Chip Wade - Expert Craftsman

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and resolved to make 2012 their most impressive DIY year yet. Maybe you’re ready to take on some landscaping in the yard or do some custom wood-cutting for the kid’s bedroom. Whatever the project, make this the year you conquer that pesky to-do list.

If you’re ready to tackle an installation project, make sure you visit my page on the newly redesigned Mohawk Flooring website. We put together some video clips aimed at helping you prep for the task that are worth taking a look at- or two.

We’ve got videos on: Hardwood Installation Tips, SmartStrand Carpet, Tile Flooring, Tile Installation, and Laminate Installation. And the Mohawk website has some valuable additional information such as Flooring Guides and Measurement Tips to consider as well.

Do a little research before you begin and you might just impress yourself at what you are able to accomplish. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and always exercise proper safety precautions. Make sure to email me your before and after project pics- Good luck!

October is right around the corner and as many know October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. However, this is an important issue year-round and Mohawk is taking charge with their Decorate for the Cure initiative.

Mohawk SmartCushion is the premium carpet cushion that gives homes added comfort and protection. Well now, that protection even extends to the ones you love. From June 2011 to December 2012, Mohawk will contribute a minimum guaranteed donation of $100,000 from the sale of SmartCushion to Susan G. Komen for the Cure™ to help fund ongoing breast cancer research.

How important is this research? Well, consider that the number of women over 40 who now receive regular mammograms has more than doubled. In the US alone, the five-year survival rates for early-detected breast cancer has increased to almost 100%. And America’s 2.5 million breast cancer survivors are the largest group of cancer survivors today.

If you’re interested in purchasing SmartCushion for your home, you can use the Mohawk Store Locator to find the retailer nearest you. Every little bit counts in the fight against breast cancer!

Despite a little rain here and there, I had a great time at Sunset Celebration Weekend 2011 in Menlo Park, CA. After filming Curb Appeal: The Block in San Francisco, I’m used to the bay area weather!

Luckily, we had the refuge of the Mohawk Artful Home Pavilion for when the light showers hit. Inside the Pavilion, me and my fellow HGTV personality Taniya Nayak met with visitors and showed off vignettes that we designed.

In fact, Taniya and I even squared off in a friendly design competition as visitors voted on which design they preferred- my rustic Northern California-inspired vignette versus Taniya’s cozy Southern California-styled vignette.

We had a great time, shared a lot of laughs, and answered many design/DIY questions for everyone who came. I even took the stage to present “The Weekend Renovation: Easy, Budget-Friendly Fixes” on both days.

The visitors were incredible, I had a great time speaking on stage, and I got to show off my design skills. Not to mention, my vignette ended up receiving the most votes making me the Sunset Celebration champ!

Thanks again to everyone who came out and I hope this weekend gave everyone some inspiration to take home.

I’ve teamed up with Mohawk and DuPont to introduce a revolutionary and extraordinary new class of carpet called SmartStrand. Triexta is unique in that it combines both exceptional durability with permanent built-in stain and soil protection- no other fiber can make this claim.

And it’s also eco-smart! It’s made with a renewable resource, corn. It requires less energy to make and reduces our dependency on oil. SmartStrand DuPont carpets are inherently and incredibly soft.

To prove how durable and stain resistant SmartStrand carpets are, we put it to the ultimate test- a 2,800 pound African black rhino and six of his elephant friends who challenged SmartStrand during our recent SmartStrand Zoo Challenge.

Who do you think won the challenge? That’s right, SmartStrand won!

Well, I have been traveling the country to speak at numerous home shows and I had a great time at the Des Moines Home Show. Now I am on the road once more, headed to the Capital Home & Garden Show in DC!

As always, I’ll lend helpful tips for designing and executing DIY projects on a budget and share some behind-the-scenes stories from my experience on HGTV. I’ll also help identify some of the problems that we have encountered in our episodes and explain different solutions to prevent the same mistake at home.

You can still save on buying your advance tickets using the “MOHAWK” promo code when purchasing online. Check out the commercial below and I look forward to seeing all of you this weekend, February 25th - February 17th: