The Grain Room - An NWFA Podcast
Hosted by Matt Casey, Technical Services Officer for NWFA, “The Grain Room” focuses on discussions about techniques, tools, and best practices of the hardwood flooring industry – and everything in between.
The Grain Room - An NWFA Podcast
A Conversation with Sprigg Lynn of Universal Floors, Inc
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Matt Casey and Sprigg Lynn discuss what it takes to break into historic restoration work, the guidelines and standards that govern it, how restoration differs from preservation, how to get hired for projects, and tips for running a successful hardwood flooring business.
Hello and welcome to the National Wood Flooring Association's podcast, The Grain Room, connecting our craft with hardwood industry trends, techniques, and the business side of things. I'm your host, Matt Casey, Industry Programs and Standards Officer with the NWFA. And we're happy to welcome a very special guest today, Mr. Sprague Lynn. Mr. Sprague Len, you're in the grain room. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I appreciate it. And welcome aboard yourself. Uh, you're getting settled in settled in with your new job, and you're fantastic with the knowledge and organizational skills. And we appreciate it. I appreciate it, Sprague.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, sir. Yeah, a few months in, still getting used to being the new guy. Uh but things are going great. And uh yeah, we've got a great staff and obviously a growing membership. Guys like yourself are part of this, also. We definitely appreciate the support. Uh, as we kick off here, Spreg, would you mind just telling us a little bit about uh your illustrious background in the industry and Universal Floors?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, I work for Universal Floors Incorporated here in Washington, DC. We're established in uh 1953, and we do just about anything with wood flooring here in Washington. And uh we we actually go out to Maryland, Virginia, and a little bit to West Virginia. We're a we're a third-generation company. We we love it. Family members in here, obviously, and a lot of good, dedicated people. I I I couldn't think of anything else to do because this is a great business. Every job's an adventure, and I don't have to wear a tie or rarely have to wear a tie. I get to work with my hands whenever I want.
SPEAKER_01There you go. I like it. Yeah, your your contributions and and really the impact that Universal has had on the industry is obviously reaches a lot further than the Metro DC area. Um, you know, that being said, what what a unique market you spend your time in. And a lot of that is based around historic restoration. Uh hot topic within the industry, regardless of what city you're in. I definitely chat with contractors and we've got calls coming into our technical support line based around historic restoration. And really, I know that's been a lot of your focus. I've been lucky enough to run around with you a little bit in the DC area and check out some of those job sites. You know, when you're working on historically significant spaces, are there certain guidelines or you know preservation standards that that you've come to know and that you and your team follow?
SPEAKER_00Well, the the interior the Department of Interior basically sets some standards, not so much what to do, but what not to do. And there's a difference between historic restoration and preservation. When you completely restore something, it's different the present uh preservation is basically stabilizing it, waxing it, uh protecting what we call the historic fabric. It's like a fabric over the whole building, everything over the joists and the structure, you know, the hardware, the windows, the floors, the steps. So they want to be least evasive to the historic fabric. And you'll you'll start hearing these terms and academia talks about it, and it's it's it's good to know them. So underneath the interior department is the Park Service. And the Park Service has a lot of means and methods, some of them are outdated, but I know the National Wood Flooring Association is kind of, along with you, committed to slowly moving towards some type of criteria or educational program for historic restoration preservation. We'll get into that, how to step your foot in there if you really don't know that particular part of the trade. So we'll we'll talk about that a little bit later.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. And it's it's something as our technical guidelines continue to evolve. Again, this is a topic that we've talked about. I know just uh a couple months back at the NWFA expo in Orlando, you hosted a workshop based around that, correct?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, believe me, we're gonna improve the living heck out of that. And and when you talk about guidelines, basically they're they're they want you to do things that might be reversible, not permanent. They would rather you to repair than replace, and they want you to do a less aggressive, passive procedure, and if it's sanding or but they're not opposed to using modern adhesives or or fasteners, which which is important. I mean, you you don't have to ride a horse to work, you know, you you can get there with your truck, and we combine cutting technology modern with still old-fashioned means and methods with tools that my grandfather had.
SPEAKER_01Right. And I think that's where the the preservation side of it comes in, you know, keeping those original features while integrating some of the modern techniques and repairs, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, sir, yes, sir. We we uh you know there they're honestly there's not like an all-out manual on how to do A, B, and C with this with wood floors, so they're gonna get your name through a recommendation of past uh performances or experience, and they basically have to trust you. So they're also one of their criteria is to hire a qualified tradesperson. So if you can if someone's out there listening, they want to get into it, and they do older floors, they gotta learn to document things, their means and methods, take a lot of pictures, and they can work their way into this business uh uh slowly. Yeah, you know, historic restoration is not a speed race by no means. If you're a production guy, stay production. It's gonna take you 10 times longer. You sometimes you got to charge 10 times more. And you know what, Matt, you have one shot at it. It isn't like if you if you cut a board and you mess it up, you can go to the store, go to the supply house and buy some more or tear it up and redo it. You got one shot. So, you know, the old saying, uh, what uh measure twice and cut once. We think the whole process out multiple times and talk to each other about what's the best way to approach it, and we go at it very slowly. So that's that's a good good point to think about.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. And you know, along those same lines, you know, as Universal has evolved over the years, how have your methods changed or in some cases maybe stayed the same sprig when it comes to you know a lot of that intricate work where where, like you mentioned, um a mistake really changes the outcome of the of the overall job. What types of techniques are you guys utilizing to preserve and really keep that historical authenticity?
SPEAKER_00Well, we we we do use a lot of hand tools because hand tools slow you down. You know, you got a a saw is gonna cut fast, you got a hand saw, it's gonna cut very slow, so you're gonna be very precise. But uh, and and sometimes when we we clean historic floors, you know, in the past, 1700s, all the way up in the 1800s, they'd take fine river sand and they'd sift it out, and they'd either put it in a sock or they would rub that on the floor and uh they'd clean it with a little soap and water, and and usually it's uh some type of lye soap, which is a mild bleach. So you get that that well, you know, they got food stains on the floor and they would scrub the floor, it's called scouring. And uh sometimes we use Tampica brushes, which is a natural product out of Texas and Mexico. And uh when you talk the language to these people that run these places, they they really like it and they see the enthusiasm you have. So, like there's certain looks that looks like um kind of a Scandinavian look, you know, with the ly bleach. And to get that look, now it might be a highly high traffic area. So, what can we do in a modern touch? You know, there there's finishes out there that look like raw wood, their water base. So you're gonna emulate what they have there. So it's a conversation you have to have with whoever's running the place, and you're trying to protect the floor, but you're not gonna get out there and get rubber sand and scour the floor, you know, once every month. I mean, they used to scrub down decks on ships so much that it they'd go all the way through the wood. So you got to be mindful. You're you're trying to preserve the historic fabric. You want to take as little off as possible. But maintenance is a huge, huge thing with historic places.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. What type of speaking of maintenance, do they have what you would consider a maintenance schedule? Are you getting back in spaces like a lot of residential contractors are, or is this a a one and done, and they've got crews on site that are trying to maintain some of the space?
SPEAKER_00Well, most of the historic places we maintain them. We we tell them the the proper way to do it, and we have all the supplies, and we tell them see, a lot of people miss out. Sometimes we end up making more money years down the road by just maintaining what we did. So it's not a one-shot deal. And it keeps your name out there. They know you by first name, and they'll call you if they have a tragedy, they're gonna call you, a flood, anything. But don't think just because you do a restoration, walk away from it. You you befriend the architect, you befriend the builder, the homeowner, and and and your name gets they're the silent salesperson right there. So uh, and we don't mind maintaining it. We we do it all the time. That big melon auditorium, we might surpass what we charged to do the the job by maintaining it and oiling it and fixing it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. You know, speaking of of that particular job and really some other notable landmarks. I mean, we can hear your passion and how that's been maintained over the years, but can you mention any of those other uh you know unique and interesting buildings that you and your team has found yourself in over the years?
SPEAKER_00Well, we we all know a lot of them because we've seen them on the news and you you see places like the Supreme Court. But what I really, really like is that it's really unknown that there's really like eight other oval offices, not oval per se, president's office. Like during the war of 1812, they're burning down the White House. The president had to leave, and he had to conduct business somewhere. So I'm proud to say that I think there's eight of them. I've done all eight of them from James Madison to uh Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, he'd go to the Lincoln Cottage and conduct business, Roosevelt, Harry Truman when they completely gutted the the the White House. So I've worked in I I believe eight oval offices or or presidential offices, and it's two of them don't exist anymore. So I think that's kind of a a fun fun fact, you know. If we always say if our floors could talk, what tales they could tell. So uh you know what, Matt, when it comes down to it, and a floor guy's listening to this, you know, it's great to work in the White House or work in the vice president's house or the Oval Office, but at the end of the day, it's a piece of wood and it's a man or lady with their tools. And you know, you kind of you get over the all of where you're working, and at the end of the day, you're doing floor work. So I just happen to be lucky to have more opportunity because we're in the nation's capital than somebody from uh I I met a gentleman at the last convention, uh, Dennis, he's from Macon, Georgia, and he's 50, and he just joined, self-taught, first class mechanic. I talk to him all the time, like I've known him for 25 years, and he's like, I never really knew about this NWFA, and how and it's all about the connections. I mean, these people are talking our language, and once they get in there and they meet you, it's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the power of the network is something that we're certainly focused on, whether that's members that have been in since the get-go or uh some of our newer members. You know, a lot of our newer members are younger people in the trade. It's something we talk about on this podcast a lot, is getting the younger generation involved. And I think that what we're talking about today definitely falls in that category. If if you're a younger guy, you're installing, sanding, and finishing. We touched on this earlier a little bit, but if you wouldn't mind expanding, Sprig, on how some of those guys, young or old, can get involved in preservation and some historic restoration. Is that through the A and D, through the architect and design community? Is that government agencies? How do you get your foot?
SPEAKER_00What you got to do is study the lingo, study their language, historic fabric, non-aggressive, passive sanding. And that's what they want to hear. But it if every town, I don't care where you live, has a preservation society or historical society, and it's next to nothing to join them. You should join them and get to know them because to get your foot in the door, and we've talked about it before, is Dutchman. And to define a Dutchman, you know, the the Dutch used to do a cheap repair, it's not so much supposed to disappear on a piece of furniture, but it was a functional repair. And I've seen it at the uh AIA headquarters, the octagon house there in Washington. There's Dutchman there, there's Dutchman everywhere. What they do is uh they route out, usually it's a broken shoulder or a pipe hole, and you route down maybe a quarter inch or less, and you install a fillet of period wood with basically the same grain and the same look, and you you glue it in there, and it's not supposed to go away because a lot of these floors you don't get rid of everything. We got what we call uh uh memory marks, you know. There's marks in there that's just telling a story. You're not getting rid of all of it, but those Dutchmen, you can get in there, you can pre-finish your Dutchman and route it right in there. We you basically need four pieces of wood to construct a rectangle or a square, and you can uh adhere it to the floor with a 23-gauge nail, barely even notice the nail going in there, and take a router bit with the upper bearing and route it down and put that piece in there, and you start looking at old places, and you'll start seeing Dutchmen everywhere. I've seen Dutchmen with tin cans when they cut the tin can and and and put it on the floor. Uh, but and there's Dutchmen in stone, so Dutchmen are everywhere, and it is an accepted method for the Interior Department and the Park Service. So an easy way to get your foot in the door is take care of, do some Dutchman. And so when you remove old floor and the shoulders are all broken off, but there is some good usable wood between the tongue and the groove that you can make a whole mess of Dutchman out of. So don't throw it away. Or choose to reuse program. We take it up, denail it, save it. Nothing easier to match old wood with old wood. You don't have to fake the patina, you don't have to fake the color, you don't have to fake anything. You put it in there, and it's like you're way ahead of the game. So save those old boards if you can.
SPEAKER_01Sounds sounds particularly valuable in some of this historic preservation work, but I think it plays across all types of space, whether it's commercial, residential, you know, saving products from demo, re-reusing them. You talked a little bit, you just mentioned denailing wood. What type of a process do you guys do to make sure you're holding on to some of that older material? What's the process and storage look like for uh some of that old old lumber?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, my dad said if you build enough uh build a big enough warehouse, you always fill it up. So we fill it up to the gills, but when you need it, you're Johnny on the spot. And it a lot of people recommend us just to do the restoration of the wood, and we say, Well, we can't do that, we have to do the whole project. Uh, I'll tell you an interesting story. One time at the Supreme Court, uh, we had to do a bunch of herringbone restoration, ripped and quartered white oak, and it's marked on the back clear light, so it was like really light wood. But in our showroom, we had 1930s ripped and quartered wood, and and they're like, Sprig, we need this thing done. And I was like, Holy cow, we're out of this antique wood. I started looking at that showroom floor. I came in there and yanked that thing up. My father came in and said, Well, what in God's name are you doing? I said, Well, we got to do this job. So we re now our our showroom is this big wide plank. Before it was two and a quarter, uh, old antique uh ripped and quartered. So you got to do what you gotta do sometimes.
SPEAKER_01There you go, right? Well, outside of reutilizing some of those old materials, you know, you had chatted a bit about the Dutchman. What other tools and and unique repair techniques are you seeing? I I assume you guys are on your hands and knees with probably pigment pens and chisels and and other hand tools there, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, you know what? If you're not an artist, you you gotta dabble into it a little bit. So we have those little artist brushes and we use anything from latex paint, oil paint, to powder dyes that you add to a binder. And because some of these older floors in the cracks, you have old drywall, you have paint, you have discolors. So what we do is when we get to the staining stage, we walk around and look and see what catches our eye, and then we just start fowing it. And if we have old filler from 50 years ago and you're not digging it out, we we gotta match the color, the background, and fow it in there. So it it sounds silly to some floor people, and I I show some of it on my social media, and and Matt, I never knew you got attacked on social media. Um, my my kids are like, Dad, dad, don't don't worry about it. There's people there, that's their job to attack you. I was like, okay, I'll quit explaining to myself, but at the end of the day, when you give that extra five, six, eight percent, when you touch up, uh like there's a shiner nail and you can't set it because it's so fragile, and but you can foe over it, you're you you people just love it. It's it's uh so you know the the pins, uh there's a lot of manufacturers out there, and there's uh dyes, all kinds of things. But whatever you do, just make it look natural and make it flow well and walk around and see what catches your eye. That that's a main deal.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know a lot of those those repairs touch-ups um certainly get a lot of visibility on social media. I know you, of all people, are aware of those keyboard warriors out there, right? That are quick to critique. Um, that being said, I do want to touch on one specific project. Uh, you know, one of the wood floor of the year categories is historic restoration. 2024, you brought that trophy home to Universal Floors. Can you talk a little bit about that project?
SPEAKER_00Well, there's a uh organization called the Society of the Cincinnati. It's an old old mansion. Uh it's called Anderson House. And the the man was a member of this organization, is usually the first son. His Uh first son of an officer that served under George Washington. And we happen to be a member of the club. Believe me, I'm the only floor guy that's a member of this club. There's like relatives of Knox that they named Fort Knox it after, and just like Edgar Allan Poe, the fourth and fifth are in there, and and just people that he, you know, like what's the floor guy? I guess my fifth great grandfather, when he signed up, he he did me a favor. But anyway, so they had a ballroom in there, and I kept saying, Look, I'll take care of it. And they brought in someone from Connecticut, and he was an expert in antiquis and all this stuff. And but when he patched it originally, he patched it with new ripped and quartered oak, but he couldn't really fake that band patina. So I told and I went through the gauntlet and I proved that I I can I can make this thing happen and sand it. It was thin, but we sanded it very passively. Uh the power drive is an excellent uh product to use over it with the with the cushion pads, and we we filled and fauxed and we and used that three-second CA glue, and and then we ended up topping off with a UV finish, and it didn't look fake. It looked it was a real McCoy, 19 early 1900s, but they used the living heck out of it. It's a it's a wedding venue, a ballroom, but uh we're very you Matt, most of these jobs, everyone says it can't be done or tear it out, and then I I have to have a frank conversation on how far they want me to go with it and what's their budget, and tell them the the the do's and don'ts and the goods and the bads, and most of the time, uh I'm proudly to say most of the people that bid it say call sprig because they don't want to deal with it, and we take every one of those jobs as like it. That's what's so great about it, Matt. It's like a challenge. Every one of them, there's no manual that says here, this particular floor, this is how to fix it. We got to figure it out, and uh and we'll if we want to get paid.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of challenges, what about specialty patterns, Brig? You know, I think in the residential space, we've seen a big resurgence of of some of your more standard patterns, herringbone, chevron, etc. You probably have worked with and see some pretty neat specialty patterns uh on the hill and and in some residential space, you know, Versailles, Marie Antoinette. What are you running into out there?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, all the classics, uh, and uh they're in proper proportions, and that's someone that has to learn about proportions. You just don't make a giant herringbone, or you you gotta know what what aesthetically is pleasing. And years ago, they they knew that, and but yeah, uh uh it's really making a surge back. And I'm glad the National Wood Flooring Association is having schools with this because it used to be just a few isolated places. There used to be a company used to be around called Kentucky Wood Floors, and they were like the only act in town for a long time. But now every time you have a class, you just spun off 15-20 people that can make it. It's incredible what what what the bar you remember years ago the NWF big thing was putting in a medallion with a template. Now they're making the daggone medallions, they're making the parquet, and you can take that parquet as far as you want. You could make it uh uh you could make it exactly the way it was. Sometimes we make the frame absolutely perfectly square so we can lay these uh parquets, and then we make the inside kind of bastard sizes so we can put cracks in it, and it's all to make it look like whatever they want it to look like. So if we're emulating something and we're repairing it, we got to emulate it with cracks. The worst thing to do is put in something and it's all flat, straight, perfect, butted up, and then the other floor's got gaps and long legs.
SPEAKER_01Right. Yeah, there's definitely an art to that aspect of it. And NWFA does have a precision patterns and medallions training uh coming up August, I believe it's the sixth and seventh at headquarters in St. Louis. It's something we do every year, and uh something that certainly has high demand uh from you know both beginner and experienced contractors alike. So appreciate you chatting about that a bit.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I I tell you what, if if you can make it go to the class, and and if for some reason money's tight, we got scholarships out there, and people got to utilize it because we always say the the more you learn, the more you earn. And and believe me, they can't take that talent from you. You could move to Hooville, Texas, or Hawaii, and if you know how to do that and you walk into a shop or open your own shop, you just increase the level of how much uh people desire to have you do their work. Because you know, at the end of the day, it's just cutting boards and fitting them together. Uh, I don't want to make light of it, but once you do it, it's it's like bending wood. Bending wood is pretty simplistic, but people like, wow, you're bending wood, you know, and and it's basically the same way they did it 100 years ago. We just have better glues.
SPEAKER_01There you go, right? Yeah, a lot of our techniques, our classic styles, classic training that that keeps it going. One thing that has evolved, and you've touched on it a little bit, Sprig, is the sanding techniques. And when we're referring to preservation, I'm sure the last thing you want to do is burn through a floor that you cannot replace. So, where does less aggressive sanding when you're not dropping a 10-inch drum on a floor come into play in in your day-to-day work?
SPEAKER_00Well, we rarely, rarely ever use a drum sander when it comes to sanding historic floors. Uh, we we found that uh uh a machine kind of like the power drive with the with the proper cushions without the steels, and you go over it, and if you hit a low spot, that's where we're gonna hand scrape it out and use a uh a hand sander on it. So we want we don't want a tabletop floor, we're doing the opposite of what everyone's been taught to do for years. We want the onulations, we want the ups and downs. And sometimes on stairs where you're coming around that banister and the bottom step is bellied out from 200 years of people walking there. They, if that's going to be restored, they want to keep that in there. And if it was replaced for some odd reason, they want us to put it back in there. So uh, you know, it so you have to be very visual and look at what you're dealing with and take your time, slow it way down, and you'd be surprised how many architects, historic architects, don't know anything about passive, non-aggressive sanding. I I said if you guys if you bring somebody in here with a big machine, which is fine, if they want to take all the life off the floor, and they'll come out with trash cans full of saw dust. So we we gotta be uh, you know, and we run those booster boxes, it's important. A lot of people don't use them, but if you heat up those old old electricity in some of those houses, you could start a fire. So it's best to have your own uh source of electricity.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's very true. Very true. Um, well, Spring, thank you so much for sharing, you know, your time and and your stories here. Is there anything else you wanted to touch on personally before we wrap up our conversation this afternoon?
SPEAKER_00Yep. If you're a floor company out there, uh fire fast and hire hire uh slow.
SPEAKER_01I like it. I like it. Great advice. You know, we wrap up every episode with two questions, one specific to you and one that I ask all of our guests. So before I get to that one, Sprig, let's let's get to ask you a question too, right? Yeah, yes, sir. You get one for me as well. Okay, all right. But uh let's uh let's talk about the farm. Uh I know you outside of uh historic restoration and some of the things you're passionate about, we talked about today, you've got an active hobby as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I have two farms. And uh I grew up on a small farm, and my great grandfather was uh into farming, and uh it's in our blood twofold. One is it cuts my cuts my property tax in half, which is the financial reason. We call them gentlemen farmers, so we don't have to totally you know the wood floor business doing well, the farm farms doing well. But it's nice because I like working with with my hands. So when you come home and you're a lot of people playing golf or tennis, I played golf and tennis, but I prefer to build a gate or take care of animals, and you know, we have turkeys and chickens and cattle and donkeys and you name it, but it's it's it's a fun, it's a big garden. We we we would rather eat fresh food, and uh it it takes up time, but I I enjoy it, you know. It's a work of love, and our other farm is a historic site, National Historic Landmark. There's only 2,600 of them in the United States. Uh yeah, don't don't get it mixed up with a historic site. There's like a hundred thousand, that means it's old place, but the National Historic Landmark means it had have significant changing in American history. So I'm up there building period picket fences and smoke houses and uh researching about uh whitewash paint, and uh so I I get into it big time.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. Well, thank you for sharing that. You know, my neighbor behind me here has eight or nine chickens. I don't know if you can quite hear them, but they're certainly pitching into our conversation today. Make your racket back there. Um, all right, fire away streak.
SPEAKER_00Let's let's when did you first get interested in in wood floor, or was it Bono, or what what got you into this this career?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I stumbled into the trade. I I don't have one of those cool third generation stories like a lot of our industry friends do. Uh I worked for the Colorado Rockies uh baseball team right out of school. They still have a franchise here in Denver hanging on to that, uh, and and really wanted to get into that world of sports. But luckily enough, after one year there, uh I fell into the industry with Bona. And it was a much different company over 20 years ago, where the the technical training department was doing a lot of the product testing, a lot of the sand and finish in and around residences and commercial areas up and down the front range here in Colorado. Um so that's when I first got my hands dirty back in this is 2005 or so, and and since then it's really been a snowball downhill, and just so thankful and blessed that I've one learned a trade, can always fall back on a hands-on trade. But number two, you alluded it to it earlier, is just this network. You know, we've got uh thousands of uh very experienced tradesmen, but ultimately it's a small industry, right? And and it's been just so excellent to grow relationships that begin professionally and then become a personal relationship. Um, and you certainly fall in that category. So I appreciate you again sharing the time.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna throw this out there and uh and hopefully they do or don't blow up my phone, but 301-370-6851. That's my cell number. Believe me, I'd love to talk to whoever has a question. If I can help them or direct them in the right direction, uh I might be on the other line, so call back on another time. But uh I appreciate you and and what what's your vision within WFA? What where do you lean in towards?
SPEAKER_01Well, there's been a, as most people know and our listeners know, a lot of change within the association. Uh, but it's an exciting time. We're really evolving, moving in the right direction as membership grows. It's really all about member support. How can we be advocates for the hardwood flooring industry and for our members? Whether that's training support, marketing support, you know, being on Capitol Hill just a few weeks ago, lobbying for the industry for hardwood flooring as a whole. So we're certainly moving in the right direction, thinking strategically and and very excited to uh to be a part of it all.
SPEAKER_00So as we had break one last thing is even with older ways, we still bring in, you know, sometimes we do 3D scanning of historic floors, so they have a digital record of it in case the worst ever happened. You got LV, uh um LED, you got UV, you got lasers coming into the market. So I think all this cutting edge technology is going to bring the younger people in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. And AI is a part of it all from start to finish, right? Design and execution. So uh on an upcoming episode of the grain room, we will be talking about how AI is impacting our trade. And it's it's time to get on board, right?
SPEAKER_00And make sure we're uh Yeah, you're you're you're getting ready to have uh AI uh for the NWFA, right? Where we can ask related questions.
SPEAKER_01Correct. One of our our new additional technical support tools will be an AI related tool specific for our members.
SPEAKER_00So we're excited uh to launch that this what what are the tolerances for a uh glue-down floor, wood floor on a slab? And they they could give you an answer quick.
SPEAKER_01Correct. And how much do I owe you for throwing that one in there, sprig?
SPEAKER_00I appreciate that plug on some of our you can just give me a couple of those uh those uh tickets that you hand out when when we have our little gatherings. There you go, free soda or whatever. Yes, sir. Well, bless you and and thank you. And I'm um I'm blessed to be on here, and uh I'm ready to come back anytime if you want to talk about something else.
SPEAKER_01Yes, sir, Sprague. And before I let you go, I got one more for you. Yes, this is the question that's that's been really interesting, and I think as we face some challenges in our industry, each of the guests on the grain room are asked the following question. Would love to get your your feedback as we wrap up here. What's the most important focus for members of the Harvard flooring industry that really is going to allow our industry to continue to thrive as it has for so many decades?
SPEAKER_00It it's education. I'm telling you, it's the making of the parquets, bending wood, all the knowledge. Now you don't want to always uh be the library for people, you want to be the bookstore, they gotta invest in you and and sign a contract, but it's all that knowledge, it's it's incredible. You know, as a kid growing up, my father would hand me the knock my handbook. He said, This is all you need to know. And he had some moisture meter, it looked like it came out of the Smithsonian Institution. He goes, This is all you need, you don't need to go to those things, and then finally he turned around and said, Uh, you're right, this is this is a fantastic thing. But uh yeah, uh I'm telling you, if if you invested the money to join the National Wood Flooring Association, it's gonna come back a hundredfold if it just solved one problem for you. Excellent. But well, you enjoy your fourth July there, brother.
SPEAKER_01Yes, sir. Happy fourth to you, and again, thanks for sharing your time and your stories, and we will certainly catch up soon. Thank you, Spring.
SPEAKER_00You have a good day, buddy. Bye. You too. See ya.