Red Roots, Golden Hands

By Chris Michaels
Hardwood Floors Magazine

Although Sergey Volzhskiy has “golden hands,” he hasn’t always had a golden life. Emigrating from St. Petersburg, Russia, five years ago, he left behind a well-established career to save his family from a world he felt was no longer safe. “I was very successful, but I left everything,” he says. “Crime was everywhere, and there was no escape from it. It was all around you, even in the daytime in the middle of St. Petersburg. I was not sure my daughter would return from school every day, so what else makes sense when you can’t be sure about the safety of your loved ones?”

With his wife, Genya, and daughter, Maria, Volzhskiy found safety - and a welcoming business climate - in America. Drawing on his more than two decades of artistic flooring experience, much of it gained working on some of the most ornate wood floors in Russia, he forged a thriving contracting business in the booming metro-Atlanta area. He has made a name for himself with Golden Hands Inc., a flooring company that specializes in inlays and borders. The retail arm of Golden Hands is Artistic Hardwood Floors, a showroom that opened in 1999 in Buford, Ga. In that short time, he’s become an NWFA Partner in Education, made many submissions to Floor of the Year and has been an instructor at several NWFA schools.

As Artistic Hardwood Floors’ sole owner and only permanent full-time employee, he may have a dozen or more installers working for him at the height of the construction season. But that number pales in comparison to the 300 plus workers he directed in a former career, in another life far removed from the American South.

A palatial career

A native of St. Petersburg, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Mining Academy with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering, and later earned master’s degrees in civil and biological engineering. As a student he was interested in design, and after graduation he worked in underground construction on projects such as the St. Petersburg subway.

In 1973, he joined the largest remodeling construction company in St. Petersburg, restoring wood flooring and other interior features in many of the great palaces, cathedrals and other historic landmarks in and around the city. He became head of the company’s flooring restoration division in 1975, supervising 350 employees.

“Very soon I became general engineer of a branch in Petergoff, a suburb of St. Petersburg,” he says. “This suburb is very special because it was the summer residence for most of the Russian czars since Peter the Great. In a circle around St. Petersburg there are a lot of cathedrals and famous buildings, so we had a lot of jobs to reconstruct them,” Volzhskiy recounts. “Most of the buildings were in incredibly bad shape. Some of them hadn’t been reconstructed since World War II.”

“In the construction business in the Soviet Union, there were two people responsible for the whole company,” he explains. “The director, or general manager, was a political figure and member of the Communist Party. The general engineer was responsible for all construction.” Volzhskiy served as the general engineer. Today, visitors to palaces such as Marly Petrodvoretz, the Great Palace at Petrodvoretz, the Mikhallovskiy Palace at Strelyna, and the residential palace of Russian Czar Peter III at Oranienbaum can see - and walk on - Volzhskiy’s handiwork.

For more than 20 years, Volzhskiy helped return floors, ceilings and other interior features to their original look. “When we reconstructed these palaces and cathedrals, we had to be exact. The hardest part was finding the original design of the floors or interior design, because most of the blueprints were destroyed in [World War II],” he says.

Finding the right wood specie for the floor wasn’t always easy, either... Not every job in the then-Soviet Union was high profile. “Certainly we did plain jobs. It’s like here - you have do some thing for food and shelter every day,” Volzhskiy says. “But we were very glad to work in such extraordinary beauty. When we completed any job, even a small one, it was a great pleasure.”

A new direction

A newfound sense of optimism arrived with perestroika and the fall of the Soviet Union more than a decade ago. After running a state-owned business for many years, Volzhskiy became one of Russia’s first modern entrepreneurs. He started his own resort business with a loan from a private bank - becoming one of the first people in St. Petersburg to do so. But with the advance of more personal freedom came new troubles -troubles large enough for Volzhskiy and his family to decide to leave their home country.

“In 1990 everybody was full of hopes and dreams,” he says. “Everybody thought, ‘Now it’s time to be the owner, now it’s time to be the salesman, now it’s time to use your skills and knowledge to do something for mother Russia.’ ” But that changed quickly. Organized crime arose, and legitimate businessmen became targets. Volzhskiy himself was a victim. Once, he says, criminals threatened to harm his nephew if he didn’t give them a car. “What can you do? I gave them the car,” he says. “If you became successful [in Russia], several guys would visit you and ask if you wanted ‘protection,’” Volzhskiy says. “If you said ‘no,’ they’d say ‘okay,’ but the next day several of your cars might be bombed, or your warehouse might be burned. Then they’d come back and say, ‘Now you need protection.’ Very successful people, they get killed - or they go abroad.”

In 1990, Volzhskiy visited friends in the Atlanta area and was surprised by how friendly and open Americans were. He sold his resort business in 1995, and left Russia that October with Genya and Maria. For two years, Volzhskiy took odd jobs to support them while the three waited for permanent resident status.

"It was a busy time. I tried to find any job I could to help my family," Volzhskiy says. "Sometimes I felt like when you're skydiving, and you're not sure what kind of bag is on your shoulders. It could be just a large bag, or a parachute. But finally it was a parachute.” He founded Golden Hands in 1998 and opened Artistic Hardwood Floors one year later.

The name Golden Hands reflects Volzhskiy’s heritage, his extensive background in creativity. “This is a Russian expression. Usually in Russia we call the person who’s really handy ‘Golden Hands,’” he says. Indeed, Volzhskiy’s abilities in interior work are earning him a reputation for wood artistry among his industry peers. “There are very few people left who are really qualified to do medallions and borders,” says Paul Thompson, a metro Atlanta sales representative with Hoboken Floors, one of Artistic Hardwood Floors’ distributors. “Only a few people can do that kind of work by hand."

Volzhskiy says it's not his hands, but his drive and a supportive American atmosphere that has led to his success in the United States. Volzhskiy settled in a thriving area abundant with wood flooring jobs. “Gwinnett County is one of the five fastest-growing counties in the United States. It’s outstanding how fast it’s growing,” he says. “Business is good all year. I’m always busy. If we don’t have some project to work on right now, we have several incoming.” Working with clients who appreciate the craftsmanship and beauty of a high-end wood floor is the most satisfying part of his work, Volzhskiy says. He relishes the chance to put his artistic skills to task, but also has to rely on standard strip jobs for steady work. “Custom jobs are what I want to do, but I don’t have enough of them to pay my bills all the time,” he says. “Certainly we do plain jobs, and work for builders as well. We do any job we can find.” Beyond strip flooring, Artistic Hardwood Floors installs specialty accents, medallions and borders into new or existing floors. Volzhskiy also ventures beyond flooring into paneling and trim installation, ceiling inlays, and furniture making.

Artistic Hardwood Floors’ current home is a 2,000-square foot rented showroom featuring approximately two dozen species set in the floor. But Volzhskiy has plans to build his own shop and showroom in the next year or so. “It’s probably going to be at least 10,000 square feet,” he says. That expansion comes with a commitment to remaining in the Atlanta area. Volzhskiy and Genya, a piano teacher, recently purchased a new home, and Maria is a student at nearby Georgia State University. “We are very happy to be here,” Volzhskiy says.

Giving credit

Following the success he found in his birth country, Volzhskiy is earning a great reputation in his adopted country. Several testimonials from satisfied customers are posted on the company’s Web site at www.goldenhandsinc.com, and Volzhskiy’s distributors speak of a solid working relationship.

“He’s very easy to work with,” Thompson says. “As I tell Sergey, I wouldn’t pretend to tell him how to do anything. I’m always picking his brain on how to do it better. Sergey knows this business inside-out, upside and downside. I’ve been around for awhile and it’s nice to deal with professional people,” he adds.

“He’s had quite a storied life,” says Matt Wadsworth, operations manager at NGF, a distributor located in Alpharetta, Ga. “Professionally, he’s a very good customer and he’s had a wonderful relationship with us.”

Despite numerous accolades, Volzhskiy plays down his own skills when accounting for the success of Artistic Hardwood Floors. He instead gives credit to an American business scene that encourages and rewards knowledge and hard work. “It wasn’t me. It was the United States of America that made me successful,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re in here. If you’ve got strong skills and a strong attitude and you’re honest with people, sooner or later you’ll be successful.”

Volzhskiy reserves much of his praise for the NWFA. “I’ve got friends here in the NWFA, and I’m very appreciative of them,” he says. Although Volzhskiy learned and perfected his craft in Russia, he was a greenhorn when it came to the American installation business. The NWFA, he says, was invaluable in getting him up to speed. Volzhskiy was shepherded into the association after a chance meeting on the Internet with Jim Garth, owner of inlay manufacturer Decorative Flooring Inc. of Marietta, Ga. Volzhskiy was having a hard time finding a border or inlay supplier here in America, Garth recalls.

“When I saw what his background was, and what I thought was his potential, I told him he needed to join the NWFA, that there was a wonderful group of professional people who could share and network with him,” Garth says. Volzhskiy has been an instructor at the Advanced School, and hopes to start his own flooring education center as part of his expanded business.

“The thing that impresses me about Sergey,” Garth continues, “is that he not only had to learn how to master English, he also had to master the equipment and techniques that we use in the hardwood flooring industry, which is totally different from what they use in Russia. And he has done well.”

Volzhskiy says that the transition was not always easy. “With metric measurements versus inches, things like that, it was very confusing, tough to learn,” Volzhskiy says. “That’s why I started with the basic schools. The NWFA does such a good job for the industry. The way they educate people - it’s outstanding. I’m always thankful to the guys who helped me in my first days here.”

A simple plan

Volzhskiy’s approach to business is simple: Customer satisfaction is priority one. Small jobs are just as important as larger jobs. “My goal is to satisfy the customer, and that’s probably about it. We try to educate the customer, to show him options and make sure he gets the product he really wants,” he says. For one job, Volzhskiy crafted custom floor registers and a table from bamboo to accompany approximately 4,000 square feet of bamboo flooring.

“Nobody else made those things at the time, and the client was very happy when we did it. Adding these small projects is like adding a zero to a 10 and getting a hundred,” he says.

“Before he got into the hardwood flooring industry, he used to hand-paint murals on walls and ceilings in St. Petersburg,” Garth says. “He has this vast resource within him, an artistic ability that’s starting to blossom within the wood industry. I think the design element is what he brings to the industry that’s different - that old-world design.”

“His business philosophy is a very good one for the Atlanta market,” Wadsworth says. “He really tries to upgrade his clients to a higher grade of hardwood and to patterned floors. So many people in this business compete on bottom price, whereas he makes an effort to sell quality. That’s something that’s lacking in the Atlanta area,” he says. Volzhskiy says he is pleased with the success he’s found in America, and with the support he’s received from customers and industry comrades alike. Most of all, he says, he is glad to live in a country where even an immigrant can make a name for himself with good hands, good skills and an open mind. And he hopes to be an inspiration to others who emigrate here, he says.

“Maybe someone will say, ‘This Russian came here just a few years ago, and now he’s at the top of his industry. And I can do even better than that.’”
 

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