“Indoor air quality is probably my biggest thing – that's what got me going in a green direction,“ says Chad Durbin of Fairfax, Virginia -based Total Flooring LLC. ”I have a 2-year-old son, and when you see what they're crawling on that kind of wakes you up.”
Durbin started Total Flooring last year after a nearly 20 year career in flooring that saw him move up from installer through sales and into a variety of management roles. Representing his company at Earth Day and other green festivals motivated him to build up his expertise in green flooring. Last summer, he took the coursework and completed the testing that gave him his LEED-GA certification.
That wealth of experience has taught Durbin that supplying beautiful, durable flooring is only the beginning. He wanted to find a product line that was also healthy and sustainable. That search led him to tour the Mirage Hardwood Flooring plant to see how they measured up… and he was impressed with what he saw. “All of their wood is sustainably harvested in northern Canada,” he learned. “The red oaks and white oaks only grow about 3 months out of the year, so the wood is a little bit harder and it has a little bit better grain to it.”
Mirage FloorHe also observed how little the company wasted. For instance, scrap wood that comes out of the production line is used in their shipping crates. The company's engineered wood uses adhesives with no added formaldehyde, and the multi-layer nanotechnology based finish is VOC-free. FSC-certified wood is an available option. “Mirage is just a great company.” he concluded.
2012 wasn't a great year to start up a flooring business, but Durbin had a reputation in green flooring he could build on. That earned him the opportunity to supply the flooring for Turnberry Tower, a luxury high-rise in nearby Arlington, VA. The project – and Total Flooring's role in it – is currently featured in a national advertising campaign.
Flooring Northern Virginia
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