{"id":41,"date":"2017-03-08T00:08:40","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T05:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/?p=41"},"modified":"2017-03-08T00:09:49","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T05:09:49","slug":"march-madness-5-17-in-the-hardwood-flooring-industry-from-brazilian-direct-ltd-by-dan-cosgrove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/march-madness-5-17-in-the-hardwood-flooring-industry-from-brazilian-direct-ltd-by-dan-cosgrove\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness 2017 in the hardwood flooring Industry – Brazilian Direct Ltd. by Dan Cosgrove."},"content":{"rendered":"

March Madness (#5) 2017 from Brazilian Direct Ltd.\u00a0by Dan Cosgrove. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in Philadelphia, I loved to compete. \u00a0As a kid we played four sports per year. \u00a0In the 80\u2019s my high school, Cardinal O\u2019Hara, had 1000 per class. We were raised with core values\u00a0which included honesty, loyalty, integrity and respect.\u00a0I\u00a0continue to live my business and personal life with this solid foundation. \u00a0Cheating was never an option.<\/p>\n

My favorite saying, I adopted while playing college football, was and continues to be \u00a0\u201cit\u2019s not that I love to win, it\u2019s that I hate to lose\u201d.<\/p>\n

I always love this time of the year (Spring) & the NCAA tournament and all it stands for. \u00a0March Madness is the norm and I look forward to the best tournament in College sports.<\/p>\n

This madness, however, is not unique to college basketball; such madness is also present in the hardwood flooring industry.<\/p>\n

Since my 1st March Madness blog 4 year ago, we find the hardwood flooring industry in a far worse situation.\u00a0Competitors have resorted to cheating for corporate profits and greed.\u00a0 It has shocked everyone and left thousands of homeowner and their families in harm\u2019s way.\u00a0CBS Anderson Cooper reported (2 x) on these dangerous, cost-cutting, manufacturing practices. \u00a0\u00a0Economic change is inevitable in any market and the last five years have been difficult for the USA economy.\u00a0 Although our economy is starting to recover.<\/p>\n

We live in a marketing age full of Lumber Liquidators and Empire Today ads. Liquidators have misled many into believing Select Grade* (a low grade) is the best grade\u00a0and is comparable to Clear. Empire Today promotes next day installation while, in reality, 95% of all\u00a0quality \u00be\u201d hardwood flooring should acclimate in the house for\u00a01 or 2 weeks prior to installation – Really!<\/p>\n

Moreover, imports from China (dried to 10-12% not 7-8%) with random lengths from 1-4 feet have become commonplace and increasingly popular. Such short board lengths often results in a choppy, overly systematic, and jigsaw puzzle-esque floor that belies the natural\u00a0and beautiful appearance that\u00a0used\u00a0to be the very quintessence of hardwood flooring.\u00a0Indeed, solid Clear Grade 3\/4\u201d flooring with long random lengths 1-7 feet has been compromised replaced with 5\/16\u201d \u2013 3\/8\u201d or even 1\/2\u201d or Formica floors with lengths 1-4 feet.<\/p>\n

I stress that not all homes can be treated equal when it comes to hardwood installation.<\/p>\n

A house in Florida must be treated very different from a house in Massachusetts; while FL has year-round warm weather, MA floors are exposed to a six month, hot forced air heating season from HVAC systems.<\/p>\n

Yet these factors \u2013 and many others such as application, geographic region, and grade \u2013 are often neglected and flooring is installed on the sole criterion of price. While this may be cost-efficient and convenient in the short-run,<\/p>\n

it is much less certain whether this flooring format will last or IF such floors should be installed in the first place.<\/p>\n

Finally, Floating & Click floors with paltry .06 mm, 1.0 mm, 1.6mm up to 3.0mm face (thickness of wood on the top) that are designed for below grade or over concrete, are being installed 1st<\/sup>\u00a0& 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0floor and could literally fail in less than 3-5 years.<\/p>\n

Lower prices and uniform-across-the-country installation methodology is appealing but did anyone ever ask the consumer\u00a0IF\u00a0<\/strong>he\/she actually wanted the flooring to work?<\/p>\n

Can someone please provide sound advice and stop the madness?<\/p>\n

Brazilian Direct Ltd. Exceeding customer expectation since 2002, we are here to help with 30 years experience!<\/p>\n

Mill Direct Premium Exotic Hardwood Flooring, Lumber and Decking<\/p>\n

www.brazilianhardwood.com<\/a><\/p>\n

danc@brazilianhardwood.com<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.houzz.com\/browseReviews\/braziliandirect\/brazilian-direct-ltd<\/a><\/p>\n

55 ^ 5 Star Reviems on Houzz ( Great Photos )<\/p>\n

Cosgrove\u2019s Profile-Bio<\/strong><\/p>\n

1983-1987 Minwax Dura Seal Division East Coast Sales Manager<\/p>\n

1987-1994 Duron Paints<\/p>\n

1994-1999 Basic Coatings Regional Sales Manager<\/p>\n

2000-2002 WFI Wood Flooring International WFI National Sales Manager<\/p>\n

2002 Present \/ President Owner Brazilian Direct Ltd.<\/p>\n

Dan Cosgrove, President\u00a0<\/span>
Brazilian Direct Ltd.\u00a0<\/span>
Direct line 888-452-8622 x 107<\/span>
888-246-1964 (FAX)\u00a0<\/span>


danc@brazilianhardwood.com<\/a>
www.brazilianhardwood.com\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March Madness (#5) 2017 from Brazilian Direct Ltd.\u00a0by Dan Cosgrove. \u00a0 Growing up in Philadelphia, I loved to compete. \u00a0As a kid we played four sports per year. \u00a0In the 80\u2019s my high school, Cardinal O\u2019Hara, had 1000 per class. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44,"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brazilianhardwood.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}