Apex Wood Floors Featured in CS Magazine and the Chicago Tribune!

Apex Wood Floors was noted for being a responsible, sustainable company in the March 2010 issue of CS magazine. We were included in the feature by Kate Templin titled: “Green House: Six earth-conscious interior innovators will make sure your house is sustainable and stylish.” Our “Revival” collection of reclaimed wide-plank hardwood flooring comprised exclusively of enduring, old wood rescued from structures across the United States was highlighted because of its LEED certification points and the fact that it is 100 percent green!

This month, Wendy Cole, a writer for the Chicago Tribune, interviewed me for my thoughts on trends in hardwood flooring. The piece ran in the Tribune on April 5, as well as many other newspapers across the county. Wendy did a good job of providing an overview of hardwood flooring options that can work well with any architectural style. These include: European White Oak, sustainable flooring (such as our “Revival” collection) and designer-patterned floors such as herringbone or parquets.

For more information about how to treat / maintain your hardwood floors, here’s a link to the “Floor Care” section of our Web site:

http://www.apexwoodfloors.com/floor_care.html

Customized Live-Sawn Hardwood Flooring by Apex

Like any art form, creating a work of wonder starts with an idea, a stroke of creativity, an imagination and a vision. Put these intangibles in the right hands and the result is something to marvel at and enjoy for many years to come. This is how we feel about Live-Sawn wide-plank hardwood flooring — customized for each of our clients.

Rich Afable has been with Apex Wood Floors for 21 years. We refer to him as our chief artisan and director of the “Renaissance” collection, though he really doesn’t like to be bogged down with titles. Rich and his team of highly trained craftsmen have created some of Chicagoland’s most magnificent and truly remarkable Live-Sawn wide-plank wood flooring ever seen.

When asked what Rich loves most about his job, he replies: “It’s art. Each board has its own identity. With Live-Sawn, we’re allowing the character in the board to really stand out. When you put it all together on the job site, it looks incredible. What we do is never boring because no two floors we create are the same.”

Making the first cut

According to Rich, the uniqueness and natural characteristics of a floor is what gives it its personality. With Live-Sawn, it’s the way the wood is cut that matters. Within each Live-Sawn board is a beautiful, natural balance of Plain-Sawn, Quarter-Sawn and Rift-Sawn wood. It’s this variation – brought to us by Mother Nature – that provides an inherent distinctiveness: a wonderful palette with which to begin.

In order to meet homeowners’ expectations and give them exactly the look they’re after, Rich works closely with their interior designers and architects. “Sometimes the designers and homeowners come in together and show us magazine pictures of the look and style they want to achieve. They may like some aspects of one floor, and other features of another floor, so we begin any project by talking about the desired end look,” said Rich.

Once a style is discussed, Rich and his team get to work. With combinations in mind, the team begins making samples that can potentially fit with the clients’ interior space. For every floor, Rich is concerned with its color, finish, texture, level of distressing and bevel. Each board’s level of distressing also depends on the homeowners’ tastes. The artisans at Apex will remain hard at work and provide samples until the client finds their perfect match of:

“The result is a one-of-a-kind floor made from incomparable quality. It’s all due to our limitless capabilities” added Rich. “Live-Sawn floors cannot be duplicated twice, and because of this, they truly offer a distinguished look.”

To find out more about Apex Wood Floors, please visit our Web site: www.apexwoodfloors.com or call 630-963-9322.

Best wishes,

John Lessick
President
Apex Wood Floors

About Apex Wood Floors

Based in Downers Grove, IL, the award-winning team at Apex Wood Floors has been providing customized hardwood floors to clients in the Midwest and across America since 1982. Apex uses its own highly trained craftsmen to provide unparalleled excellence to flooring projects that include wide plank, handcrafted floors, exotic species, patterns and design work. The company custom fabricates its own handcrafted and distressed plank flooring in several finishes and styles spanning the interior design spectrum.

Apex works with designers, architects and their clients to provide a floor that will satisfy even the most discriminating clients. Every project provides longevity of beauty and character to any setting as they continually mature. In addition to an extensive selection of premium domestic and exotic wood species, Apex offers three destination flooring styles: Renaissance wide plank, Designer patterns and inlays and Select premium and exotic hardwoods.

Apex provides complete design and installation services, including the removal of existing flooring, disposal of waste, and layout and finishing of new wood floors.