Best Practices: Ballston Capet & Tile – Nov 2025

By Jessica Chevalier

Ballston Carpet & Tile is a well-oiled machine that pulls in $4.5 million a year from one location with a team of only 15, including staff installers. Founded and owned by Joe Gagne, Ballston Carpet & Tile, which focuses on quality products for the residential remodel market primarily, is currently in the process of adding an 17,000-square-foot design center, adjacent to its existing showroom, which will enable it to open its doors more widely to the design community and expand its rug fabrication operations.

GROWING A BUSINESS

As a young man, Gagne worked for Payless Cashways’ Somerville Lumber & Supply Company in Massachusetts, a building materials retailer, before taking a job with Carpeteria in Pocasset on Cape Cod, where he learned and performed rug binding. Gagne quickly felt the urge to step out on his own in the business. After experiencing an injury, he used his recovery time to plan the launch of his independent endeavor.  

Gagne bought a pickup truck; established a relationship with a flooring distributor, from which he got samples; and drove around, stopping anywhere he saw construction underway to say, “I’m Joe Gagne. I’m in the area doing flooring. If there’s anything I can help you with, let me know.” 

The response was often a positive one. “They’d grab me by the collar and show me their project right then,” Gagne recalls. “Everyone needs flooring eventually.”

As Gagne’s operation grew, he did primarily residential work but also commercial here and there. He had his own crews and later formed a relationship with the Peabody Construction Company for multifamily work. 

Eventually, however, he felt the pull of home. Gagne returned to his hometown of Saratoga Springs and began looking for a spot to open a flooring retail store. He rented a location on Route 9 in Malta, near the Saratoga Speedway. Unbeknownst to Joe, the landlord’s teenaged son was working on a stockcar in the back of the building. The stockcar caught fire, and the location burned. 

Gagne didn’t let that stop him. “I got a warehouse, retained all my customers and never missed a beat,” he adds. 

He found his next location on Route 50 in the town of Ballston Spa and set up shop. A few years later, when an old beverage center two doors down became available, Joe bought it and remodeled it into the location Ballston Carpet & Tile works out of today. 

The new design center, currently being constructed next door, is intended to be a state-of-the-art facility to which designers bring their clients. In addition, it will enable the company to expand its rug fabrication business, which Joe sees as an area of significant opportunity. “We do a lot at the high-end and want to do more there. We buy brands like Couristan, Fabrica and Anderson Tuftex and fabricate carpet and area rugs.”

He continues, “Our Create-A-Rug program has been taking off. Customers can get whatever they want: any size, any color, any shape. That’s really attractive, and that’s where future business is going. With so much hard surface today, rugs are needed. Lots of people go online to buy area rugs, so we advertise as ‘Create-A-Rug’ to communicate what we do. That keeps them coming in.”

Just last month, Gagne also purchased a new warehouse space behind his current operation, something he had been hoping to do for 15 years. 

SUCCESS STRATEGIES

Ballston Carpet & Tile stocks a significant amount of flooring material in carpet, LVT and sheet vinyl. “When I go to Surfaces, I buy a lot,” Gagne explains. “From Mannington and other companies, I buy annually, put lots of material in inventory and sell it. It works well, and I get such good deals.” 

Inventorying product speaks to Gagne’s larger strategy of financing on the front end. “We don’t struggle financially. We pay for everything as we go,” he notes. This has been crucial to achieving the financial independence that enables Gagne to make big moves. 

A significant part of Ballston Carpet & Tile’s promotion travels on four wheels. The company has 15 GMC Terrain vehicles and a few box trucks that are lettered with the business name and logo. Gagne and his team keep the vehicles clean and attractive. “They are all over the community,” says Gagne. “When a customer sees a truck and needs flooring, the name sticks with them.” The Ballston Carpet & Tile team also wears a uniform shirt, with the business providing shirts for all weather and seasons.  

COMMUNITY TIES

In addition to the material it stocks, Ballston Carpet & Tile sells hardwood, porcelain and area rugs from companies including Dynamic, Stanton, Couristan and, soon, Kalaty. The company does not sell any non-flooring products. 

As a long-established retailer, Ballston Carpet & Tile has built a strong reputation by focusing on customer service. The company keeps a tidy showroom at all times. 

The staff members as well trained and enthusiastic. Andrew Baker, whose mom Valerie Baker is Ballston Carpet & Tile’s bookkeeper, manages the store. “Andrew and Craig Smith, in sales, pretty much run the show today,” says Gagne. “They do a great job together. We don’t have a lot of people on the floor. They’re it.”  

Most of Ballston Carpet & Tile’s installers are employees. The company works with a handful of long-term subs, who prefer their designation as independent contractors, but largely uses its own employees for installation. “I don’t think a lot of competitors have in-house installers, especially on the residential side,” Gagne says. “Our elder installers have trained a lot of the younger guys. We treat them well and pay them well.

“The majority of our business is residential. There’s a little mainstreet commercial, a little builder. We have a lot of cash-and-carry but also a lot of installation business. From my experience, you really need to have a niche and stay in that lane.”

Gagne is content with the size and makeup of his operation. “I don’t want to get too big, having multiple stores spread out,” he says. “Some people are built for having multiple locations, but I like what I have now. Customers come to us. We are one of the largest stores in the area, if not the largest. When customers come in, they will be treated very well. We get lots of referral work. We have families we have worked with through the years and are now installing their kids’ floors and their kids’ kids’ floors.”

Gagne recalls the days of hustle, where he had to work odd jobs while trying to get his business off the ground and feels gratitude for the community that got his business where it is today. “We give a lot to the community, and that comes back to us with support,” he says. Ballston Carpet & Tile is active in supporting community events, particularly anything having to do with veterans. “I have a heart for veterans. My brother is a Vietnam veteran,” Gagne notes.

FUTURE PLANS

Getting the design center open is job number one at present. Gagne believes the new facility has the potential to double store sales. 

While both of his sons have helped at Ballston Carpet & Tile, Gagne is encouraging them to pursue their college educations and explore their own interests. If their paths lead them back to Ballston Carpet & Tile one day, so be it. 

Related Topics:The International Surface Event (TISE), Mannington Mills, Couristan, Tuftex, Anderson Tuftex, The Dixie Group