best Entry/Foyer, Best Commercial, and Best Restoration. Entries will be limited to a total of three per entrant, with individual floors eligible for one category only. As in recent years, judging will occur on-line prior to convention, and on-site during convention in Honolulu, Hawaii, from April 13 to 16. The deadline for this year’s contest is Feb. 1, 2005. For more information on NWFA and its Wood Floor of the Year contest, call 800/422-4556.