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A knack for hardwood

Casa Madera celebrates 10 years in the Heights

At the edge of the Heights near Boundary Road there is a quaint and unremarkable door, a door that most people would walk right by without even a second glance.

But step through the door and you’ll discover a shop that is much more than it seems.

Casa Madera has been a fixture of the Heights neighbourhood for 10 years exactly. The hardwood-flooring store owned and operated by Burnaby resident Peter Pocrnic has been quietly supplying contractors, homeowners, business owners, and designers with unique and trendy flooring for a decade.

For about five years prior to opening Casa Madera, Pocrnic worked for a flooring wholesaler. When it came time to open his own shop, the Heights was a natural choice for the Burnaby-raised resident. The shop, located at 3744 Hastings St., is not what one would expect of a flooring store. It’s small, unassuming storefront doesn’t scream flooring, but walk in and there’s no mistaking what Casa Madera sells. Hundred (if not thousands) of hardwood samples are everywhere. While today the shop is stocked to the brim with samples, it wasn’t always this way, Pocrnic said.

“We started with just a couple of small display racks, and now we’ve got so much selection that eventually we’re going to have to find a bigger location,” he said.

Hardwood flooring has come a long way during this past decade. Today, homeowners, designers and others have so much choice it can sometimes be overwhelming, Pocrnic said. Everything from texture, finishes, colour, wood and material has changed.  “They’re becoming so much more innovative with colours, he said. “We’ve just got to keep up with it.”

And if someone can’t find exactly what they’re looking for at Casa Madera’s shop, Pocrnic will have it custom-made at the mill.

“We can actually custom-stain some wood flooring products and most mouldings and stair nosings for steps,” he said. “We get them custom milled and custom finished – that’s what sets us apart from the rest of the crowd.”

By going directly to the mill, Pocrnic can control the quality of the products and ensure that all the pieces, from the floor to the moulding, is an exact colour match.

“If I do order flooring and get the distributor’s mouldings, a lot of times the colours are not a really good match so I usually get them done myself,” he said. Continued from page 16 ...

But it’s not only the great customer service that keeps Casa Madera’s customers coming back time and time again, it’s the company’s dedication to the community.

Casa Madera is not only a member of the Greater Vancouver Homebuilders’ Association but also a member of the Burnaby Board of Trade and, of course, the Burnaby Heights Merchants Association.

“We’re very active with the Burnaby Heights Merchants Association and definitely we have a close community feel. … we are more of a community-based company,” Pocrnic said.

Like many other businesses in the Heights, Casa Madera has relied a lot on word of mouth to help boost business, and Pocrnic is pleased with the result.

“Just being here in the Heights has helped too. We get a lot of people that live in the community that want to help the small boutique stores,” he said.

As the hardwood flooring industry continues to flourish, Casa Madera will soon outgrow the label of a “boutique” store, but Pocrnic has no intention of jumping the shark.

“There are stores that do it all, but we’ve got a knack for wood and we want to specialize in wood, and so we do, and that’s our little forte,” he said. “We’re good at it.”