Our Invitation To You

Come and see us in our beautiful new 2500 square foot showroom, located at 464 Adams Road in Kelowna. Take a walk through our gallery-style display of hardwood flooring - from classic to modern, exotic to wide plank - in an infinite variety of colours and finishes. Our displays include cork, carpet, bamboo, vinyl, laminate, resilient rubber flooring and much more. Okanagan Hardwood Flooring is your complete flooring source.  Adjoining our showroom is Okanagan Tile Company where you will find a wonderful selection of tile and natural stone products.  Our stunning new venue can offer you inspiration for your project, and our expert sales staff and designers can guide you through the selection process. We look forward to meeting you! To learn more click here..

Beautiful hardwood floors

without the dust

Our innovative Bona Atomic DCS System is the most advanced and powerful dust containment system available today - it removes up to 98% of the airborne dust generated by the sanding process, and transports the particles into an Atomic DCS trailer outside your home. The Bona System is the first and only GREENGUARD-certified system in our industry.  Our goal is to provide you with the cleanest and healthiest hardwood floor finishing system available. To learn more about how the DCS system works, click here.

Our sanders are the only Bona Certified Craftsmen in the Okanagan Valley - click on this Bona website link to find out more: www.mybonahome.com

Jason Babakaiff, an extremely talented local photographer, used his original photography to create the unique floral canvasses that adorn the walls of our offices. The next time you visit our showroom, please take time to check them out.  

To find out more about Jason, check out Babakaiff Photography's website - www.jasonbabakaiff.com 

Okanagan Hardwood - Supplier Profile

IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES

by Michael Freeman

The time has come for a totally new way of looking at hardwood flooring.

Four years ago, the brain-trust behind Okanagan Hardwood Flooring dreamed of a showroom that allowed customers to get a realistic idea of what their completed floor would really look like. The dreams have come to fruition, and now it's time to unveil their totally renovated business. Ordering a floor based on a small segment is difficult, and it takes a proficient person to explain what a large area of natural wood will look like. "We just expanded our showroom from 900 square feet to 2500 square feet," says co-owner Steve Everitt, "and the presentation has gone from having many small samples, to being a gallery of large hardwood flooring examples that help to visualize an entire floor."

Started in 1964, Okanagan Hardwood Flooring was bought in 1992 by Everitt and his wife, Deb when they jumped at the chance of owning a business in the Okanagan Valley. One of the previous owner's employees, Otto Lohn, joined the couple as a co-owner in 1994. "A big part of our success is that many of our staff members are very experienced with a lot of tenure. In fact, several of our long-term employees have been here as long as us confide the owners.

From new homes to heritage homes, all issues must be addressed prior to beginning the project – both structural and aesthetic," explains Lohn, a former installer who brings many years of technical knowledge to the team. "Our customers look to our expert sales staff to guide them through this process."

There are two distinct categories of hardwood flooring; one is sanded and finished on-site, and the other is product that has been pre-finished. "There are hundreds of different species and grades of hardwood available, ranging from clean, hand-selected pieces, down to rustic, knot-filled boards. There is even reclaimed wood that comes from old buildings, barns and warehouses," explains Everitt.

Okanagan Hardwood Flooring puts a lot of emphasis on floors that are sanded and finished on site, giving customers the advantage of choosing colours and grains, a wide variety of board widths and lengths, including wide-plank hardwood boards that can be beveled or distressed. Besides all the different wood types, there is a whole spectrum of stains and finishes to make each floor one-of-a-kind.

"With all the custom built homes in the Okanagan," says Everitt, "people want, and get, a unique look in their home, rather than buying something out of a box." The flooring specialists also utilize an "Atomic Dust Containment System"— high powered vacuums that extract the sawdust created by sanding, keeping the mess to a minimum.

"We are very proud to shop Canadian, and we do a lot of business with a supplier in Chilliwack that uses North American woods in their family- run facility. A lot of Canadian manufacturers are head and shoulders above their international competitors when it comes to craftsmanship, quality, and value for the dollar," discloses Everitt. Many of them offer FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified hardwood, which tracks the history of the wood right from the forest. There is a chain of ownership so they can determine that the timber hasn't been illegally logged and that it is harvested and manufactured using eco-friendly practices.

Part of Okanagan Hardwood Flooring's business is restoring existing floors in gymnasiums, community halls and, of course, residences. There are some high quality floors out there that are certainly worth restoring, and the experts at Okanagan Hardwood Flooring can help you make that decision.

"The focus of our business is hard surfaces — unfinished and pre-finished hardwood and cork, and we would love to re-introduce customers to our new facility," shares Everitt with a smile, continuing, "A tremendous amount of thought and effort has gone into the functionality of the showroom and the way it's set up. We pulled ideas from many places to get the ambiance of an art gallery." The showroom and office space upstairs have different species of hardwood with a variety of finishing techniques so customers can see a completed room. In fact, the owners supply slippers for customers to walk on the gallery's flawless walnut floor!

The renovation included a new 5,500 square foot warehouse, complete with state-of-the-art finishing rooms. They then converted the original 2,500 square foot warehouse into a stunning venue to display all their products. The new hardwood showroom flows through into the new showroom for the partners' latest venture, Okanagan Tile Company. The old gray stucco building that once was Okanagan Hardwood Flooring has had a face-lift both inside and out, and their dream of creating a one-of-a-kind hardwood flooring showroom is now a reality.

"We'd love for people to come and see for themselves," affirm the owners.
 

Okanagan Trends

Coming soon . . . . .

For the latest in flooring and design ideas, plus information on what's happening at Okanagan Hardwood, check out Okanagan Trends.  To view, click here.