We often get visitors to our showroom because they’ve heard good things about us from homeowners we’ve served.
When they arrive, they’re sometimes surprised to learn that residential isn’t all that we do. We’ve been doing commercial hardwood floor installation and maintenance for years—in restaurants, office buildings, clubhouses, churches, gymnasiums, and more.
This is important for our residential customers because innovations in commercial hardwood flooring drive residential innovations. Our commercial experience prepares us to offer homeowners the same technology that’s been developed for commercial use.
Two recent examples are the use of Ultraviolet finishes and natural oil finishes in homes.
Ultraviolet (UV) Finishing
On-site UV finishing is an emerging technology that many commercial customers love because the finish cures immediately under the ultraviolet light, sparing them the typical wait of one to four weeks for traditional finishes to fully cure.
Similarly, many homeowners want to avoid delays or disruptions. This desire, combined with developments in portable UV equipment, has led to the spread of UV finishing to residential flooring.
We offer UV finishing, and we expect to see increasing demand for it as more and more people realize it’s an option for their home. Not only is it fast, it’s durable, ecofriendly, and visually appealing to many people’s tastes.
Natural Oil Finishing
Natural oil finishes are made from plant oils, with no chemicals involved. That means that once a hardwood floor is finished with natural oil the first time, it’s not dangerous for anyone to apply more of the oil. And it doesn’t take a trained hardwood floor professional to make it look good—it just blends in.
For commercial floors, maintenance or custodial crews can simply apply natural oil to floors as needed to keep them looking sharp—without even having to clear out rooms!
Homeowners can enjoy the same convenience, keeping their floors looking new without having to move any furniture or hire a professional.
By no means, however, is easy upkeep the only reason why natural oil finishes are growing in popularity. Homeowners are also drawn by the greenness of the technique and by its distinctive appearance. “Cool” is a reaction we often get when we show samples of how natural oil finishes look.
An Exciting Future
To best serve our customers, we need to offer them the full range of options available. To do that, we have to stay on the cutting edge, and there’s no question that our commercial work keeps us there.
I expect many more innovations in coming years, and I must say I’m looking forward to it. Since Ralph’s was founded in 1965, we’ve always stayed on top of the latest techniques and materials, and that’s one of the things I love about the job.
Photo courtesy of Travis Estell. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
