Exhibitors at TISE 2020’s NWFA Pavilion Pick Their Top Products

Exhibitors who showed their products at the National Wood Flooring Association’s pavilion in Las Vegas in January showcased everything from hardwood planks and plywood to moldings and coatings.

Here we’ve asked those exhibitors to choose the product they’re most excited about. So if you didn’t make it by the Pavilion—or did but would like the opportunity to jog your memory about that coating you meant to remember or manufacturer’s name and product you intended to jot down—well here’s your chance.

To see product images and info from all the exhibitors listed, take a glance at the special wood section of the TISE 2020 Lookbook.

Hardwood

California manufacturer Aged Wide Floors manufactures and delivers engineered flooring direct to the customer. They singled out their Designer Collection for special notice. The European Oak planks are offered in two grades and three widths: 7-1/2,” 8-5/8,” and 9-1/2.” Customers can choose any of the company’s best-selling colors, like the very on-trend Vintage Grey, or work with the manufacturer to create a custom color.

Chevron flooring is the brand new offering from Ashawa Bay Hardwood Floors, located in the heart of Minnesota’s Northwoods. It is available in any of the species the company produces, and in custom lengths and widths. The Chevron flooring is offered as square edge or microbevel, unfinished or prefinished. Ashawa Bay uses tongue and groove milling on its Chevron for simple assembly.

HARO Quality Flooring, Germany’s leading engineered wood flooring manufacturer, nominates its supersized PLAZA plank in smoked oak as its featured product in a special width and length: 9.5” x 86.” PLAZA’s smoked and deep brushed surface and natural oil finish give the floor a unique look, according to Matthias Menzel, HARO’S North American sales director. PLAZA in a plank size of 9.5” x 86” radiates an incredible sense of calm, and creates a more generous impression of space.

Quebec-based Mercier Wood Flooring gives the nod to its brand new Atmosphere Collection, which features wood boards enhanced with a light veil of color in neutral beige, taupe and gray tones—all while letting the true texture and grain of the wood reveal itself. The collection is available on Red Oak, White Oak, Maple and Hickory on both engineered and solid platforms. Consumers can choose from a wide array of board widths between 3 1/4’’ and 8 1/8” and a choice of four colors. The Atmosphere Collection is also offered in Herringbone.

Reliance Hardwood Flooring names its Rift & Quarter Sawn White Oak Engineered Flooring, Character Grade, as it top pick. Engineered flooring widths available include 4”, 5”, 6”, 7”, and 8,” with lengths ranging from 1’ to 10.’ Rift and quarter sawn flooring features unique wood grain, with flecking and tiger stripe patterns. Beyond the look, engineered rift and quarter sawn white oak offers superior dimensional stability.

Sheoga Hardwood Flooring & Paneling spotlights its Live Sawn White Oak, one of the company’s newest product offerings, as an MVP in the lineup. It is available unfinished or prefinished, and in solid or ¾” engineered with a 5.25mm wear layer.

The Live Sawn cut is a more modern method compared to traditional plainsawn or even quartered/rift cut. Each hardwood plank is cut straight off the log with no change to the log’s cutting angle which, in return, features longer knot structures and a full range of plainsawn, quartered and rift cut all in one.

Underlayment

Crystal Hardwood selects its Baltic birch plywood as its top pick. The company’s plywood meets the highest requirements of engineered flooring manufacturers. All boards comes with +/-0.2 or +/-0.3 tolerance and moisture of <10 %.  Custom board thicknesses are available. All material is CARB2/TSCA certified.

Fortifiber couldn’t just choose one and gave a shout-out to a pair of products: FortiBoard, its 100% recyclable heavy-duty floor protection boards; and Aquabar B, its industry standard vapor retarder for wood floors, which meets California’s stringent indoor air quality requirements.

Stains & Finishes

Basic Coatings singles out its new HyperTone stains as its top pick. HyperTone uses a proprietary wood/oil hybrid technology to deliver great color penetration and depth, with all the benefits of a water-based stain. It is available in 14 standard colors, including primary colors, and can be mixed and matched for custom colors.

Waterlox nominates its new H2OLOX finish for its depth of finish coupled with a low-odor VOC-compliant formulation. The new finish provides everything contractors looked for in the original coupled with an eco-friendly formula. There are four sheens to choose from: matte, satin, semi-gloss, and gloss.

Moldings

Samaya’s Wood Floor Molding highlights its Perfect Match square stair tread and stair nosing, custom made to customers’ specs, as its top pick.

When owner Nima Chiring couldn’t find a great floor and stair molding manufacturer to meet his need for a quality product, he started his own company, and named it for his daughter Samaya. The company also produces all the standard solid wood molding profiles—bullnose, square nose, reducers, threshold and T-moldings—finished and ready to integrate into customers’ flooring projects, no matter the size.

Tools

SaveMyFlooring.com's Mark Imbrock brought his company’s thermo-hygrometer to TISE 2020 touting the small device’s big capacity to save flooring manufacturers and installers a lot of hassle. Touted as a giveaway to customers to help them ensure they’re keeping their home’s humidity levels at the correct level to protect their new floors, the hygrometer is an inexpensive means for contractors to protect themselves from callbacks.

“It certainly cuts down on replacement costs, and has a nice PR value, since it can be branded with the company’s name,” Imbrock says. “Most contractors give the customers the hygrometer, and bake the cost of the hygrometer into the cost of the job,” he says.