Installation’s Evolution: Shifts in flooring materials, compositions and formats continue to change the game for flooring installers – March 2024

By Jennifer Bardoner

When veteran installer Robert Varden starts off the classes he now teaches, he likes to ask the attendees which flooring materials they work with the most. In his heyday in the trade, the answer would have been broadloom, but today, the residential market favors rigid core, while commercially, it’s mostly carpet tile and flex LVT. As the materials have evolved, so, too, have the processes and tools used to install them.

Thanks to click-and-lock edge profiles, many of the hard surface materials prized by homeowners are a simple installation that even a savvy DIYer can complete. However, in other cases, changing compositions and formats mean both commercial and residential installers need to be more experienced and informed than ever in order to achieve a successful install. With technology continually driving change in the industry, installation is having to evolve alongside, creating a push-pull scenario on multiple fronts.

MATERIALS
As LVT has climbed in the market, many residential flooring installers who used to make their living installing wall-to-wall carpet have switched materials, as well. Today, resilient and broadloom each comprise nearly 30% of the domestic flooring market, but resilient is expected to soon surpass carpet, and installation of LVT pays substantially more.

“Where most guys used to install carpet 80% of the time, now they might be installing LVT 60% or 70% of the time,” Varden says, adding that many have moved away from carpet installation entirely, contributing to a growing shortage of qualified carpet installers. “They either left the trade, or they don’t want to haul around 30’ rolls of carpet anymore when they can install LVT, which is simpler to maneuver, and makes twice the amount of money per square foot,” he explains.

Installing broadloom is a more technical process, with more tools required. LVT, with its locking profiles, is a fairly simple installation, but it does often require subfloor preparation. From that perspective, carpet is less demanding; however, an installer’s training doesn’t always translate, and many don’t have formal training at all.

“A lot of carpet installers are jumping into LVT, and these guys work from the top down, not the bottom up, so they don’t understand how to flatten a floor or create a situation where moisture doesn’t pass through,” notes Dave Garden, executive director of education for International Certified Flooring Installers (CFI). “So, they’re doing things incorrectly.”

This is not only frustrating for the installers, contributing to burnout and, in some cases, says Garden, an exit from the industry altogether, it can also lead to failures, creating issues for manufacturers, dealers and customers.

Even within the individual categories, product evolution is necessitating new ways of handling materials. Garden remembers having to strap laminate in as the adhesive cured, but the advent of locking systems has simplified the process for those residential installations. These locking systems are continually becoming more straightforward, but that doesn’t necessarily make the process more streamlined if the installer is used to working with a different profile system. Meanwhile, the shift in demand to higher-end carpet requires different cutting and seaming techniques to account for the weaves and patterns popular today in the residential and commercial markets.

In terms of material evolution and installation techniques, Garden says “ceramic has made the biggest leaps the fastest.” New formats and applications have revolutionized the offerings and related opportunities both residentially and commercially, from ultra-thin panels used as building cladding to heavyweight pavers installed as pool decking via pedestal systems.

“Up until 15 years ago, tiles were pretty much of a certain size and look,” says Bart Bettiga, executive director of the National Tile Contractors Association (NTCA). “Product introductions in the last ten years have included formats as large as 5’x10’ in porcelain tile panels, and they can produce these materials in varying thicknesses designed for floor and wall applications. In the last few years, tile manufacturers realized the unique opportunity for exterior living spaces, for both residential and commercial projects, and have introduced products in 2cm and 3cm thicknesses that can be installed around pools, on decks, patios and even rooftops. When you add this to existing products like glass tile, mosaics, etc., you have such a variety of choices in tile that it takes a highly skilled and diverse workforce to successfully install them.”

This development is leading the trade to explore new installation systems and approaches. Standards have been rewritten to account for porcelain panels in exterior wall applications. Even the logistics of moving material to a jobsite have to be considered with larger or heavier products.

“With a lot of these new introductions, the installer has to invest in the proper tools needed for these products and gain an understanding of installation systems and products needed,” Bettiga notes.

As flooring materials move up walls and outdoors, the formula for proper substrate preparation changes, and, as Garden likes to say, “If you do not start correctly, you cannot finish correctly.”

The move toward sustainable materials is also having an impact, requiring installers to be savvier than ever regarding jobsite and substrate conditions and the recommended product applications, which may not account for new factors as other material compositions change. Additionally, installation methods that worked in the past may have to be tweaked. For example, when bio-based resilient sheet products were initially introduced, many of them were more brittle, causing seam issues in the healthcare settings where the material is prevalent. Likewise, Varden says seaming temperatures for broadloom with recycled content have had to be adjusted.

Installers must be up to speed on all the product manufacturers’ recommendations, so they apply the materials appropriately, but in some instances, the products in play are evolving more quickly than the general standards.

“The science of floorcovering is very much that,” says David Gross, executive director for INSTALL, the International Standards and Training Alliance for floorcovering professionals, which is focused on the commercial market. “When adhesives and materials are manufactured, there is a harmony, a compatibility in the products. An effort to comply with more sustainability creates a need to change the chemistry, with a cascading effect downstream. It can affect everything from the look of the material down to adhesive working times and bonding strength. There are important considerations for the adhesive and material chemistry to be optimized. Being an educated installer is more important now than it ever has been.”

TECHNIQUES
The evolution of flooring materials and formats is creating enhanced opportunities for designers, leading to more detailed commercial installs. Products and shapes are being mixed and matched, requiring more technical cuts and substrate preparation.

“Some of the more dramatic looks and the more challenging installations are taking the simple products and doing interesting things with them,” says Gross. “Creating inset designs, mixing and matching materials and adding accent designs are the most common.”

That could mean having to account for height differentials between different flooring materials or allowing for expansion and contraction when creating designs.

“Understanding the standards allows the installer to communicate what is realistic and what the installation challenges may be, so that they can properly estimate and price these projects and good decisions can be made to meet the client’s budget and expectations,” Bettiga notes. “The installer has to understand the importance of layout and work with different patterns at times. Since tile is a fired product, it has some limitations that come with this related to sizing, warpage, etc., so the installer has to understand the installation standards, allowable variations and the importance of a flat substrate for floors and walls, etc.”

Tool and floor prep materials producers are meanwhile enhancing their own offerings as they seek to make them simpler and more straightforward for applications across the board. A host of providers are continuing to develop floor leveling compounds that streamline the process, like Schönox’s new Moisture Blocking Leveler and Laticrete’s new NXT Level Plus Lite. Tool companies like QEP and Tiler have introduced cutters that can score and snap large porcelain panels, and Garden cites Roberts’ new plank cutting tool as one he’d “put on wheels and keep right next to me when I was installing so I wouldn’t have to leave my boards,” thanks to its improved cutting capability. Taylor offers an adhesive called Resolute that can be successfully installed with virtually no regard for concrete moisture, while Crain has a machine that can remove residual surface materials and adhesives with the touch of a button.

Bettiga says that “tool companies have reacted very well to the technology.” But there can be a disconnect between these new developments and the installers in the field, whom Varden says are often the last to know about them.

“I see guys who have been doing this for 20 years and don’t realize there’s a tool for that,” he says. “They don’t find them unless they seek them out, or they’ve had a failure and someone says, ‘If you had done this or used this, it would’ve mitigated that.’”

Garden says he wasn’t really introduced to new tools until his first CFI convention. Installers are often contracted employees, which can limit the level of communication and access to materials and training for those in the trade. And with their livelihood hinging on successfully completed jobs, they can tend to rely on tried-and-true products and methods or recommendations from their peers.

He points to Ardex’s Liquid Backer Board, one of the first self-leveling compounds to hit the market in the early 2000s. “It was a great product, but people wouldn’t use it because installers saw it as ‘My dad taught me how to do it this way, and this is what works,’” says Garden, even though the traditional screen system took twice as long. “The ceramic thin set manufacturers keep coming up with better boards that are lighter and easier to cut-they’re evolving faster than we can. Our installers look at it and say, ‘I’m not going to use that because it looks cheap.’”

With commercial installations, which comprise the majority of INSTALL’s work, such adoption is generally faster, owing to the size and price of such jobs and the multiple levels of oversight applied by the clients, designers, contractors and other entities.

But Gross points out that “installations, while seemingly very similar, are quite unique. The robot [resilient seam] welder, for example, is very good and efficient for long seams in a few large rooms but can be less so when many short seams in different small rooms are to be done. So, there’s not much of a one-size-fits-all.”

TRAINING
In the case of ceramic tile, new formats are necessitating training as the category introduces never-before-seen products, but that is not the case for most of the industry.

“We hear a lot of people in the installation community tell us that they have been doing something successfully for 20 years, so they don’t need to learn anything new as it relates to installation, but the beautiful component of some of this new technology is that the installation community has never installed some of these products before,” Bettiga says, noting that people in general are often resistant to change. “I have been amazed at the openness and willingness of our members at the National Tile Contractors Association to invest in the equipment and the training necessary for their crews to be successful installing these products.”

As self-employed subcontractors, it can be hard for installers to take time off for continuing education or to shoulder the cost, especially considering that each day in the classroom is one less day in the field generating income.

“It’s very difficult to be a top-notch installer as well as a successful businessperson,” says Gross. “The costs and regulations associated with being a subcontractor are very significant, and finding time to get proper training and keep current with industry trends while making ends meet is a tough situation. This causes many otherwise excellent floor installers to leave the trade because they may not be good business owners.”

As the installer shortage grows, more concentrated training efforts are popping up, but many are geared toward attracting and training new installers. Garden notes that it’s just as important to offer continuing education for those already in the field, who may have been trained in a different medium or not formally trained at all and are now having to contend with evolving chemistries and formats.

“In a lot of cases, most of the industry is only learning from a guy who learned from a guy who learned from a guy who heard how to do something,” Gross says. “You can only be as good, to a certain point, as the person who’s training you, so having experienced people show the correct methods and technology is really important, especially in the beginning.”

CCA has hired Varden to help its network of flooring retailers by offering installation training and technical expertise, and Carpet Bagger’s Flooring owner Dean Kelly says the class Varden recently hosted at his shop yielded other benefits, as well. Many installers operate as competitors, and they aren’t always treated the same as in-house staff. By providing them with free training and paying them to be there, even personally cooking them lunch that day, Kelly says he’s noticed an improvement in their morale and engagement, even with each other.

“Career installers are extremely loyal as a group,” says Garden. “If you treat them properly by not only paying them like they are professionals but also treating them as though they are an important part of your team, they will not look for other opportunities. Often, contractors or retail centers celebrate their installers by throwing a large party once a year, then turn around and treat them in an unprofessional manner the following week. Just treat them right all year round if you want to make a positive impact.”

Many of the floor prep and adhesives manufacturers offer free training and will host classes at a retail location if enough people are signed up, and membership in the various industry training organizations often includes free educational opportunities, as well. INSTALL recently added multimedia instructional content to its website so that members can learn on demand, though Gross notes that this model of learning-which is proliferating in the digital age-requires the appropriate background in order to discern quality content and methods. He also points out that this migration of information can put the onus on installers in more ways than one, as flooring-related manufacturers are increasingly putting their product information online as opposed to on the product itself.

Standards can help mitigate the impact of this, to a certain degree, but they take time to develop, and they usually follow practices that have been proven to be effective, adding to the timeline.

“There are some organizations working on a national standard for flooring installers, so to speak,” Gross reports. “I think that’s a very heavy lift, but it would be the dream. It would be good to have a formal method to compare and contrast installers in terms of who’s effective and who’s not.”

Copyright 2024 Floor Focus 

Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc., RD Weis, Masland Carpets & Rugs, Laticrete, The Dixie Group, The International Surface Event (TISE)