Best Practices: Martin’s Flooring – Jan 2026
By Jessica Chevalier
Weston Martin took the reins of Martin’s Flooring in October 2023, succeeding his parents, Barbara and Michael, in the business that they founded and built. Martin’s is a four-location retail and commercial flooring operation based in eastern Pennsylvania, with its headquarters in Denver, Pennsylvania. This fall, the business celebrated its 40th anniversary, with Weston reporting that Martin’s is “open to opportunities” that will propel it in its next era of growth.
A BLOOMING BUSINESS
Barbara and Michael had aspirations of owning a business. Barbara’s father, an entrepreneur, encouraged the young couple on that path. Though they knew nothing about flooring, they found someone who could teach them the ins and outs and took the plunge. In 1985, they opened a retail shop in a small, detached building beside their home. Michael attended Armstrong training, and the pair were on their way.
In 1994, Martin’s joined Carpet One, and the business added locations to its portfolio, moving the Denver store to a larger spot two miles from Barbara and Michael’s home, and establishing additional locations in Lancaster, Oxford and Wyomissing. All of the locations are branded Carpet One except the Lancaster store (because another Carpet One exists in the city). In total, the business services three counties-Lancaster, Chester and Berks-with its retail operations.
In addition to its growing retail business, Martin’s diversified into commercial work. As is true for many residential dealers, early commercials jobs often came from Martin’s business-owning customers, who, happy with the work Martin’s did in their homes, hired them on to do their business floors as well. Today, Martin’s does commercial projects large and small across southeastern Pennsylvania. This includes services such as polishing concrete.
Martin’s also does builder work and offers window treatments as well as floor maintenance, including water extraction cleaning and hard surface strip and wax services for both commercial and says clients.
“We are basically a one-stop shop. We do any type of flooring and any type of project,” says Weston.
Martin’s works to maintain a 50/50 ratio between commercial and residential work, though, at present due to the state of the market, its leaning more heavily toward the commercial side.
BRANCHING OUT
Weston, the second of Barbara and Michael’s four children and the oldest son, knew from an early age that he wanted to join the family business. “It was natural for me to be helping my dad, first pulling weeds and washing cars and then working in the warehouse,” Weston recalls. “Eventually, I was installing. I saw what we could do with the business.”
After studying business management at York Technical Institute, Weston got a job outside of the family business, a requirement of his parents, but always with the intention of returning. After three years as a real estate agent, Weston reapplied at Martin’s, went through the interview process and was hired.
With his background in installation, Weston specialized in operations upon his return. When he took over as president two years ago, his parents stepped back, though they are still available to offer consultation.
SEEDING CONFIDENCE
Martin’s motto is, “We install confidence.” And that slogan speaks to the team’s level of professionalism and expertise. Weston says, “That embodies everyone from our trained design staff to our sales team to our certified installers and seasoned estimators. We have lots of continuing education on the latest trends and technical knowledge. As a team, that sets us apart.”
In these efforts, the company utilizes both Carpet One resources-vendor training programs and proprietary programming.
The same process is employed with new hires. Martin’s uses the Carpet One onboarding program and in addition has the new hire spend time with each department to understand its operations and learn the company’s culture.
ROOTED IN PRODUCT
In its retail business, Martin’s offers a full array of flooring products.
LVT is a hot product for Martin’s at present. “It came on and took over the industry,” says Weston. “We used to do a large amount of carpet, and then it kind of flipped, but I feel we are getting more carpet requests recently. LVT is still strong. Laminate is coming on. But I’m also seeing a steady surge of interest in carpet. Customers like its soft, warm feel.”
Rug wise, the company offers both premade rugs for its customers as well as made-to-order pieces. Its ceramic business includes flooring, backsplash and custom shower work.
Weston reports that the Martin’s team is happy to do any size job-even a minor repair on flooring that the company did not initially install. “We are here to be a resource for everybody,” he says.
In choosing what to sell, Weston leans on his reps’ knowledge, querying them about what is selling well where and what trends are gaining steam.
Interestingly, the populations Martin’s serves vary. The Denver and Oxford stores are more rural, while the Lancaster and Wyomissing stores are in town. For this reason, Martin’s carries products from value to high-end to support its variety of customers.
GROWING THE GARDEN
Staffing is the greatest challenge that Weston faces. While he has a great team, continued growth necessitates more team members, and finding good candidates isn’t always easy. Weston reports that he utilizes all the standard channels to fill openings, but most often, the best candidates come via the word-of-mouth channel.
The retailer is happy to train new hires from the floor up, as long as they are a fit with the company’s culture.
Martin’s employs the bulk of its installation crew as hourly personnel. Some installation team members specialize in commercial work, others in residential, though they do swap team members back and forth as needed to most effectively complete jobs.
Martin’s sees flooring as a form of art encouraging all its sales staff to have some form of design experience, some of which comes through Carpet One training modules. In addition, the company employees degreed designers who specialize in large commercial projects.
A MATURING BUSINESS
Martin’s social media activity is something that Weston want to improve up. “We know it’s best if we put out content that is organic-our jobs and people, not promotional ads,” Weston explains. “The hardest part of that for us is going back to the homes we’ve worked in and getting the photos. The content grab is challenging. But in the last few months, we have put a focus on that.”
Looking ahead, Weston is intent on seizing the opportunities that come the business’ way, “We are open to opportunities,” he says. “We are here to provide for our customers and grateful to have a successful company to provide opportunities for our employees. We want to keep providing those opportunities and watching our people and the company grow.”