Sustainable Series: Smart Landscaping

As we all look to continually improve our “carbon footprint” – there are changes that we can make to ensure we are being green AND energy efficient. Smart landscaping can go a long way toward increasing the comfort of your home. Just a few simple considerations when landscaping around your home and property can make a big difference in the efficiency of your heating and cooling systems. Planting trees, greenery and shrubbery are also great for the environment!

Here are some easy tips that you can implement when landscaping:

Plant & Tree Positioning

• Proper positioning of your trees can reduce the energy consumption of your home by up to 25%! The U.S. Department of Energy has released predictions that the correct placement of just 3 trees can save an average household between $100 and $250 in energy costs annually.*
• Something as simple as shading your air conditioner can also help to increase its efficiency by as much as 10%.*
• Planting shrubs, bushes, and vines next to your house creates dead spaces that insulate your home in both winter and summer.

Shading

• When planting trees and other plants, think about the exposure of your windows. For example, the windows that face due west should be given priority. Selection of trees is also key – large or shady trees are best, and can be placed within twenty feet of windows.
• An interesting tip to take note of: “Contrary to intuition, the least energy efficient place for a tree is to the south of a house. In summer when the sun is high at midday, the shadow of a tree falls directly under the tree and entirely misses a home to its north. In winter, however, the shadow of the same tree will fall on the house throughout most of the day. To avoid shading south windows, any trees south of the home should be located at least twice their mature height away from the house.”*
• As previously mentioned – shading air conditioner units are a great way to keep them more efficient. These appliances run more efficiently when they are in cooler environments. Paved areas like driveways and patios absorb and radiate heat far faster than planted areas. Plant trees near paved areas around the house or grow vines on a trellis over or near patios to create cooler areas around your house.

* First Energy

From The Desk Of: Our CEO – “Business Tips”

With decades of experience in the industry, our CEO David T. Meberg has been exposed to all topics surrounding flooring. In addition, he brings forth knowledge on what it takes to manage and run a business in the largest metropolitan market in the United States. Here are some tips for business from David on running a successful business:

Keys of Success: “Hard work and building lasting relationships with associates and clients.”

On Company Costs: “It is extremely important to always be aware of your true cost of labor. This includes direct costs (labor, materials, supplies, freight) and indirect costs (taxes, insurance, overhead, warehousing).”

On Knowing Your Market: “Each market is unique in its logistical requirements for delivery and installation. Study your market and maximize your efficiencies.”

Flooring For Education

One of the most specialized segments of the construction and flooring industries is Education. Although there are varied needs throughout the stages of schooling, most of the unique needs remain the same. Here are some of the trends and focuses of flooring for education:

Enhanced Learning

• Support way finding – The right kind of flooring can aid the flow of traffic through a school, as well as distinguish public areas from smaller collaborative areas. Something as small as using a different color way from a hallway to reading area or lounge can dramatically change the way students and adults navigate through a space.
• Sound mitigation to enhance productivity & focus – It can be difficult to maintain focus in the classroom with so many environmental distractions – such as noise and glare – around. Informed decision making can help to alleviate this “problems” to help students be more productive and focused in the classroom. For example, because of its sound-absorption, carpet can reduce noise  up to 24-40%.*

Cleanliness & Safety

• Slip & fall reduction – Safety is key in an educational setting. With such a high amount of traffic in the public spaces of schools, trips, slips and falls can become common. By choosing products that have high coefficients of friction can reduce the probability of slips. Proper installation and maintenance of these products are vital to the overall wear and success of the space – to ensure that there are no ditches or bumps in the subfloor and that the floors aren’t excessively waxed – lowering the slip coefficient.
• Anti-microbial & moisture mitigation – With so many students and adults in most-confined spaces, the spread of bacteria, sickness and mold is a major concern in education. Thankfully, many manufacturers on both the carpet and hard surface sides are aware of these problems and have products that reduce the spread of bacteria and inhibit the growth of bacteria. Moisture mitigation is important in environments where accidents and spills happen on a frequent basis – such as schools.
• Improvement of indoor air quality – Choosing the proper flooring can help to decrease allergen circulation throughout a space. In addition, using low-VOC or VOC-free products can eliminate volatile emissions, making the air safer for those in an educational facility.

Here are just a handful of the many manufacturers have quality product lines specifically created for the Education Market Segment:

• Mohawk Group
• Shaw Contract
• Patcraft
• Interface
• Nora
• Forbo
• Mats Inc.

Site Feature: St. Mary’s Hospital

Project: St. Mary’s Hospital

Location: Bayside, NY
Completed: 2012
Scope: 85,000 square feet
Major Products Used: Forbo Marmoleum Dual Tile, Eco Rubber Tile, Interface Carpet Tile
Architect: Stantec Architecture, Columbus, Ohio

Entryway to St. Mary’s

Rehab Gym

Rehab Room

Lobby At St. Mary’s

Starlight Foundation Room

Photography Credit:  Ichiro Kameoka, Ike Kameoka Photography, Columbus, Ohio

Flashback Friday: 1950’s at Consolidated Carpet

1950’s

Number of Full-time Associates – 56
Major Customers – Carpet Distributor Corp, Dippel, Vogler & Sharkey, Loews, Carpet Salesman, Circle Floors
Major Projects – Socony Mobil, Sky Chef, University of Indiana, Peck & Peck, Toule AFB (Greenland), Ohrbachs, Taft Hotel, Sheraton (Philadelphia, Dallas, Binghamton, Park Sheraton, McAlpin, Russell, East, Astor), Lexington Hotel, Loews Hotels (Summit, Howard Johnson, Americana, City Squire, Regency, Ramada Inn)

Entering into our second decade in business, we expanded out to installations in cities such as Dallas & Binghamton and continued our successes in the New York Tri-state area. In addition, the 50’s brought new Meberg’s into the business with the founders Leif and Tom’s son’s Lloyd, Tor and Arne joining the company in 1951 and 1959. As an install-only company throughout this decade, a majority of our work was focused on hospitality projects around the country.

Tom’s son, Tor Meberg

Tom’s Son, Arne Meberg

Original Shop Picture – 1959

Bill Olsen – “Squaring Off” on the Cutting Floor

Outtakes from the Shop Picture – 1959

More Outtakes – 1959

Mike Lundegaard – “The Men Are On the Way”

Tom Meberg at Mike Lundegaard’s Desk

Consolidated CEO David Meberg Honored At Annual Golf Outing

(l to r) David Meberg of Consolidated Carpet, Father Francis Gasparik of St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters, and Jim Phillips of TPG Architecture

On a sunny Monday in Larchmont, New York, Consolidated Carpet’s CEO David T. Meberg proudly received recognition for his unwavering support of St. Francis Food Pantries and Shelters at the charity’s Annual Golf for Hunger Event. The 15^th Annual Golf Outing & Pool Party Fundraiser on July 29, 2013 was hosted by  Jim Phillips of TPG Architecture. The event was well-attended by many in the construction, design and real estate industries. With the backing of these numerous supporters, the event raised over $350,000 for St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters.

David and our organization have been supporters of St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters for a number of years, frequently coordinating and participating in fundraising events for the local non-profit.

“St. Francis Food Pantries provides essential services for those less fortunate than us throughout the N.Y. Metro Area,” said David. “I am privileged and humbled to be honored by such an important organization.”

St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters serves the poor in local communities by providing shelter, food, clothing and counseling to support the emotional and physical needs of the less fortunate. The organization serves over 1.2 million meals each year throughout  22 non-profit Food Pantries, Soup Kitchens, Safe Havens, Drop In Centers and Shelters supported by St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey.

We are proud to continue our support for such a worthy cause and urge you to learn more about St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters by visiting their website at www.stfrancispantries.org.

“Define This”: A Guide To Commercial Flooring

As our interns’ time came to an end last week – we sat down with them to discuss some of the “terms” they frequently came across while working at Consolidated for the summer. With experience visiting local showrooms and networking with industry professionals, they came up with a list of the 15 most representative terms of what they learned about commercial flooring. Awesome work, Alyssa & Ameilia!

1. Antimicrobial – Chemical treatment to resist or retard the growth of bacteria/microbes.
2. Cut and Loop Pile – Carpet whose face shows a pattern, either geometrical or floral, made up of a combination of loop pile tufts and cut pile tufts. The carpet can be dyed solid or multicolored.
3. Cut Pile – A pile surface created by cutting the loops of yarn in a tufted, woven or fusion bonded carpet.
4. Delamination – A form of deterioration of tufted carpet in which the primary back and its tufted-through face yarns separate from the secondary backing.
5. Dye Lot – A quantity of carpet dyed at one time or made from yarn dyed at one time which is consistent in color throughout the fabric.
6. Greige Goods – Term designating carpet in an undyed or unfinished state.
7. Loop Pile – A tufted or woven carpet pile surface where the face yarns remain continual loops, connected together beneath the backing of the carpet. Loop pile can be level, textured, or patterned.
8. Pieced Dyed –  Tufted carpet is immersed into a dye bath, as opposed to yarn dye methods in which color is added to yarn before tufting.
9. Printed Carpet – Carpet having colored patterns applied after the finishing process. Printing methods include flatbed screen printing employing woven fabric screens, rotary screen printing with perforated sheet steel screens, printing employing sponge rubber pattern elements on wooden rollers, and modern computer programmed jet injection printing.
10. PVC (polyvinyl chloride) – Used mostly in carpet tile or 6’ wide goods due to its weight and stiffness. PVC gives a stiff, stable backing with little cushioning but excellent tuft bind and stability. Closed-cell vinyl adds cushion.
11. Shading – Apparent color difference between areas of the same carpet caused by normal wear and the resulting random difference in pile lay direction. It is a characteristic of all cut pile carpet. It is not a manufacturing defect. The physical cause is the difference between cut end luster and side luster of fibers. The sides of fibers reflect more light and appear brighter and lighter in color than the ends which absorb more light and appear to be duller and darker in color.
12. Shearing – Finishing process in carpet manufacturing to create a smooth carpet face by shaving off fuzz. The shearing process can also be used to create texture as in random shearing. Carpet shears have many steel blades mounted on rotating cylinders.
13. Solution Dyed – Pigment is added to the molten chemical polymer (solution) from which the filaments are made. The fiber is extruded in colored form.
14. Tufting – A method of carpet manufacture in which surface yarns are sewn or “punched” through a primary backing material. The needles of the tufting machine form loops which are hooked by loopers on the underside of the  backing material and which remain loops in level or textured loop carpet, or are cut with knives instead of loopers to create cur pile carpet. The tufted fabric is then coated with latex adhesive to adhere a secondary back to provide durability and stability.
15. Weaving – The original method for manufacturing carpet. In the weaving process, backing yarns are woven into a durable fabric while simultaneously face yarns are looped over wires and interlocked in the woven back.

*definitions via DuPont

Sustainable Series: Our Solar Energy Practices

In December 2011, Consolidated strengthened our commitment to sustainability by installing a Solar Photovoltaic System on the roof of our Carlstadt, NJ Warehouse Facility. The 16,000 square foot system is affixed to the 100,000 square foot roof, which is covered with white thermoplastic (TPO) to increase reflection and keep HVAC costs low. The solar panel array generates 90% of the facility’s total energy usage. Since it’s installation, the system has generated energy equivalent to using 88,975 60-watt light bulbs 8 hours a day for a year. In addition, the total energy generated equals the saving of 11,192 tons of CO2 or 1,262,612 gallons of gas! Not only have we saved a great deal of CO2 from entering our environment, the total CO2 offset from the solar panel system is equivalent to planting 280,580 trees.

We’re proud to be a sustainable organization and strive to continue to ensure we are giving back to the environment in responsible ways. To view up-to-the-minute solar energy data, visit our website or our deck monitoring system!