Carpet installation in the Knight street building finished yesterday. Thank you for your patience and allowing us in your space.

Installation in the 1483 King Edward building will continue from Tuesday to Friday next week (June 23-26).

MIRA Floors is the proud winner of the Innovative Business Practices award from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Mainland BC. The BBB Torch Awards are held annually to acknowledge excellence in the BC business community and honour companies that maintain a healthy, honest marketplace. This year the winners were announced on June 11, 2015 at a gala at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Vancouver.

The Innovative Business Practices award is presented to an accredited business for their ability to break conventional business models and have a positive impact on their industry. MIRA Floors was nominated for their mobile flooring showrooms that allow customers to cut down on repetitive visits to flooring showrooms. Award recipients are selected by an independent committee after an in-depth application process.

“We are honoured to receive the BBB’s Innovative Business Practices award,” says Kevin Bergstresser, owner of MIRA Floors. “For a service-focused business like ours, the mobile showroom is the key to delivering above industry-standard service. Customers can spend so much time taking samples between their home and the showroom when picking flooring. Implementing the mobile showroom allows customers to save time and select flooring in the comfort of their own home. We’re grateful to receive recognition from the BBB for this business practice we’ve worked so hard to develop.”

MIRA Floors & Interiors has been a BBB a accredited business since inception in 2002. This is the second BBB award MIRA Floors has received. In 2013 MIRA Floors was the Marketplace Excellence Award winner – medium business category.

The five Torch Award categories this year included Marketplace Excellence, Community Excellence, Green Award, Innovative Business Practices and People’s Pick. Visit the BBB website for a full list of the Torch Award winners.

An update for the 1483 King Edward Building.
Carpet has been removed on floors 3,4 & 5. Carpet installation on these floors will be from June 22-26.
The installation for the 4078 Knight Street building will continue as planned.
Notices will be going up around the building today or tomorrow.

The safety of laminate flooring has come under fire in recent months with the 60 minutes story on Lumber Liquidators and Lowe’s pulling Chinese laminate over formaldehyde concerns. At a recent home builder’s trade show we were still fielding questions of how to talk about California Air Resource Board (CARB) compliance with customers. Everyone just wants to know their floors are safe for their families. Here are a few  frequently asked questions about CARB compliant flooring.

What are California Air Resource Board (CARB) regulations?

The California Air Resource Board requires all composite wood products (e.g. particleboard, medium density fibreboard and hardwood plywood) for sale in California to be certified as complying with California’s formaldehyde emission standards. For flooring manufacturers, this means their laminate and engineered hardwood flooring has to be manufactured with certified composite wood products. Composite wood producers are required to have their products tested by a third-party certifier. Flooring manufacturers must label their laminate and engineered hardwood flooring boxes to indicate they were made using CARB compliant composite wood products. CARB regulations only apply in California. In Canada, there are no similar rules to regulate formaldehyde emissions from wood products.

What flooring does CARB regulations apply to?

CARB regulations apply to laminate and engineered hardwood since these products are made with composite wood products. They do NOT apply to solid hardwood and vinyl flooring.

What is formaldehyde?

Formaldehyde is a colourless, strong-smelling chemical often used to make home building products. In everyday life, we are exposed to formaldehyde through tobacco smoke, cars, fires and even some glues and cleaning products.

How can I tell if my flooring is CARB compliant?

The CARB indoor air-quality standards were implemented in two parts. The second phase implemented in 2012 lowered the formaldehyde limit to a more stringent 0.05 parts per million. We recommend checking that laminate and engineered hardwood meet this second phase of CARB standards, known as CARB 2.

In the wake of the alleged issues with Lumber Liquidators laminate, flooring manufacturers are being more transparent about their supply chains and CARB certifications. The recent news has taught the flooring marketplace the value of asking more questions. Does the flooring manufacturer produce their own products or buy from others? If they buy from other suppliers, what do they do to ensure the products meet air-quality standards? Do they sell CARB compliant products to all customers or just those in California? Do they do additional testing? Do they go above and beyond CARB compliance by submitting their products for additional certification from independent third-parties?

Two flooring manufacturers that are exceeding expectations in their commitment to safe, sustainable products are Shaw Floors and Armstrong. Read the Shaw Floors laminate and hardwood certifications statement and the Armstrong’s eco-friendly laminate page for more information.

This week marks the completion of our work at the Inasmuch Refugee Claimants house. Each year the MIRA Floors team picks a project we can contribute free flooring to. We recognize that adequate funding is a huge challenge for many non-profit societies. With other day-to-day operational costs taking priority, there often isn’t room in the budget for much needed building improvements. For our 2015 project, we worked with Inasmuch Refugee Claimants to install new flooring in their home for refugees.

Inasmuch Refugee Claimants houses and cares for refugees and refugee claimants. “The people that enter the doors of Inasmuch will have witnessed torture, war, and will have experienced great trauma in their lives. Our desire is to surround them with safety, clothing, food, and direction as they manoeuvre their way through the maze of emigration,” explains Dawn-Lynn, who founded Inasmuch with her husband Peter. For more information about Inasmuch, read the recent Abbotsford News article about renovating the refugee home.

The old flooring was a vintage flooring lover’s dream. Classic vinyl patterns paired with blood red and bright pink carpets.

George and Zac posing for a photo

Zac installing carpet

Tom and Steve working together to install vinyl plank

For this project we installed new flooring throughout the entire house. We picked a durable click together vinyl plank for much of the main floor. For the lower kitchen and basement we choose a sheet vinyl with a more contemporary pattern than the existing. A long-lasting nylon carpet in a neutral tone was installed on the upper floors and staircase.

Living room before

Living room after with Shaw Floorte vinyl plank installed

Basement Kitchen before. The contractor involved built an entire kitchen in this empty room

Basement Kitchen after with Armstrong Initiator vinyl installed

Family room before

Family room after with Shaw Sweet Something carpet installed