When Archetypal Imaginary Remodeling Corp. (Long Island City, N.Y.) won its first Wood Floor of the Year award in 2010, it started a winning streak. The company has won as award every year since, and during this year’s NWFA Wood Flooring Expo in Orlando, Fla., owner Avedis Duvenjian and company took home the most coveted award of all—the Members’ Choice award.
Netting the award for Archetypal was this solid parquet mosaic wood. The floor, which uses a mix of white oak and American walnut with a marble border, also won in the Best Residential category.
“There is no limit for my happiness right now,” Duvenjian said just after winning. “I’m very fortunate to have this moment here today, especially with my son Tígran here.”
The NWFA also honored eight other companies for outstanding craftsmanship with a Wood Floor of the Year award; voting was conducted online prior to the show. They were:
Best CNC/Laser Cut: Yantarnaya Pryad-Parquet
This glued-down solid parquet floor has a water-based gloss finish and was made using nine species of wood: Karelian birch, jarrah, lemon tree, olive tree, maple, jatoba, oak, wenge and walnut. The floor, which is essentially a large medallion that is more than 200 square feet, features numerous intricate patterns.
Best Commercial: Acme Floor Company Inc.
Acme’s work in this auditorium was complex, requiring the use of radius tangents in the installation. The company glued and nailed down solid riftsawn red oak and finished this floor on-site with a water-based semi-gloss.
Best Extreme Makeover: Majestic Wood Floors
This floor, made with walnut, maple, red oak and Brazilian cherry, comprises swirling circles and multiple medallions. The engineered flooring was glued down and finished on-site using an oil-based satin finish.
Best Limited Species: Distinctive Hardwood Floors
A combination of nail-down and glued-down flooring, planks in this solid white oak floor a natural edge. The quartersawn pieces were sequentially scribed by hand, and the floor was finished on-site using tung oil.
Best Manufacturer Factory Finished: MP Caroll Hardwood
This solid prefinished plank floor was glued. It features hand-scraped hickory and Samoan mahogany in a hand-cut pattern.
Best Reclaimed: Schmidt Custom Floors Inc.
This red and white oak herringbone floor was installed at The Rumpus Room in downtown Milwaukee, Wis. The planks were glued down, and the floor was finished with tung oil.
Best Restoration: Czar Floors
This lobby floor restoration, which featured multiple medallions, included walnut, wenge, maple and purpleheart wood.
Designers’ Choice: Artistic Floors by Design Inc.
A mix of solid sapele and red oak were used in this parquet floor, which was finished on-site using a matte waterbased finish. The floor’s free-form border encompasses a basket-weave-patterned field that is accented with raised and sculpted panel centers.
For more on this year’s winners, do not miss the June/July 2012 issue of Hardwood Floors, which will feature expanded coverage on every winning floor, as well as lists of manufacturers of the products used to create each floor.
