I'm thinking seriously of offering a service of insetting border & medallian work into existing pre-finished installations. Getting set up with Festool equiptment etc., and purchasing through a border/medallian company, ( such as Czar). They will manufacture to any thickness, and pre-finish.

I think it could be a good ad on niche, but a few things bother me, what do you guys think?
I'm looking for "devils advocate", I'm sure I'm in the right place.

Sounds great Howard. You gonna try and upsell all your jobs? I can barely get people to do something different due to the cost of the hardwood period.

Don't think you really need festool stuff, look at the Dewalt saw.

The only problem I see is that the time involved and getting paid for the time you spend. If you are fast and accurate, it might be a great thing. And if you love doing stuff like this even better.

I am thinking of upselling all the installs,( whenever ALL the installs come rolling in again). But mainly thinking of marketing to folks that already have their wood installed, as an add on. That's the tricky part ( installing the borders after the fact, sort of speak), the medallians are installed after wood is down anyway.

You have a point on the Dewalt. I have been studying the rewiews and comparrisons, there are some advantages also,( besides price). Gotta tryto keep the whole setup down to a roar

Getting paid for the time you spend is definetely an issue. I would plan on being very efficient. It has to be cost effective for the customer and myself, still trying to figure numbers. I definetely would enjoy the work, but the bills roll in.

One concern I have is this...Your insetting a border in 3/8" existing wood, you cut out where your insetting, but your dealing with no t&g. I'm not sure if adding a t&g in this situation is feasable. In this senario overwood bothers me.

That's what bugs me about installing into existing floors, especially ones that didn't have any floor prep done. Unfortunately those designs (3/8" yes...3/4" no) aren't that flexible unless you add some relief cuts on the backside...very carefully. I sold one medallion a few years ago to one very knowledgeable guy up north. He couldn't get over how people should be expected to just drop them in glue, weight it down, and be done with it. He created some sort of ship lap joint so the medallion could be glued on the perimeter.

Then you could always have them micro beveled before the finish is applied. It's different, but most prefinished floors are beveled anyway.

Something I haven't been concerned about is the flexibility , (shouldn't assume). I see that as a real problem...Here your dealing with an existing floor that is possibly not flat,( I know the slabs out here), questionable prep, possible hollow spots. No t&g, and a product that has limited flexibility, and could very possibly arrive with, or inherrit, slight bowing, etc. Now that sounds like a special situation.

I can see maybe getting away with some beveled applications, but there's still a huge market here for 3" square edge.

Putting numbers together...I'm starting to question SFC's point.. Time involved, and getting paid for the time spent. To me it's becoming apparent that your much better off installing footage. Just trying to figure ways to battle this economy and the number of new installs going in..

Throwing a border in any type of flooring has never been a huge money maker IMHO. I've done lots of that in many other floors, carpet, tile,vct. It does set you apart from the rest of the crowd though.

Making up some sample panels with a few in there would help sell it. I like the old traditional thin strip of inset cherry

I'm probably as cautious as they come Howard, and I too watch out for what your main concern is. I can only speak for myself, but I haven't ran into any problems so far. And a 3/8" product does not have be t&g'd, although I will do that when possible. Oshkosh says it's not required and having done some I would not worry about that.

Good luck, you know what you're doing.