Whitney's May Deal of the Month!

Urban Floor's Cascade Series now on sale at Wichita Wood Floor Specialists!

Video on how to Properly Maintain your Wood Floors

Below is a short video with Wichita Wood Floor Specialists' Whitney and Rachel, providing quick tips on how to properly take care of your wood floors.  We hope you enjoy it and learn something new!

How to Find Trust Worthy Contractors

The Remodeling Industry has a definite stigma when it comes to trustworthy contractors.  It seems that they are few and far between... or so most people think!  Thankfully there are several small businesses that are locally owned and take great pride in their name and reputation!  If you ever do find a trustworthy contractor, ask them who they would recommend for your different projects. Usually, contractors who hold a higher integrity, tend to work or have relationships with other contractors who hold the same standards.

Another good way to find a trustworthy contractor would be to find someone who is certified for their industry. In the flooring industry here in Kansas, it is not state law to be certified. Any person can come up with a business name, some tools and convince others they are a professional floor refinisher, installer, etc. It is very simple to pull pictures off of the internet and show them as "jobs completed". I have even heard of family/friends pretending to be past customers as referral sources of these fly by night, rent-a-tool contractors. We are a small business and do not have a huge marketing budget. However, where we do spend the extra dollars is training and learning so our work will speak for itself. It is hard to believe with all of the wood floor companies popping up and appearing on internet searches, that we are still the only company certified through the National Wood Floor Association for installation, sanding and refinishing, as well as wood floor sales!

There is usually some sort of association with any industry. Research to see if your new contractor is a member, but then even take it a step further to see if they are certified by the association. Remember nobody must be certified normally, however the few that take the time to take the classes and then physically prove their standards to become certified are usually the people you want in your home working on your projects.

Reviews, reviews, reviews. Do your due diligence and research how others have reviewed the company. Type in the company's name and "reviews" into a couple of different search engines to see what you come up with. Don't always trust the reviews on their actual business website either. I was on a business' website last night that I have been hearing several complaints about for the past few years because of their craftsmanship and customer service. According to their "reviews" listed on their website, they have over 300+ reviews and have an almost perfect score. However, if you search them online in a generic search and read actual reviews on Google, FaceBook, etc. the picture isn't so pretty.

Let me say this though, not every project will turn out perfectly. Even the best companies in town cannot be perfect 100% of the time. But how do they handle those situations? Do they listen to the customer? Do they find a solution that will please the customer? This is what you want. So even if a customer gave someone a 3 or 4-star review, read about what happened. Maybe there was a hiccup that no one was expecting, but what does the customer say about how the company handled the situation? I would still give a contractor my business with a review of a hiccup happening, but then they did everything in their power to fix it. To me, that says a lot about the integrity of the business and that I will be able to call them in the future if anything else arrises.

My last piece of advice is to be patient. The good contractors out there are usually pretty darn busy. If they are booked out for a few months, figure out what will work best with your schedule and make it work. Remember, there is a reason why they cannot start on the job today, and it's usually a pretty good reason.

Whitney's April Deal of the Month

Wichita Wood Floor Specialists is excited to announce Whitney's deal of the Month! Whitney is going to choose her favorite floor each month and give our customers an AMAZING deal! For the month of April she is giving the DIY'ers a dollar off a sq ft of one of our easiest to install floor products!



The Armstrong Rigid Core Elements collection is made with an underlayment already attached to the floor. This product is perfect for the DIY'er that is concerned about their subfloor being uneven. Check out the video below and then visit us at 3203 E. Douglas to see the samples in person and even check them out to take home!

A Well Lit Hand Scraped Wood Floor!

Being in the wood floor industry, we see just about everything that could possibly go right or wrong with a wood floor.  We try to give all of our customers the best advice we possibly could, to help them to maintain the "perfect floor".  Never did we anticipate that our very own showroom would become victim to water damage!  

One day, "Out of No Where", a HUGE hump placed itself on our showroom floor.  It was literally like walking up a hill made out of wood floor.  There was no sign of cupping, just a large hill.  We began to search for the reason of this sudden terrain change in our showroom and noticed the floor around our HVAC system was nice and wet.  The HVAC and the "hill" were a good 12 ft, or so, away from each other... So this could not mean any good news for us.

Thankfully we knew just the right company to call.... Wichita Wood Floor Specialists of course!  We began by tearing out the damaged flooring, noticed the subfloor was wet as well and so had to tear that out as well.  There was a huge surprise for us under the subfloor... LOTS of water!  It was SO much worse than we had anticipated!  We ended up having to tear out a 1/3 of our showroom floor along with the subfloor and had to completely rebuild it back up.  

So what better to do with such a tragedy, than to make something AMAZING out of it!?  We decided this was our opportunity to really show everyone what is possible with a wood floor.  When folks come in to visit our showroom we like to use the term "Your Imagination is the Limit", but I don't think anyone takes us too seriously on it.  So what better of a way than to recreate our Amazing city's flag with a light in the middle?

We called around to the "Best of the Best" in the Wood Floor Industry to try to receive some advice on how to properly install a light in the middle of our floor.  We could not find anyone else that had attempted this before, so it was all the more reason to do it!  

As the project got underway, the more ideas kept coming along with it.  We ended up using Blue Stained Hickory (which really is NOT stained blue) for the entire flag, except for the medallion in the middle.  For the middle we used End Cut Ponderosa Pine.  Along the edges of the flag and in between each section of the flag we inlayed brass to help define each section.  We then hand scraped all of the Hickory, which not only looks beautiful, but I feel gives it more of a "Waving Flag" look.  

The medallion in the middle was the tricky part.  Luckily we had met a gentleman by the name of Luis who owns a company name Karve here in Wichita who was a MASTER with a CNC machine.  The first go around we tried using a Glow-in-the-Dark Epoxy.  Unfortunately the wood acted like wood (go figure!) and the pores tried soaking up the epoxy before it could dry.  So it was back to the drawing board!  

We ended up with the idea to layer several layers of plexi-glass in the middle until it was flush with the rest of the floor.  Viola!  What we end up with is an AMAZING piece of artwork, with the Pride of our AMAZING city highlighted in our showroom floor!

We would love for you to help us get the word out on our artwork.  Feel free to Share this Blog anywhere you like!  For any questions feel free to comment below or give us a call Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm Central Standard Time. Wichita Wood Floor Specialists is located in Wichita, KS.

How to Properly Protect Your Floors from Your Furniture

If you are the owner of a wood floor, you understand the constant frustration of trying to keep felt pads on your furniture so your floors will not end up with scratches all over them.  Especially if you are a parent and your children love to scoot furniture around the house for fun!  For some reason, our boys are the masters of scooting furniture across the floor for no apparent reason.  With owning a wood floor business and having wood floors in our home, we were at our wits end when it came to trying to keep felt on the bottom of our furniture.

So after some serious research we came across this amazing product called Flexi Felt.  Now when I first saw the product video, I thought there is no way this product is as good as they make it out to be.  Check out the video for yourself and let me know what you think: Flexi Felt Video  I mean, he seems like a nice guy and all but now days it seems everything is always "too good to be true".

So we went ahead and took the plunge to purchase a display case and the assortment of Flexi-Felt that is offered.  We applied it to the chairs and furniture at our showroom and also the furniture in our home.  The Results:  AMAZING!!!  This product is great AND all that he says it is.  Initially the cost is a little more upfront than purchasing the cheap felt pads that fall off.  But when you add up all the felt pads you purchase and the time and gas it takes to get them and then apply them to your furniture, not counting if you had damage to your floors that had to be repaired because they didn't work.... This product pays for itself!

Here is a VIDEO of my husband Jesse applying the Flexi Felt to our square legged office chairs in our showroom.  If you are in need of this product our anything else we may carry in our Products Available @ Wichita Wood Floor Specialists give us a call (316-747-4066) to place your order, or stop by our showroom at 3203 E. Douglas  Wichita, KS 67218.  We are in the heart of the Douglas Design District, door to the West of the Crown Uptown.

Reclaimed Barnwood Doors NOW available at Wichita Wood Floor Specialists!

Check out our short video on our newly available Reclaimed Barnwood Doors!  These doors are getting a lot of attention and will not last long!  Stop by our showroom today @ 3203 E. Douglas in Wichita, KS or give us a call @ 316-747-4066 to reserve your door today!