Palomar Hotel - Beverly Hills, CA
Custom band-saw marked white oak on walls, ceilings and floors. Walls and ceilings are Class A fire-rated.
Thanks to Spectra Contract Flooring for working with us on this project!
KEY SPECS
Product: TB Custom White Oak floors, walls, ceilings
Dimensions: 5/8” x 4” x RL to 12’
Species: American White Oak
Grade: Premium Grade
Texture: Custom Texture - Band Sawn
Finish: Rubio European Oil FInish
Color: Custom Color “Palomar Hotel”
Special: Walls and Ceilings Fire-rated to meet ASTM E84 Class A / I
Savant Construction Corporate Offices
Savant Construction, a leading builder of shopping centers and grocery stores, chose Thomas Benjamin for their new corporate offices in Chino, CA.
They picked our Rustic Hickory in our Signature Color 6007, added our Hewn Handsculpting, and for good measure asked us to make it in 3/4” solid instead of the standard 5/8” engineered. No problem!
KEY SPECS
Product: TB Signature Line Hickory 6007, modified
Dimensions: 3/4” solid x 7” x RL to 12’
Species: American Hickory
Grade: Rustic Grade
Texture: Hewn Handsculpting
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic
Color: Hickory 6007
Columbine Country Club
Beautiful Hickory floor in the Columbine Country Club in Colorado!
Floor started out as American Hickory TB Signature Color 6007. Custom mods included 3/4” engineered (5/8” is standard), custom handsculpting “Timeworn”, and Rustic Grade to complement the mountain aesthetic in this beautiful country club.
KEY SPECS
Product: TB Signature Line Hickory 6007
Dimensions: 3/4” x 8” x RL to 12’
Species: American Hickory
Grade: Rustic Grade
Texture: Handsculpted - “Timeworn”
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic
Color: Hickory 6007
Newfield Oil Exploration - Houston, TX
Super cool 8” x 48” Hickory herringbone to match TB Signature Color 6007 in the corporate offices of Newfield Exploration in Houston.
Thomas Benjamin can make any wood floor you desire!
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom Hickory Herringbone
Dimensions: 5/8” x 8” x 48”
Species: American Hickory
Grade: Premium Grade
Texture: Subtly Brushed
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic
Color: TB 6007
Kimpton Hotel Vintage - Portland, OR
Gorgeous custom oak flooring in the Hotel Vintage in Portland!
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom White Oak
Dimensions: 3/4” x 8” x RL to 12’
Species: American White Oak
Grade: Rustic Grade
Texture: Subtly Brushed
Finish: Rubio Monocoat Oil Finish
Color: Custom Color with cerusing
Texas Corporate Offices
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom White Oak
Dimensions: 5/8” x 8” x RL to 12’
Species: American White Oak
Grade: Light Rustic Grade
Texture: Subtly Brushed
Finish: Rubio Monocoat Oil FInish
Color: Custom Clor
Hotel Zelos - San Francisco, CA
Gorgeous custom oak flooring in the Hotel Zelos in San Francisco!
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom White Oak
Dimensions: 5/8” x 8” x RL to 12’
Species: American White Oak
Grade: Rustic Grade
Texture: Custom Handsculpted - “Hewn”
Finish: Rubio Monocoat Oil FInish
Color: Custom Color with very subtle cerusing
Hedge Fund & Think Tank - Houston, TX
Stunning Premium-grade White Oak in a custom color developed in coordination with the client’s designers.
KEY SPECS
Product: TB Custom Color White Oak
Dimensions: 5/8” x 8” x RL to 12’
Species: American White Oak
Grade: Premium Grade
Texture: Subtly Brushed
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic, Matte
Color: Custom Color per client’s requirements
Hotel Zephyr - Fisherman's Warf - San Francisco, CA
Gorgeous custom oak flooring in the Hotel Zephyr in San Francisco!
KEY SPECS
Product: TB Signature Line White Oak 6016
Dimensions: 5/8” x 8” x RL to 12’
Species: American White Oak
Grade: Rustic Grade
Texture: Subtly Brushed
Finish: Rubio Monocoat Oil FInish
Color: White Oak 6016
Major Retailer - Grey Lyed Oak
Stunning lye-treated and frosted hand-distressed Premium White Oak for a Major Nationwide Fashion Retailer.
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom Flooring
Dimensions: 7/16” x 6” x RL to 12’
Species: American White Oak
Grade: Premium Grade
Texture: Custom Handsculpted
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic, Matte
Color: Extremely complex custom finish developed in coordination with the client’s in-house design staff and architect
Landfall Country Club - Wilmington, NC
Sometimes simpler is better: Just pick a gorgeous color, and get to it! That’s what transpired on this great project in Eastern North Carolina, and we love it!
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom Color White Oak
Dimensions: 5/8” x 8” x RL to 12’
Species: American White Oak
Grade: Light Rustic Grade
Texture: Subtly Brushed
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic, Matte
Color: Custom Color to match client’s palette
Alderbrook Resort and Spa - Union, WA
Gorgeous custom handsculpted Hickory in the Alderbrook Resort and Spa.
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom Hickory
Dimensions: 5/8” x 8” x RL to 12’
Species: American Hickory
Grade: Rustic Grade
Texture: Custom Handscupted - “Timeworn”
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic
Color: Custom Color per client’s request
Color Correction For Major Retailer - Dallas, TX
Moral of this story:
At Thomas Benjamin our client’s concerns are our concerns, and we are willing and capable of going the extra mile for our clients!
Disaster Averted in Dallas
European oil finishes have seen stellar growth in the US market the past few years, chiefly for the beautiful low-gloss look they give. One often-overlooked advantage of certain types of oil-finished floors is their ability to be easily re-coated and even color-corrected, and for one very important client this was the difference between a complete disaster and a successful project.
One of our clients, a large nation-wide retailer, ordered and installed about 6000 sq ft of a hand-distressed oil-finished white oak floor in a very light, natural color. The installation was directly adjoining an existing floor that had been in place several years and was stained a medium brown-red color. Then came the panicked phone call: The buyer had made a mistake; the new floor was supposed to have been ordered to match the existing floor. This area of the store was due to reopen in three weeks, and they were faced with tearing out, re-prepping and re-installing all 6000 sq ft. And we would be asked to make the custom-milled and custom-colored floor in about two weeks. All doable, but extremely costly and stressful.
New floor on top. Looks great, right? WRONG!
The wrong floor was ordered - it should have looked like the floor on the bottom!
Big Problem!
“Hold on”, we said, “There might be another solution. We think the floor can be re-oiled to nudge it to the correct color. Maybe not an exact match, but at least a coordinating color”. The client replied that an exact match wasn’t required, they’d be thrilled with a coordinating color.
This really was a great way to showcase the flexibility and re-coatability of oil-finished floors. We pulled a couple of planks of production retain (we keep retains for all production runs for three years), lightly abraded with a red pad, mixed up a custom batch of Rubio Monocoat Hardwax Oil and applied the oil to the planks.
We sent these samples to the client in Dallas, where they laid them on the existing floor and phoned us with a slight color-correction. That day we made another sample incorporating their suggestions and overnighted to them for approval. This was now the third day since the problem was discovered, and the client already had in their hands the second-generation samples for the proposed solution. The voice on the other end of the line this time was noticeably more relaxed: samples approved!
We sent a list of necessary supplies and equipment and personnel to the flooring contractor, and a date was set. Thomas Benjamin sent several liters of the custom oil mix out by FedEx Ground and Mark Summitt, the owner of Thomas Benjamin, flew to Dallas the next week to supervise the transformation. One of the difficulties in working partial-remodel projects in retail locations is that the jobsite is typically only available when the store is closed, in this case from 10pm until about 6am. All parties met at the store at 10pm.
Custom oil mix by Thomas Benjamin
The process was simple: lightly abrade with a low-speed floor buffer and a red pad, buff in the new oil with a white pad, and dry it off with terry towels under the white pad. By 5am we were all finished. Complete color transformation of 6000 sq ft in about 7 hours, including training and testing and without sanding and without any objectionable odors (very important in the middle of a functioning retail store). The floor was able to be walked on the next day and was fully cured a couple of days later.
Disaster averted!
Yet another example of why Thomas Benjamin Architectural Flooring is a rather unique wood flooring company.
We at Thomas Benjamin are part of your team.
Your concerns are our concerns.
Your problems are our problems.
Your success is our success!
Microsoft Access Floor
Thomas Benjamin Architectural Flooring is a rather unique wood flooring company. Large enough to have the manufacturing capability to produce nearly any size job, yet responsive and connected enough to be able to adapt, create and execute your project, even if it doesn’t fit neatly into a predetermined “box”. Our experience creating the Access Floor for the Microsoft Visitor Center is a perfect example.
The architect contacted us on behalf of Microsoft. The MS Visitor Center in Redmond, WA was being remodeled, and the decision had been made to install wood flooring to coordinate with existing flooring in an adjacent space.
The challenge was that 70% of the new floor needed to be installed as an “Access Floor”. An Access Floor is a raised floor that provides an elevated structural floor above a solid substrate (often a concrete slab) to create a hidden void for the passage of mechanical and electrical services. This is not commonly done with wood, as the tolerances are quite tight and all of the panels, which must be removable, have to fit nearly perfectly.
We partnered with the flooring contractor in Seattle, and together we figured out how to make it work. TB personnel spent several days in Seattle working with the contractor, developing the application and fitting process for applying the wood to the access panels, and refining the specification. Then the project was handed over to the TB factory, who was tasked with precision manufacturing the wood components, which were hand-distressed and custom-finished. The focus then passed back to the contractor, who adhered the wood to the panels and fitted them into place, along with crafting a rather tricky ramp area.
What’s more, this was all accomplished in a period of less than six weeks in order to meet the Visitor Center opening schedule.
This was not an easy project, but the results speak for themselves!
RESPONSIVE DESIGN - MANUFACTURING CAPABILITIES - DEPENDABLY AMERICAN MADE
Art and Soul Restaurant - Washington, DC
This client had previously used this color/texture/finish on a hotel project, and this time they tasked us with creating the same thing in a herringbone for the Art & Soul Restaurant on Capitol Hill.
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom White Oak Herringbone
Dimensions: 5/8” x 4” x 24”
Species: American White Oak
Grade: Premium Grade
Texture: Subtly Brushed
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic, Matte
Color: Custom Color “Espresso”
Best Western Federal Way - Seattle
This client was smart enough to consult with us at the inception of the project, asking our recommendations for this high-traffic floor.
We suggested Hickory, which is the hardest wood species in North America, with the addition of our “Hewn” handsculpting for added durability, paired with our ultra-hard Ceramic finish.
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom Floor
Dimensions: 1/2” x 7” x RL to 12’
Species: American Hickory
Grade: Rustic Grade
Texture: Custom Handsculpted - “Hewn”
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic
Color: Custom Color per client’s palette
Colonial Country Club - Fort Worth, TX
What do you do when a designer falls in love with a floor in a photo, which happens to be in a 300-year-old Scottish hunting lodge, and wants that floor re-made for one of the most prestigious country clubs in the country?
You get to work!
We custom-built, handsculpted, finished and pre-assembled this floor in only 6 weeks, and it looks fantastic!
The floor in the original photo was a Scottish Oak basketweave floor. (see photo)
The designers decided they would prefer to switch to Hickory for the added hardness and beautiful color variation inherent in this species.
KEY SPECS
Product: Custom - Custom - Custom!
Dimensions: 3/4” engineered x 42” x 42” Beaketweave Pattern
Species: American Hickory
Grade: Light
Texture: Subtly Brushed
Finish: UV-cured Ceramic Acrylic, Matte
Color: Custom Color “Amaretto”