Saint Paul / Minnesota / United States
What started as a hobby has led to a highly successful business for Steve Schmid. Steve, a former teacher and counselor in Minneapolis Public Schools, installed hardwood floors in his Sturgeon Lake log cabin in 1980 with the help of his wife, Linda. Falling in love with his cabins hardwood floors, Steve ripped out the carpet in his Roseville home and replaced it with hardwood. When a neighbor saw the results and asked for help with his own home, Floors by Steve was born. Word traveled, and soon other neighbors, fellow teachers, friends and relatives asked Steve to either install hardwood floors in their homes or to sand and refinish existing ones. Operating off the kitchen table and later from a basement office, Steve worked after school, on weekends and during summer vacation. When Steves daughter Lisa joined the husband-and-wife team in 1995, Floors by Steve took off. Steve retired from the school system in 1999 and began devoting his time to the business. Today, the Schmids have a 2, 000-square-foot showroom in Roseville that boasts a beautiful show floor inlayed with a colorful, swirling pattern. "You can take a trip around the world just by visiting our store, " Linda says. In addition to domestic woods such as oak, maple, cherry, and birch, Floors by Steve also sells exotic wood from China, the Caribbean, South America, Europe and coastal regions of the Mediterranean, just to name a few. The showroom contains over 300 samples of exotic, domestic, solid, floating and engineered wood.
