The Floor Inspectors Educational Guild will present a three day course in New Orleans March 24-26 designed to help industry professionals move beyond certification to become educated.

The science behind the Wood Industry Inspection Procedures will be explained, and verified so floor industry professionals will be informed and able to correctly answer customer questions.

Dr. DeWitt, building researcher at Clemson University and structural engineer with Donon Engineering Company and Charles “Micky” Moore, author and former NOFMA Wood Flooring Inspector will translate and relate the science they teach into inspection techniques. 

Other course instructs will include Virginia Tech professors Dr. Bond, Dr. Loferski and Dr. Hindman.

Day 1 

8:20 – 8:30

Meet the Instructors

8:30 – 10:00 

Charles “Micky” Moore, The Data Collection Process Needed for a Complete Inspection analysis in your reports

10:00 – 10:20 Break

10:20 – 12:00

Dr. Loferski  and Dr. Bond lecture on wood anatomy 

Hydrogen Bonding, where it happens, why you need to know this, how wood shrinks and swells

Properties of Wood

Lunch

1:00

Dr. Loferski and Dr. Bond

How the kiln drying process is set up 

Sample boards weight and calculating Estimated MC/ODW

What does this tell us, The Installer? The Contractor? The Distributor? The Retailer

2:15 Break

2:30

What is Wet and Dry bulb and the Rh/EMC charts or MC charts

Learn how to read a kiln dry chart. What additional information should be provided to completely know what happen to cause the complaint during the drying process.

3:15 Break 

3:35-5:00

Four stages of Drying, Stress in Drying,

Drying defects and Can New Checks happen after installation in a home or building. 

Day 2 

8:30 – 10:00

Dr. DeWitt and Mr. Moore, the application of the science from the day before to the inspection process

10:00 – 10:15 Break

10:15 – 12:00

Dr. Hindman and Dr. DeWitt Lecture on the different types of home construction, terminology, Moisture in Buildings, how construction and moisture affect flooring 

Lunch

1:15 – 2:30 

More lectures on moisture in buildings, and construction,

Q/A wrap up

2:45 – 5:30

Mr. Moore lectures on the application of day’s lectures to the inspection process and general discussion, examples of inspections and reports, how to do an on site Grading Inspection using old NOFMA standards as a Historical Perceptive.

Over Wood - real or imagined? How to inspect milling issues.

How to measure tapered boards and how much flooring to inspect for statically correct reports / analysis 

Day 3 

8:45 – 10:15

Dr. Bond, Dr. Loferski, Dr. Hindman, Dr. DeWitt

Calculating MC at time of machining

Influence of hysteesis, grain, slope of grain, 

At this time, a surprise report is to be present to the class and the industry at large!

10:30 Break

11:45

Can new checks happen in a home?

Can Warpage happen in a home?

Can tapered boards occur after installation? 

Application by Dr. DeWitt and Dr. Hindman of Building science to these issues

12:00 Lunch 

1:15 – 2:30 

A review of Shearing V.S. Delamination from a scientific un-bias approach using proven peer reviewed industry known science

A class on laboratory testing you can have done

Dr. DeWitt lecture on how to us a IR camera on wood inspections, is it a necessary tool for inspectors and other “tools” we may need or don’t need

2:45-3:30 

Q/A and wrap up

Presentations of the Certificates of Attendance