Moral of this story:
At Thomas Benjamin our client’s concerns are our concerns, and we are willing and capable of going the extra mile for our clients!
Disaster Averted in Dallas
European oil finishes have seen stellar growth in the US market the past few years, chiefly for the beautiful low-gloss look they give. One often-overlooked advantage of certain types of oil-finished floors is their ability to be easily re-coated and even color-corrected, and for one very important client this was the difference between a complete disaster and a successful project.
One of our clients, a large nation-wide retailer, ordered and installed about 6000 sq ft of a hand-distressed oil-finished white oak floor in a very light, natural color. The installation was directly adjoining an existing floor that had been in place several years and was stained a medium brown-red color. Then came the panicked phone call: The buyer had made a mistake; the new floor was supposed to have been ordered to match the existing floor. This area of the store was due to reopen in three weeks, and they were faced with tearing out, re-prepping and re-installing all 6000 sq ft. And we would be asked to make the custom-milled and custom-colored floor in about two weeks. All doable, but extremely costly and stressful.
New floor on top. Looks great, right? WRONG!
The wrong floor was ordered - it should have looked like the floor on the bottom!
Big Problem!
“Hold on”, we said, “There might be another solution. We think the floor can be re-oiled to nudge it to the correct color. Maybe not an exact match, but at least a coordinating color”. The client replied that an exact match wasn’t required, they’d be thrilled with a coordinating color.
This really was a great way to showcase the flexibility and re-coatability of oil-finished floors. We pulled a couple of planks of production retain (we keep retains for all production runs for three years), lightly abraded with a red pad, mixed up a custom batch of Rubio Monocoat Hardwax Oil and applied the oil to the planks.
We sent these samples to the client in Dallas, where they laid them on the existing floor and phoned us with a slight color-correction. That day we made another sample incorporating their suggestions and overnighted to them for approval. This was now the third day since the problem was discovered, and the client already had in their hands the second-generation samples for the proposed solution. The voice on the other end of the line this time was noticeably more relaxed: samples approved!
We sent a list of necessary supplies and equipment and personnel to the flooring contractor, and a date was set. Thomas Benjamin sent several liters of the custom oil mix out by FedEx Ground and Mark Summitt, the owner of Thomas Benjamin, flew to Dallas the next week to supervise the transformation. One of the difficulties in working partial-remodel projects in retail locations is that the jobsite is typically only available when the store is closed, in this case from 10pm until about 6am. All parties met at the store at 10pm.
Custom oil mix by Thomas Benjamin
The process was simple: lightly abrade with a low-speed floor buffer and a red pad, buff in the new oil with a white pad, and dry it off with terry towels under the white pad. By 5am we were all finished. Complete color transformation of 6000 sq ft in about 7 hours, including training and testing and without sanding and without any objectionable odors (very important in the middle of a functioning retail store). The floor was able to be walked on the next day and was fully cured a couple of days later.
Disaster averted!
Yet another example of why Thomas Benjamin Architectural Flooring is a rather unique wood flooring company.
We at Thomas Benjamin are part of your team.
Your concerns are our concerns.
Your problems are our problems.
Your success is our success!
