Archive Page 3

As promised sports fans, we’ve staged our (first annual?) hockey game on our laminate flooring, which has been installed outside on our 19th floor patio in downtown Vancouver BC offices. Being a bunch of Canadian hockey fans this event was pretty much inevitable. You could feel the excitement!

First, we needed to make sure that the rainwater and melted snow was cleared off the surface of the laminate, where it’s been since last week.  And we needed to ensure a couple of other safety considerations, too.  Here’s Marc, and Matt our human Zamboni:

Then, the game commenced with a few rules in place.  Checking wasn’t allowed in our game. Y’know. Because we’re 19 floors up with only a glass barrier between us and certain death and all. And ‘over the glass’ had a special meaning too, so no raiseys.  But, here’s the action, folks:

My favourite part? It’s when one of our guys yells “I’m open! I’m open!”. He’s on a deck with 14 guys plus a cameraman (me!), with three feet between him and everyone else. And he’s open. That is true enthusiasm, folks.  Fantastic.

And it’s true: the goal that Tom scores was in fact the first time he’s ever scored. So, congratulations Tom.

Finally everyone, here’s Co-Founder of BuildDirect Rob Banks with his thoughts on how the game went. Rob?

Thank you, Rob.

And finally, a point of trivia- folks. We filmed this game on the 40th anniversary of the Beatles concert on the roof of their Apple Corps offices in London.

Coincidence?

Well, yes.

Cheers!
Rob.


Well, our 12mm Toklo laminate floors have been out on our patio for one business week, not counting the time they spent as boards in their boxes over last weekend.

So, we thought we’d ask Matt to conduct a damage assessment to see where we’re at. The results are somewhat disappointing, but maybe not in the way some of you are thinking. Take a look:

I say ‘disappointing’ of course because it’s just not as trashed as we thought it would be. But, in some ways this makes it all the better. Because now, we get to step up our game. Like Marc mentioned, we thought we’d include some Canadian content by holding a hockey day at BuildDirect.

Stay tuned for the game, which you’ll be able to see on Monday.

Cheers!
Rob.


We invited special guest Ian Watt to come by to check out our floor.  Ian is a local Realtor in the Vancouver area, focusing on luxury condos in trendy Yaletown, Coal Harbour and in the downtown area.  He’s also a podcaster and you can see his shows on his website at ianwatt.ca.  In any case, his first question to us was perhaps the most obvious one:  who are we trying to impress?

Well, that’s not how he put it, but that’s what he meant.  Here’s Marc and Ian talking turkey about laminate flooring, and a bit about prices too, and we think we just about avoided infomercial country. You decide.

A couple of points from the sales department on this interview.  First, Marc and Ian talk a bit about shipping, and Marc mentions a 5-8 day turnaround time.  In the spirit of full disclosure, Marc didn’t mention additional business days to allow for ‘picking ‘ the product in the warehouse and travel time.  Also, timing heavily depends on customer site location in relation to the location of one of our distribution points.

So, if you have any specific questions about how long it will take to get a pallet to your site, my advice is to call our laminate guys and talk to them about the specifics of your project.  Or you can send them an email at laminate (at) builddirect dot com.

Second, Jamie  from commercial sales is trying to wrestle this post out of my hands.  So, to make him happy, here he is with his own thoughts about the product.  Warning:  he’s a salesman so, no sudden movements.

Thanks, Jamie.

Cheers!


Today we had a special guest in here at the BuildDirect offices here at Granville & Dunsmuir in  downtown Vancouver British Columbia.  Kye Grace is a local Realtor, but he also knows a thing or two about blogging and live streaming.  You can see Kye’s latest news on his website kyegrace.com.

Anyway, he helped us set up our watch us wreck a floor live feed, so that you can keep tabs on the state of the floor and watch some of our events live too.

Here’s Marc and Kye:


As we foretold – or, as our local meteorological community has foretold – it’s snowing here in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia.

It’s arrived just in time to settle peacefully on our Toklo 12mm laminate flooring, which we’ve ill-advisedly installed outside on our penthouse patio. Here’s Marc, paying his dues as our resident floor sweeper and weather expert, to explain this fine state of affairs:

It’s packing snow, folks. And is that the sound of me getting hit with a snowball? Yes, yes it is.


Well, continued from yesterday, here’s the finished laminate floor that Matt installed.  It took him from 9:00 to 2:30, with a break for lunch to install, which is pretty good time.  Maybe he would have had to have spent more time on clean-up if he hadn’t had the wind to help. Who knows?

In any case, the floor was christened.  Here’s the skinny:


If I didn’t mention that Matt is a hero, then I’d like to do so now.  Matt, you’re a hero.

He’s got quite a lot of experience in laying down laminate flooring, in addition to his work in the wood flooring department at BuildDirect.  He even installed mine at home! And now, he’s been roped into this crazy project.

In any case, here are a couple of pearls of wisdom from Matt on how to install a laminate floor while minimizing damage to the boards.  Here, Matt talks about a couple of tools you’ll need when doing your install.


And as I mention, Matt’s pristine work is soon to be undone by cruddy weather. And we’ll definitely show you that.


It’s a beautiful day here in sunny Vancouver, British Columbia.  The sun is shining, the sky is blue.

But, in winter time around these parts, that means that it’s pretty darn cold.  In any case, our valiant installer Matt is out in his weekend warrior outfit to lay down our Toklo 12mm laminate flooring – on our patio!

In this episode, one of two today, Matt talks a bit about preparation of our patio for imminent laminate floor-ing. And Marc talks about how cold it is.

Later on, we’ll hear from Matt about some great laminate flooring tips, whether you’re installing laminate flooring in a living room, bedroom, or hallway.  Even though our location isn’t quite a traditional choice, a lot of the principles are the same.

Stay tuned, folks!


Alright, folks.  It’s here.

Today’s episode is kind of in pieces, but each segment should give you an idea of where we are with our watch us wreck a floor project.  And we hope too that you’ll find the information we have for you about what to expect when you order a laminate floor from BuildDirect to be useful.

Big, big thanks to ABF (especially Sandy!) for their enthusiasm and helpfulness. And thanks to Deidre for all of your help, too!

Anyway, here’s today’s show.

One thing to note, folks.  You see the pallet that the driver unloads from the truck?  That was actually a pallet of tile, not laminate.  The laminate pallets are the larger ones behind it, which you can get a better sense of in the last video.

Anyway, more next week when we really start in on our wreckage.


Hello everyone!

Sorry for the silence over the past few days.  First, I should say that I (Rob) made a scheduling boo-boo and ordered the flooring later than I should have.  Sorry to make everyone wait! And second  Our shipper has caught wind of our little project to destroy a laminate floor by installing it outside.  And they want a piece of the action. Here’s Marc to explain a bit more:

We’ll be kicking things off real soon!  Stay tuned, folks!



  • Pages

  • Tags

    bring your dog to work day BuildDirect buying laminate flooring buy laminate floors cleaning laminate flooring laminate flooring laminate flooring subfloors laminate floor installation laminate floors sub floors testing laminate flooring wood flooring installation wood floors