Surfaces 2024 Review: The nation’s largest residential flooring expo was strong on innovation and color trends – March 2024

By Darius Helm and Jennifer Bardoner

This year’s show filled the 400,000-square-foot exhibit hall at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Convention Center with exhibit spaces, pavilions and demonstration stations, a 5% increase from the size of last year’s show floor. The TISE event, comprising Surfaces, TileExpo and StonExpo, which ran from January 24 to 26, featured a slew of innovations, most prominently on the hard surface side; new design directions; and, in both carpet and hard surface, more color in general.

Despite the recent slump in demand for residential flooring, attendance was up this year, with more than 21,000 registrants. Between attendees and exhibitors, 83 countries were represented. And of the 691 exhibitors, 137 were entirely new to the show. Most exhibitors reported that traffic was steady in their booths and enthusiasm was high for their new product introductions.

A new feature at this year’s show was the partnership with the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), wherein ASID members were given half-day tours of the show on the second and third days, with stops at about a dozen of the leading flooring producers. The goal was to show designers the value of the expo and to draw the larger community of designers to the annual event. The 2025 show will run from January 28 to 30.

HARD SURFACE INNOVATION
In terms of product, a wave of producers added either WPC (Tarkett Home, Lions Floor) or laminate (Stanton, Cali, Happy Feet) for the first time-or else they came out with beefier SPC with thicknesses closer to WPC to distinguish themselves from the entry-level SPCs that are implicated in product failures. Those that already carried WPC and laminates as part of a larger hard surface offering centered their new introductions on these two trending categories.

And everyone who is anyone came out with a PVC-free hybrid alternative to WPC and SPC, including Mohawk, AHF, Home Legend and I4F (HMTX’s TPU). Others, like The Dixie Group, Shaw, CFL, Inhaus, Swiss Krono and Benchwick, already offered these types of products in their portfolios. And what most of these floorcoverings had in common was that they were laminate hybrids of some form, generally with a modified core beyond the typical HDF, infused and sealed with resins to meet various waterproofing standards. At the same time, the laminate category itself has been focused on improving the water resistance of its products.

Each category wants key attributes of the other. The rigid LVT category wants the scratch resistance of laminate, for instance, which is achieved through its melamine top layer, but melamine doesn’t marry well with PVC. And the laminate category, having learned the hard way through years of lost share to rigid LVT, wants to be waterproof. Its Achilles’ heel, its wood fiber core, can’t compete with a polymer core when it comes to exposure to moisture. On the other hand, that HDF core makes laminate one of the most low-carbon-footprint floorcoverings in the residential market, which in the long run could be a differentiator.

The other big news in hard surface has been direct digital print technology. Leading the way is Hymmen technology. Engineered Floors is the first to get this technology up and running in the Dalton, Georgia area, with CFL to follow in a couple of months. Poland’s Barlinek also has Hymmen’s machinery, as does cork producer Amorim in Portugal, and HMTX is installing it in China. Southwind does direct digital printing using Barberan technology, and Benchwick has its own proprietary direct print machinery.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
As part of its “Resilient Revolution,” Mohawk showcased technological improvements to the category, alongside new products, colors and visuals across its entire hard surface offering. Its new PureTech eco-resilient hybrid flooring has been one of the company’s most successful launches, according to the firm. Priced at $2.99 to $3.99 per square foot at retail, the PVC-free rigid products are in line cost-wise with traditional midgrade LVT, making the switch an easy one, and the natural colorways are on trend. Plus, revenues from sales help support Plastic Bank’s efforts to capture plastic before it has a chance to enter the ocean, an easy talking point for RSAs.

Two new collections in an 8mm+2mm attached pad format are joining the initial 6mm+2mm entry-level release. Native Ridge features coastal-inspired looks, while Ellenwood centers on earth tones. All offer WetProtect and Mohawk’s first pet-scratch warranty-the products are said to be three times more scratch resistant than traditional LVT. Mohawk representatives describe the core as “80% renewable plant-based material” combined with “non-PVC polymer.” PureTech is made in Mohawk’s massive North Carolina laminate plant.

Mohawk’s Signature embossing technology, which has been making its way across the various brands’ laminate lines for the past two years, is now being transitioned to the resilient category, starting with the new SolidTech Premier line. While a premium SPC offering with a strong level of clarity and texture safeguarded by a 22 mil wearlayer, the products are priced at $4.99 to $5.99 per square foot. Comprising three collections-Watercrest Isle, Monroe Gardens and Saltgrass Springs-the visuals range from super-clean to rustic in a full complement of colors, including some whites, which the firm points to as a good illustration of the differences between the capabilities with Signature HDX versus traditional LVT.

Mohawk also innovated in its new carpet offerings, reconfiguring its fiber construction for the new Pet Premier line. The solution-dyed polyester measures 4 DPF (denier per filament), making it much softer than standard 9 DPF residential carpet, and features a tighter turn to help it stand up to wear and tear, backed by the firm’s All Pet warranty. Several different nap and density constructions offer the neutral multi-tonals different textures and color concentrations.

Based on customer requests, Mohawk also added eight multicolor options to its SmartStrand wall, which previously only featured solids, and developed several patterns in its 15 best-selling colors. Tessellation, a sophisticated broken linear, stood out in part due to its salmon and sage color options.

Bold colored patterns were the highlight of Karastan’s carpet launches, which included two new lines that received strong feedback during “voice of the customer” sessions last year: Resonance, a chunky abstract geometric, and Leap, a cheetah print. In addition to neutrals and a few colored options, both offer black-and-white combinations, a notable trend seen elsewhere in the brand’s introductions.

“We’re focused on meaningful innovation, innovation that matters to the consumer,” said David Sheehan, Mannington’s senior vice president of residential marketing and product, on the first morning of the show, referencing the firm’s CraftedEdge treatment for wood looks and TumbledEdge for stone and tile looks in resilient flooring, as well as digital printing in laminate, fuming in hardwood and multicolored yarns in its Phenix carpet.

New to the Restoration laminate line is Bespoke, a wirebrushed European white oak look that is digitally printed for a 12-plank repeat. Bespoke comes in five matte colors, including a pale, milky hue, with painted bevels.

On the wood side, new offerings include Monogram, an 8-1/2”x87” plank that comes in Crema, Latte and Mocha, with the wood characteristics elevated by fuming, which caramelizes the sugars in the wood tannins.

The firm’s Adura Selling System for resilient flooring includes new designs like Fresco, a 12”x24” limestone look with its rustic TumbledEdge technology and new NatureForm Glaze, a multilevel, multi-gloss embossing technique.

The firm has also retooled the stair tread program originally offered on Phenix’s resilient line. Matching stair treads are already available on the affordably priced Realta SPC and flex LVT line, and this May all 44 wood looks in the Adura Selling System will also feature matching stair treads.

In order to regain any lost ground due to imported offerings held up by UFLPA last year, the firm has developed new supply partnerships to regain its entire offering, resetting prices somewhat lower and offering spiffs from now through early summer.

This year, the reset of Mannington’s Phenix carpet line continues. Last year brought a new focus on color and pattern, and this year the evolution continues with a focus on textures and also bringing more colors into the yarn, leveraging its extensive in-house fiber production capabilities. On the PET side, new products include Cabana, an organic variegated pinstripe with a low pile but a higher denier yarn for an upscale look, as well as Illusions, which uses the variegated yarns for a heathered look, in two weights.

On the nylon side, the firm introduced Vista, which also comes in two weights (51ounces and 41 ounces), using three two-color barberpoles per design and offered in 16 colorways, along with Madras, an abstract grid in ten colors. The two designs are so complementary that the firm is combining them in a new sampling vehicle. On the PET side, it’s doing the same with two additional designs, Mesh and Aura.

AHF Products, formed just five years ago upon its acquisition of Armstrong’s hardwood business, has itself made several major acquisitions in the intervening years, including LM Flooring, Parterre, American OEM, most of Armstrong’s resilient operations and, just last year, Crossville. The firm now has 11 domestic production facilities, as well as overseas operations like its massive LM facility in Cambodia. And it also sources from Asia. In total, AHF now has 15 brands.

Crossville, a major domestic manufacturer of porcelain tile, has traditionally leaned heavily toward the commercial market, but had been focusing on residential growth prior to the acquisition, which now gives the brand exposure to the entire flooring dealer market. “You want to talk about a gem of a brand,” said Brian Carson, AHF’s CEO on the show floor. “In the tile business, it doesn’t come any stronger than that.” Carson also notes that AHF is investing $40 million this year in its manufacturing facilities, including its Crossville facility in Tennessee.

AHF came to Surfaces with new products across a range of flooring categories, including hardwood, porcelain tile, SPC and a new rigid core/laminate hybrid called Ingenious Plank. According to the firm, Ingenious is waterproof, in part due to its wood-based core being wrapped in resin with waxed edges, and melamine on the surface translates to enhanced scratch resistance. The 6mm product is 40% lighter than a typical 6mm SPC, and it is priced comparably to SPC, the firm reports. Ingenious Plank in low-gloss wood looks was introduced in 25 unique visuals across the Bruce, Robbins and Armstrong Flooring brands.

AHF also showcased Lutea, an SPC that comes in 5mm with a 12 mil wearlayer and a 20 mil 5.5mm product, both with a 1mm IXPE backing. It comes in 20 SKUs across the two collections, Paradise and Zen. And for the multifamily and builder markets, AHF introduced American Personality Pro, a lower-priced LVT that requires no acclimation. The collection, manufactured at a facility on the firm’s Lancaster, Pennsylvania campus, features 30 unique visuals per SKU.

On the hardwood side, the firm introduced several engineered wood designs, like Necessity, a 6” plank under the Hartco brand with a satiny 30º gloss level. Produced in the firm’s Somerset, Kentucky facility out of red oak, white oak and hickory, Necessity is also sold through Bruce as the Folklore collection. New to Robbins, AHF’s direct-to-retail higher-end brand, is Timber Legends, a densified wood product in four colors of pine, along with maple, cherry, ash and walnut. Also new is Noble’s Way, a 3/8” wirebrushed value-oriented product with a sliced face that uses AHF’s proprietary Puretone technology to achieve a sawn-face look.

On the ceramic side, Crossville’s new products include Beljn, a stone look with fossilated effects in five colors for both interior and exterior applications. Beljn is the first product to use the firm’s FeatherSoft technology, which softens the feel of the tile.

CFL, the global leader in SPC production, manufactures rigid core flooring at its two facilities in China, along with its facilities in Vietnam and the U.S., making it one of the few producers of branded product in the U.S. market that makes the vast majority of its products, including laminate, WPC and SPC, in-house. However, the majority of its U.S. revenues still come from its OEM sales. Its 1.4-million-square-foot facility in Calhoun, Georgia has the largest SPC capacity not just in the U.S. but “in the Western world,” according to president Thomas Baert.

The firm also makes a PVC-free product called Tenacity, for which it received a Green Collection award at Domotex in Germany earlier in January. The product, which is made at CFL’s Vietnamese facility, will start shipping to the U.S. market later this year as Eco-Composite Flooring under the FirmFit brand-at Surfaces, 12 designs were unveiled. It features a core derived from wood and minerals with a cork backing for acoustics and a melamine top for surface protection. At the show, CFL also unveiled additions to Downtown, a U.S.-made premium SPC collection, with six Downtown Deluxe wood-look styles featuring in-register embossing. The 5mm product (4mm+1mm integrated foam pad) also features ScratchShield Max finishing technology.

This spring, CFL will launch its first domestic SPC offering using Hymmen’s direct digital printing and embossing technology.

Emser didn’t just unveil new products but also new innovations. Its new Terramor collection of stone-look visuals features the supplier’s first textured veining, coined Visual Touch. Emulating natural stone, the porcelain products capitalize on the new capability with visuals that offer movement and texture thanks their pronounced veining, and the lappato finish-previously only available on concrete-look products-enhances their application, allowing the collection to be used indoors and out. Available in sizes up to 47”x47”, Terramor also marks Emser’s foray into large floor formats, but the response was so great that the company will be adding decorative options, reported Kathy Greene, director of brand strategy and communications. Already, the collection offers large-format grooved applications for walls.

Debuting last year, Emser’s Radiant panels for walls and showers have generated so much interest that the offering is being expanded into a full collection, with six complementary floor tiles featuring the same LED-lit system. Emser is partnering with an LED manufacturer to develop its own proprietary strip lighting that will be operable through an app, allowing users to turn the system on and off and change the colors. Rated for use in wet environments, the collection won the Best of Surfaces: Innovation and Best of TileExpo: Overall Product awards.

Initially devoted to bamboo floor offerings, Cali has been aggressively adding products and categories over the past few years. At Surfaces, it debuted two new laminate collections after adding the category last fall, rounding out a ‘good, better, best’ offering.

While aggressively priced, the new Pacifica collection is not a commoditized offering, noted brand marketing director Christin Redfield. The 10mm products are treated for water resistance and feature clean visuals in the sandy colors prized today, backed by an attached 2mm pad. Stepping up from that is Shorebreak, released in September, which features stone looks-unique for laminate-on 12mm planks in a 12”x24” format. And at the top of the line is Mavericks, which upgrades to a 14mm construction on a 9.5”x86” format, Cali’s longest plank size, with a pressed, as opposed to painted, bevel.

Company president Doug Jackson cited the firm’s hardwood offerings as the products he’s most excited about. Having entered the category in 2019, the lines, especially last year’s entry-level Barrel collection, have done well. Redfield expects it has transitioned some customers away from vinyl because of its price point. In addition to color refreshes for Barrel, Cali added the Cellar engineered wood collection this year. A premium-grade offering of on-trend aesthetics in an 8”x82” format, it comes in just below Cali’s flagship hardwood collection, Meritage.

“Step Into Color” was the theme at The Dixie Group’s space this year. The firm targets the higher end of the market with its DH Floors, Masland and Fabrica brands-DH Floors is at one end of the spectrum with mid-priced products, and Fabrica is at the other end at the top of the carpet market.

The Dixie Group is also investing in color with its new white-dyeable extrusion line, launching this quarter. TM Nuckols, president of the firm, anticipates that in a market saturated by solution-dyed product, mostly PET, its unique color capabilities will help to further distinguish the firm from the pack.

This year, Fabrica celebrates its 50-year anniversary. It still makes carpet at its facility in Santa Ana, California, the only residential carpet mill in the state, producing beck-dyed broadloom mostly out of nylon, with some wool. Among the new Fabrica products on display was Habitat, a luxe 115-ounce nylon offered in 50 colors (to celebrate the anniversary) across the Adulation, Homage and Tribute styles. Also new is Wanderlust, a nylon/PET blend.

In Décor by Fabrica, the decorative sub-brand introduced a couple of years ago, Canyon Ridge is a new wool in a chunky textured loop. And new to Fabrica Wood are two engineered walnuts, adding to the existing white oak and ash offering.

DH Floors came out with six PET products and two nylon/PET blends. The PETs include two DuraSilks, Admiration and Affection, in a better/best collection, and four DuraSilk Patterns, comprising two LCLs and two all-loop products. The blends are Shelter, an organic design, and Sanctuary, a linen crosshatch. And it added to its two-year-old engineered wood line of white oak and hickory with a pecan product.

Masland relaunched La Parade carpet, a crisply tailored grid with a refined look that was first introduced 40 years ago, with a new color line. And in the decorative 1866 by Masland sub-brand (Masland was formed in 1866), which includes imports of wool and polypropylene as well as domestically produced wool products, the firm added to its All Seasons line of UV-stabilized polypropylene indoor/outdoor carpet with five new designs, including two sisal looks. Also new is Ravello, a hand-loomed wool in a nubby organic grid.

Under the TruCor rigid core brand, sold through DH Floors and Masland, the firm added three stone-look SPCs. TruCor Prime WPC includes the XXL line, the largest of which is a 12”x72” wood look with a pillowed edge. And its hybrid product, MFC (Minimal Fiber Core), introduced last year with a melamine top and a mineral fiber core, will double this fall to 24 SKUs.

On the residential side, Forbo focuses on the middle to higher end of the residential remodel market, along with a small volume in the higher-end builder market. The firm’s Marmoleum Cinch Loc Seal, first introduced two years ago, is Forbo’s answer to consumer demand for waterproof flooring. The product, which uses Välinge’s 5G locking system, recently saw the addition of a 14-color palette, with another dozen or so to be added late in the second quarter.

Another unique Forbo product is Flotex, a flocked nylon product backed with PVC that is a true hybrid of resilient and soft surface. New Flotex designs include a decorative floral pattern called Suzani, shown on the floor of the booth bordered by Woven, another new introduction. Also new is Avenue, a multicolored cobblestone look.

The first to have Hymmen’s Jupiter digital printing line up and running in the U.S., Engineered Floors debuted the new technology with its PureGrain High-Def LVT launch, which naturally drew a lot of interest. The HD101 and HD102 collections represent the first domestically produced SPC made with direct digital print, which requires no print film. This provides a more realistic surface texture with a matte look, which is enhanced through the printer’s detailed resolution and embossing, making it virtually impossible to tell the finished product apart from real wood. The digital print technology also allows for fewer pattern repeats-there are 35 unique plank designs per collection.

To aid in the realism, Emily Morrow Finkell, who designed her own hardwood lines as CEO of Emily Morrow Home before selling the company to AHF, helped oversee the products’ development. The proprietary designs feature a combination of white oak visuals, including quarter- and rift-sawn, and reactive staining. The premise of “What would wood be if it could?” guided them to home in on the visually interesting components, according to Finkell. This gives the products a more character-grade aesthetic than the washed-out visuals that have been prevalent in the market, which Finkell said are beginning to transition back to more rustic looks.

The combined 48 initial SKUs are split evenly between those featuring hyper-realistic digital lacquer embossing (DLE) and others imprinted with texture through what the company calls “random mechanical embossing,” which provides a slightly less precise match with the image. The 4mm core is made from stone and polymer composites, all domestically sourced, making the products 100% American-made.

Building off its successful carpet launch of PureColor High-Def last year, EF introduced several new styles this year, including the line’s first patterned offerings. The lineup of solution-dyed polyester offers more nuanced tonal variation, with up to 24 colors in a single yarn, and this year’s additional flecked options ranged from cool greys to warm neutrals. The patterns introduced followed the same palette, with variegated pile heights, tufting and colors providing sophisticated designs safe for the average consumer.

In a larger space this year, Nox, a South Korean resilient flooring producer that also has production facilities in Ohio, showcased its range of resilient flooring designs, including textile looks, highlighted its Acoustic SetaGrip micro-suction adhesion technology, and created a wall display about its process for the development of what it calls the “world’s first and most sustainable LVT flooring.”

The Bio-Circular Balanced PVC includes content derived from discarded cooking oil; the plasticizer, DOTP, is sourced from reclaimed drink bottles; and the filler comes from “natural and post-industrial recycled mineral.” The firm started using the technology at its South Korean manufacturing facilities, selling to the U.S. and Japan, and it plans to expand its manufacturing throughout Nox’s global operations. Nox mostly focuses on OEM in the U.S. market.

The firm also had a station for its Acoustic SetaGrip, an IXPE backing designed for use over non-porous substrates, with a clever demonstration of the product, offering visitors the opportunity to pick up stand magnifiers (fixed-length magnifiers that look like small inverted shot glasses) and stick them to a vertical sample of the SetaGrip backing, both providing a close-up look at the micro-suction cups and demonstrating the material’s adhesion properties. It was debuted last year under the OneFlor USA brand, and the firm anticipates co-branding partnerships.

At Audacity’s booth, new products included Portrait, a thick SPC made at CFL’s Calhoun, Georgia facility, with in-register embossing. The line comes in 12 wood looks. Also new is Echelon, a PVC-free hybrid with a core made of wood and minerals and an EIR (embossed-in-register) surface featuring melamine scratch-protection. Audacity also offers an 8mm WPC with a pressed bevel, as well as waterproof laminates.

Under the theme of “Better By Design,” Karndean Designflooring came to Surfaces with about 60 new designs across its range of LVT constructions-flex LVT, SPC and WPC. All of its products go to both the residential and commercial markets. Its Art Select line, with a new dual format of gluedown flex LVT and WPC, is being revamped and the firm previewed some of the new designs-30 wood looks and 17 stone looks, all with a high-performance 30 mil wearlayer-slated for launch in a couple of months.

Stone looks include Ceppo di Gré, a breccia stone from northern Italy with the agglomerated look of a natural, irregular terrazzo, as well as Carrara and Calacatta marble looks. Also new was Champagne Travertino, a distinctive Georgette-style travertine look with a gentle and organic linear visual. Wood looks include Golden Kent Ash, a luminous and warm midtone with plenty of range between the planks for a dynamic overall effect.

Karndean also added to its Looselay collection with 13 new wood looks, including Swan Bay Ash, a moody visual of smoky brown linear graining, and Shorebird Ash, a warmer midtone with strong contrast, for a total of 40 wood and stone designs.

Tarkett Home, the two-year-old rebranded residential division of Tarkett NA, continues to expand its offering, coming to the show this year with ProGen SPC, its new EverGen WPC line, its new engineered wood program, its PET carpet program, mainstreet sheet goods and its return to laminate after a five-year hiatus.

The ShoreFlor 12mm laminate line (10mm + 2mm backing) comes in 12 SKUs with an AC4 rating, and according to the firm, it has passed NALFA’s 24-hour waterproof test. And the new 9/16” AmeriGrove engineered wood program comprises six white oaks and four hickories in 7” widths and varying lengths, with a 3mm sawn face and a 3-ply pine core.

The firm’s new 8mm WPC line, which includes a 1.5mm IXPE backing, comes in 20 wood designs, mostly EIR, with pressed bevels. And its InStudio line of 12 mil gluedown flex LVT is now offered in 20 mil in two new wood designs and seven tiles.

On the carpet side, using its Cloud 9 soft PET, new designs include textures and some classic patterns, like diamond motifs. Standouts were Fresco, a structured organic pattern, and Palisades, an all loop linear. Both come in a handful of soft earth tone colorways.

And its mainstreet sheet goods, under the High Street brand, include some alluring new styles, like a textile visual reminiscent of woven vinyls, called Strata, and a trendy terrazzo look in Aria.

Initially a tile importer, MSI has diversified its portfolio to encompass all hard surface flooring and it’s also now a domestic SPC producer. Introduced as a regional offering in late 2022, turf has “exploded,” said Jason Andrews, director of non-slab national accounts, leading the company to set aggressive new goals, and extend product availability nationwide. New this year is a pet-focused product with a shorter pile, additional drainage and an antimicrobial treatment.

MSI’s porcelain offerings are getting an upgrade through the addition of new technology that mimics the surface texture of the inspiration material. The travertine-inspired Cordova and quartzite-inspired Malahari collections are the first with the new technology, and Malahari also features MSI’s first lappato finish. In addition to field tiles, Cordova includes pavers, whereas Malahari encompasses mosaics.

As home interiors warm up, the company is following suit, with a number of new introductions that blend warm whites, creams and beiges, including the Brighton collection of field tiles and mosaics. Meanwhile, the Stella wall tile collection approaches this through soft, warm pastels in a subway format.

Tying in with the warming color palette, MSI is introducing a new SPC program with a breadth of blond looks, which Andrews expects to be the company’s most popular category launch to date. Laurel and Laurel Reserve share the same 14 colors, with Laurel comprising a 4mm core with a 20 mil wearlayer and attached 1mm pad, and Laurel Reserve featuring a 6mm core with a 22 mil wearlayer-a new offering for MSI-and 2mm attached pad. Laurel Reserve also carries a dent warranty.

Hallmark Floors produces a wide range of engineered wood lines, along with a smaller solid hardwood line. Its engineered woods use a core that is a hybrid of eucalyptus and Baltic birch.

On display was the Serenity collection, launched late last year. The 12-color 5/8” collection is topped with 4mm veneers of select grade “North American oak.” The color line is mostly pale-the biggest hit was Aglow, a light natural hue-along with one darker wood.

The firm also showcased its Design Emporium engineered wood collection, also 5/8” with a 4mm veneer, in herringbone constructions.

At I4F’s space on the show floor, it set up a table demonstration of its new ClikDek decking installation system. The innovative system dispenses with screws entirely, using only clips to secure boards in place-and enabling individual boards to be easily removed and reinserted. The system includes a metallic low-profile understructure, which is height-adjustable for uneven substrates.

Also, the firm, which celebrated its ten-year anniversary at the end of last year, continues to rack up new licensing rights, including for Amorim’s bio-cork composite. It also licenses Hymmen direct digital printing technology and Be-Lite SPC core lightweighting technology, and it has partnered with HMTX for exclusive rights to license its patent-pending SRP rigid core TPU flooring technology. The PVC-free technology uses recycled PET bottles to create its cross-linked polyurethane top layer and its thermoplastic polyurethane core.

Stanton’s booth was awash with color from its new soft surface introductions, many of which featured icy pastels. The Hollywood collection was one of the best-received, reported senior director of product development and innovation Adam Feldberg. Named for iconic leading ladies, the wool/polyester collection represents a face lift for the wire Wiltons Stanton is known for, with soft shades of pink as the star. Feldberg said homes have been neutral for so long that consumers are looking for some excitement, which the collection’s rainbow of pastels definitely provide.

At the other end of the spectrum was Cheverny, another favorite at the show, which combines traditional designs with currently popular colors like rust and steel blue. Cheverny is among the patterned options introduced to Stanton’s 100% polyester offering, a developing category that was debuted last year.

Jamann Stepp joined the firm in November to lead Stanton’s hard surface program. In this new role he will be focused on growing its hard surface offerings. Stanton is adding laminate to its lineup with two collections, NuvoLux and NuvoMax, both of which are 10mm+2mm attached pad and feature EIR texture, a rolled bevel and commercial-grade scratch resistance. The colorways represent a complete offering spanning from pale, ashen looks to a true charcoal, with the majority split between light neutrals and midrange browns.

Under its Floors 2000 brand, which added porcelain to Stanton’s offerings when it acquired distributor Floors 2000 in August 2022, several contemporary tile visuals were debuted. Featuring concentrated swirls of golden browns and ethereal blues, they are a break from the stark Calacatta-inspired aesthetic that has been popular.

True to its name, Novalis Innovative Flooring came to this year’s show with several innovative new floorcoverings. Its FlinTile products, using technology licensed through Unilin, enable the creation of ceramic looks with edge grooves designed to be grouted with non-staining epoxy or urethane grout. When grouted, they’re 100% waterproof, according to the firm.

The FlinTile SPC line, in 12”x24” and 16”x32” formats, was launched simultaneously in the U.S. and Europe. It comes in six stone looks, including travertines and marbles, with a Unilin click system. The line is available for commercial or residential applications.

Also new is the Reverie rigid LVT line of chevron and herringbone rigid LVT in six shared colorways from pale to midtone, backed with cork. The 6mm products feature a 20 mil wearlayer, with 4”x24” and 6”x30” formats. In addition, Novalis came out with a new rigid core plank called Belmar in six colors.

Novalis makes the vast majority of its products in-house, mostly through its facility in China, but it also makes SPC in Dalton, Georgia and through its co-owned facility in Mexico. With its SPC, WPC and flex gluedown LVT, it goes to the commercial market through the Ava brand and residentially through NovaFloor, and it also has a substantial private label program.

Bjelin, Välinge’s flooring brand based on its Woodura technology, came to the show with the Contrast collection of Spacva oak from its Croatian veneer plant, using nine precision-engineered brushes to integrate contrasting pigments into the surface for a high contrast visual. The collection, launching on an 8-1/4”x87” plank, comes in five colors-three midtones and two somewhat darker shades.

Bjelin, which goes through distribution across the U.S. on the residential side and recently partnered with Spartan Surfaces for the commercial market, also added Small, a more budget-friendly product in a 6”x46” plank format, with a herringbone to follow later this year.

Kaleen, a carpet producer with production facilities in India, came to the show with a bigger space and about 31 new broadloom styles, including new designs and updates to popular existing collections across its brands: Hook & Beam, Pure Life, Kaleen Broadloom, Luxe and Home & Porch, the PET brand introduced last year.

According to Blake Dennard, Kaleen’s senior vice president of sales, “Our broadloom business was up about 7% overall last year.” Kaleen got into broadloom about eight years ago, and it’s now the bulk of the firm’s business, Dennard reports.

Most of the new styles, 16 in all, were from the Hook & Beam machine-made line, including Sonora Sands, a premium New Zealand wool product, with “premium” referring to the long staple yarns. Also noteworthy was Marble Head-a chunky organic linear 100% wool loop pile with contrasting colors in the buried loop-from the Pure Life brand, which focuses on natural dyes. Kaleen also came out with five new styles in its Kaleen Broadloom line, from heavy hand-tufted products to flatweaves.

The firm reports that custom-cut broadloom is driving a lot of traffic, particularly in the Luxe hand-knotted line. Custom Luxe pieces shipped from India take 30 days by air freight and 90 days by sea.

Amid the recent innovations displayed at Unilin’s booth was its brand-new ClickControl quality measurement device, which streamlines the production line process of identifying deviations in click profiles. In the past, that required cutting off a piece of the board and visually comparing it to the original diagram, but ClickControl can simply scan the board and alert the necessary personnel to inconsistencies-especially helpful considering the turnover in factories around the world, said IP business development manager Louis Van Roy. The unit is available as a standalone device or can be added to production lines.

Among the other recent innovations on display, Van Roy said Light SPC and groutable FlinTile and Unizip herringbone installation systems saw a lot of interest. And he noted that the firm’s hydrophobic Unicoat treatment is now free of PFAs.

Southwind Building Products, which got its start 30 years ago as Cherokee Carpet, added hard surface about a decade ago with WPC, then expanded to SPC, and over the last year the firm has added hybrid rigid core and hardwood flooring. It also retooled and doubled its laminate offering.

Three years ago, the firm was purchased by F9 Brands, founded by Tom Sullivan, who started Lumber Liquidators. Southwind president and CEO Drew Hash, who has a lot of hardwood experience through his tenures with Hartco, Armstrong, Zickgraf and Shaw, came on board to lead Southwind just over a year ago.

At this year’s show, Southwind came out with ten new hard surface intros for a total of 70 SKUs and nine new carpet styles for 66 SKUs, the biggest launch in Southwind’s history. The firm added to its WPC lineup with two new styles: Woodwind Pressed, an 8mm 9”x60” plank with a 20 mil wearlayer, pressed bevels and EIR texture, which comes in six colors from light natural to midtones; and Authentic Prime, a 12mm product in the same size plank, with EIR and painted bevels. And it came out with an SPC called Boundless that is also available in a gluedown construction, along with a hybrid product, Inspiration Plank, with a foamed SPC core that makes it 20% lighter. Inspiration features direct digital printing using Barberan technology.

Its retooled laminate program of 16 SKUs includes Revive, a 12mm product designed for waterproof installation with a pressed bevel and Unilin watertight locking system, which comes in eight colors from light natural to dark, rich hues. A step down from that is Resurge, a 10mm product in eight colors that don’t go quite as light or as dark.

Southwind introduced its new engineered hardwood line with Franklin, a 9/16” European white oak in six colors with a 3mm wirebrushed sawn face that’s 7-1/2” wide.

The carpet side saw six new designs, including the 70-ounce Grand Escape and Grand Escape Too, a tweed and a tonal made of PET in several neutral colorways. And it updated its Starlight Berber carpet, which dates back at least 20 years, with a softer polypropylene hand and six new colors.

Välinge, the Swedish innovation firm, came out with 5G Nxt, a brand-new installation system designed for wood flooring to make dismantling as easy as installing. Dismantling is done without tools by lifting the plank to be removed and tapping down on the adjoining plank on the row-enabling the removal of single boards, rather than entire rows, without any damage to the flooring or locking systems. Also, 5G Nxt uses more sustainable inserts, biomass-balanced rather than polymer based, reducing the carbon footprint by 75%, according to Laetitia Kimblad, director of Välinge’s floor-locking business unit.

Also, it has added to its 2G, 5G and 5Gi with a Pro component that offers enhanced vertical locking strength, preventing a high load on one plank from damaging the locking system connecting it to adjacent planks. The system triples the durability of the locking system, reports Kimblad. And the firm enhanced its 5G Cross inserts to lock planks in place in chevron installations.

Barlinek, a Polish wood flooring producer with manufacturing facilities in Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Croatia, made its second Surfaces exhibit with a range of new products. The 150-year-old company, which represents itself as the largest European wood flooring producer with its 1.5 billion-square-foot capacity, both private-labels its flooring and sells under its own brand. While it used to produce solid hardwood, all of its offering is now engineered with three-ply pine cores. And its offering to the U.S. market is mostly European white oak, along with a limited line of ash, targeting the medium to higher-end residential remodel market.

Two years ago, the firm invested in construction of an SPC facility in Poland with a capacity of 200 million square feet, and it anticipates rolling product off the line next month. Its SPC line includes 4mm and 5mm product, and it offers attached backings, as well. Its initial offering of 40 SKUs will include direct digitally printed product using Hymmen technology as well as SPC with print films.

Barlinek’s rigid core offering also includes wood hybrid products (also known as composite engineered wood), produced internally, with a 1mm veneer, a lacquer for surface protection and a strengthened foil balancing layer for stability.

With interest rates still elevated, causing homeowners to stay put, Couristan executive vice president of residential broadloom Bob Tucci said they are open to introducing a little more personality into their décors. This year’s soft surface introductions reflected that in the rainbow of colors seen across the show floor.

Couristan focused on warm earth tones in textured weaves, tying in with the continued surge toward products with a hand-loomed, artisanal feel. Illustrative introductions from the provider include Caymus, which was one of the featured floors in Couristan’s booth. Caymus features a hand-loomed loop pile construction made of 100% wool in a contemporary chevron pattern, a generally popular design this year along with soft plaids.

Also new was another wool offering, Table Mountain, in a hand-tufted cut and loop construction. Table Mountain features a modern, irregular striped design. Tucci noted that with the increased cost of synthetic fiber, wool is gaining a cost-competitive edge.

Concord Flooring, a new exhibitor at Surfaces, boasts a state-of-the-art, highly automated engineered wood production facility in Corona, California, targeting the OEM market. According to the firm, it’s the most automated wood flooring facility in the U.S., and it includes AI capabilities. What’s most noteworthy about its factory floor is its lack of personnel. The facility can churn out 80,000 square feet per day.

Concord’s 3/4” engineered wood uses 4.2mm French oak veneers and a birch core. For now, the firm is producing 7-1/2”x72” planks, but everything is customizable-species, formats, colors, gloss levels. According to the firm, which is owned and run by entrepreneur John Lee, its automation makes it nimble, enabling it to change gloss levels with the flick of a switch. And through mineral staining, it is able to also easily change colors.

Other than its veneers, Concord’s raw materials are sourced domestically as much as possible.

Another innovator in the market is Benchwick USA, the flooring arm of Northann Corp., which specializes in sustainable innovation in 3D printing for interior finishes. Northann, which recently went public on the New York Stock Exchange as a Nevada-incorporated entity, has manufacturing facilities in China. For the flooring market, the firm offers laminates and SPC, though both are in reality unique hybrids.

Its SPC, for instance, is actually PVC-free, composed of a core, called Blue 11, made of polyethylene and polypropylene, 80% of which is reclaimed from the ocean, and the flooring design is printed directly on the core with proprietary technology. The print is protected from UV radiation by a clear coating, which is itself topped with an embossing layer, including bevels and grout lines, in register with the digital print, and, finally, its Armor Dual antimicrobial finish. And its laminates, which don’t use melamine, are the same structure, but with a high density fiberboard core. All of its products are AC5-rated.

Also, it uses AI in the development of its wood visuals through its Envision program. The AI basically studies hardwoods-species, colors, graining-enabling it to develop a virtually endless series of unique planks. A display in its booth indicated a repeat of more than 30 planks.

For the last nine years, Benchwick’s U.S. revenues have come largely from OEM, but the firm is now also focused on growing its own brand in the North American market.

Mercier’s Pro Series saw the addition of a 5” engineered option, Pro Series Engineered, that completes the entry-level program, which already had a 5” solid component known simply as Pro Series. The lineup of red oak and maple offerings also gained two new colors, available in both formats and species: Linen, which hits on the popular honey blond aesthetic, and Keystone, a light sable that is emerging across various providers’ collections.

While U.S. director of sales Wade Bondrowski noted that red oak and maple comprise 60% of the market, European white oak is highly prized. Located in Canada, with abundant access to North American hardwoods, Mercier typically produces its own products using those local resources, but it is sourcing a European white oak for its new Stellar collection. Available in Distinction and Authentic grades, the engineered wood planks feature a matte finish.

Amid the rainbow of colors seen in soft surface introductions from high-end providers, Prestige Mills debuted an elegant all-white collection sourced from India called Goodwin Court. Made of SPA-which stands for Stark Performance Acrylic, a new offering for the company-the four-look collection emulates white wool Wiltons but is made of solution-dyed acrylic and can be bleach-cleaned.

Elsewhere in Prestige’s booth, there was plenty of color. Regional vice president John Ward noted that, thanks in part to its partnership with luxury Italian fashion house Missoni, Prestige last year introduced many of the watery colors prevalent this year. New offerings in the Missoni Home Collection featured a continuation of pastels alongside more saturated bursts of color verging on neon.

Also new this year is what Ward referred to as “organic serging,” a new process that achieves the look of hand-serged wool with a machine, cutting the cost and time in half. Prestige is the only company in the U.S. offering this new technology, which can combine up to three colors into a low-profile, 3/8” edge, he reported.

While known primarily for its laminates, Inhaus has offered PVC-free resilient flooring under its Ceramin brand since 2017, which contributed to Shaw negotiating a deal this fall with Inhaus’ parent company, Classen Group, that makes Shaw the exclusive distributor of Classen’s commercial products in the U.S. Meanwhile, Inhaus is revamping the Ceramin brand with new colorways and a unified identity. Previously, the two product lines, Elandura and Sono Eclipse, were marketed as their own brands.

Replacing Elandura, the new Gallery collection trades its predecessor’s dark, moody color story for one that is centered on lighter colors anchored by a few midtones, due to be available in late summer. Additionally, the company added a premium Ceramin collection called Icon, featuring a wide variety of visuals that also reflect the market’s current drive toward lighter colors and midtones.

Inhaus is replacing seven colors under its Landmark laminate line, six of which now have a herringbone option in the new Manor collection-which, thanks to its twin locking system, does not require A/B planks. Comprising eight colors in total, with a balanced but abbreviated color story, the new collection features deeper, more realistic EIR texture, enhanced across Inhaus’ laminate lines through new techniques and technology.

Many of Johnson Hardwood’s introductions were so new that they didn’t have names and were on display for customer feedback before being formally launched, but on the floor was a notable new offering called Olympus. At 12” wide, the engineered wood collection stood out and garnered a lot of positive attention at the show, reported marketing director Dana Coelho. The collection includes two hickories, aligning with the manufacturer’s push to offer alternatives to oak, which has saturated the market.

Making its Surfaces debut was LX Hausys, formerly LG Hausys, a South Korean firm that has been in the resilient flooring business for about 50 years, though its focus in the U.S. market over the last couple of decades has been on the commercial side. Most of its business is OEM, and it manufactures flex LVT, SPC, homogeneous and heterogenous sheet, and sports flooring-and it also introduced an SPC wall system using a Välinge 5G locking system. The firm is now also focusing on residential, and it used the show in part to introduce its HFlor residential brand, which goes through traditional distribution.

Under the HFlor brand, the firm came out with two LVT collections, WoodHaven and ForestFusion. WoodHaven is a 5mm SPC (4+1) with a 20 mil wearlayer, painted bevels and a locking system. The 9”x60” planks feature pale wood visuals in 12 colors. And ForestFusion, which also comes in 12 wood looks, features the firm’s TrueMatte technology, a high-performance UV coating with an ultra-low sheen that helps hide scratches and stains.

LX Hausys offers a proprietary digital printing technology called TrueView with a high-definition 1,200 dpi resolution, using water-based inks on PET film. According to the firm, it can produce flooring with a 21’ repeat.

Aimed more at the meat of the market, Revolution Mills-founded by Gulistan and Phenix veteran Charlie Kennedy-debuted Everest, a multi-tonal cut pile collection with a 95-ounce construction. Everest is the firm’s response to customer requests for heavyweight products, and managing partner Zach Kennedy said its construction and neutral colorways were well received. Made of solution-dyed performance polyester, the fiber has a high twist and density, providing durability, and it carries a woven fleece backing.

Importing its broadloom from Dubai, the multi-surface provider stocks its offerings (LVT, carpet tile and broadloom) at distribution facilities in Phoenix, Arizona and Calhoun, Georgia, the latter of which was upgraded in January.

Though best known as a manufacturer of underlayments, Healthier Choice had several hard surface introductions, including its first “light SPC.” Engineering the Country Road collection with more polymer and less filler not only makes it lighter but also more durable, explained company president Craig Poteet, and the products are topped with a 22 mil wearlayer on a 5mm core (plus 1mm attached pad). The collection also features Healthier Choice’s first rolled bevel for a more natural wood look, alongside a heavy concentration of character-grade visuals.

Poteet noted that the dark-colored introductions in its engineered wood line drew a lot of interest. The reimagined colorway for Outer Banks includes a dark ashen grey and a near-black, and the company added eight SKUs that span the gamut from the ubiquitous light and honey colors to rich browns, under various new lines. One of those, High Country, represents a premium option thanks to its sliced-face veneers and 3/4” thickness, rounding out the program’s ‘good, better, best’ hierarchy.

With commercial clients already utilizing its underlayments, Healthier Choice also unveiled a new commercial-oriented LVT, called City Lights, which features a 22 mil wearlayer atop a 2.5mm core.

Aligning with Schönox’s “The Need for Speed” slogan, the materials provider introduced a new floor leveling moisture barrier that eliminates the need for two separate products and thus removes a step from the floor prep process. As labor gets more expensive and harder to find, Moisture Blocking Leveler offers benefits on that side, as well.

At last year’s Surfaces, Swiss Krono unveiled its Corepel laminate hybrid, with a core of wood fiber infused with resin to make it waterproof, and this year it introduced to the U.S. market its hybrid Kiwi Now brand, which is manufactured according to EN 13329, a European laminate manufacturing standard, and is marketed to younger generations via a dynamic colorful website (kiwi-floors.com) that emphasizes its green characteristics (PVC-free, 80% wood-based from renewable resources) and waterproof story, touts its 3D visualizer and invites Instagrammable testimonials.

Lions Floor was among the many manufacturers introducing WPC as wariness around SPC grows in the market. A new category for the distributor, the Seaside Summit and Canyon Coast WPC collections feature an extruded polymer core. Additionally, Canyon Coast has a pillowed bevel, another new introduction for the wholesaler. The colors are based off existing top-sellers, with Seaside Summit offering clean looks in light, warm hues and Canyon Coast hitting on midrange browns with more defined knots and graining, in order to satisfy regional tastes. Both 8mm thick plus a 2mm attached pad, the collections also boast a 30 mil wearlayer, a UV acrylic finish and EIR texture. Rounding out their “bigger is better” approach, Canyon Coast is 9”x6’, and Seaside Summit is 9-1/2”x7’.

Known for its SPC and laminate offerings, Lions Floor is expanding into the commercial market by adding new gluedown versions of its best-selling colorways, allowing for seamless transition between the three materials based on needs. Also available with a 6 mil or 12 mil wearlayer, the new 20 mil gluedown products, called District Max, expand the potential application to light commercial.

Home Legend’s new Limelight WPC collection provides retailers with an alternative to SPC, which some are beginning to shy away from, said director of marketing Roy Acosta. Though 6.5mm thick, the new “Mod Core” construction makes Limelight 17% lighter than traditional WPC, Acosta said. In development for over a year, the core does not feature a vinyl layer, sometimes called a stability layer, beneath the design layer, and instead draws its dimensional strength from a higher resin content-40% versus the average 20% to 25%, according to Acosta. This also allows for a less glossy finish, since the planks don’t have to be heated as much during binding, and they require no acclimation.

In line with the move away from PVC, Home Legend also debuted a new rigid core product called ReSurface, which replaces the material with PET and features a polypropylene print layer. The distributor counts Home Depot among its private label customers, and Acosta said the product had to withstand 25,000 lifecycles to be admitted into the big box’s Lifeproof lineup. They finally decided to stop the testing at 30,000 lifecycles. And utilizing PET helps it achieve the competitive price point necessary. ReSurface is 6.5mm thick-“the sweet spot right now for our big box customers,” he reported-and has a 12 mil wearlayer.

Home Legend also introduced a new premium engineered hardwood offering that hits a competitive price point. Called Artisan Cut, the collection features a plywood core with a 3mm sawn-face European oak veneer in a 9.5”x7.2’ format. It will be available in the next four to six months.

One of the few resilient providers showcasing tile looks, Happy Feet International featured a looselay collection offering stone and terrazzo visuals, which were previously only available from the supplier in a click format. The new Quarry collection comprises mostly subtle grey stone looks in a 5mm total thickness with a 28 mil wearlayer.

In response to customer requests, Happy Feet also added laminate to its offerings with the new Restoration collection. The ten SKUs live mostly in the midrange and offer light graining for a more natural look. The 8mm HDF core has treated edges and less than a 10% swell rate, and it is backed with a 2mm pad.

Happy Feet rounded out its offering with the new 8mm Regency WPC collection. It joins the 11.5mm Pinnacle and 10mm Surfside collections launched over the past year.

The shift in color preferences was evident at high-end hardwood producer Provenza’s booth, with light, sandy colors being joined by golden honeys, light sables, rich browns and even a black. Regional sales director Larry Purcell noted that the company’s new water-resistant laminate line exemplifies the colorways most commonly requested today. Having abandoned the category, the company decided to re-enter it due to customer requests, he added.

Purcell said the company has also received requests for black and near-white options, which it included in its new Vitali Elite collection of 3/4” engineered European oak. The collection also illustrates the return to some character, achieved through light wirebrushing, as well as the continued drive to large formats. The planks are 10-1/4” wide and up to 86-1/2” long (random lengths). However, Purcell noted that he’s also received a lot of requests for 4” to 5” widths, which will be introduced in late summer.

Similarly, he said customers are beginning to request alternatives to the ever-popular European white oak. In response, Provenza is planning a European walnut collection.

Featured prominently among the company’s new introductions at Surfaces were new WPC and SPC offerings. In addition to medium tones, the New Wave collection answers the call from customers for a rolled or pressed bevel, which is new for the company.

Having refocused in on laminate last year, Republic Floor is beefing up its line with new collections in 12mm and 14mm formats. The 12mm options, Sharc and Bear Woods, are water resistant up to 180 or 300 hours, respectively, with a 3% swell rate. The majority of the EIR SKUs measure 9”x72”, while the more premium offering, Silver Willow, measures 7”x84”. Rated AC5, making them applicable for heavy commercial, none of the collections feature attached pad.

As Republic moves to differentiate itself through product thickness in both laminate and LVT, the supplier debut a 14mm rigid core offering called South Rose, and it is adding a 12mm collection called North Water, both of which benefit from Light SPC technology. In addition to a 28 mil wearlayer, they feature an additional UV-protective coating.

Major Midwestern distributor Herregan had a host of new products, including a digital print laminate collection from Kaindl. Floorganic by Kaindl is treated for water resistance, has an antimicrobial top layer and is roughly 30% quieter than traditional laminate, thanks to its attached wood fiber pad, according to the company. Marketing director Aaron Harmonn said Herregan is seeing a resurgence in laminate and is “very bullish” on the category. The distributor also added two other laminate collections as well as new colors in existing lines.

And, in line with the move to WPC as customers seek quality assurance, Herregan introduced a new 10mm WPC collection called Paramount RigidCore, featuring its best-selling SPC colors.

After years of the majority of its residential brands exhibiting at Surfaces, Shaw’s only representation this year was its TotalWorx accessories brand, which was new to the show floor. “The other brands have so much equity, we wanted to make TotalWorx front and center,” said senior marketing manager Adam Sartain. Meanwhile, Shaw’s flagship brands are focusing on regional shows and more consumer-facing events to help intimately connect with both customers and end users.

TotalWorx’s new SpeedLink Spline allows for directional changes at any point during the installation of resilient flooring, reducing the time required by 25% to 35%, according to Sartain. The brand also introduced a new stair nosing with a flat profile in response to requests for a more modern look (rounded options were already available). All of the profiles are color matched with Shaw flooring. Also, the firm has launched a new PetPerfect cleaner.

Roomvo, the market leader in flooring visualization technologies for the consumer, was at the show to demonstrate its technology and its user-friendly process-with a photo from home, in just a few clicks potential customers can drop flooring products right into their rooms and even use its new Compare feature to do side-by-side comparisons in a single image.

“Half of the renovation projects out there actually fail and don’t go through because the consumers can’t visualize what the end result will look like,” Roomvo CEO Pawel Rajszel told Floor Focus, noting that over 5,000 independent flooring retailers currently use Roomvo, including hundreds of retailers with Roomvo in-store kiosks.

Rajszel added, “Retailers have to find a way to differentiate themselves, and specifically the showroom. With this kiosk, it allows you to really stand out with an outstanding showroom experience that allows consumers to have a visualization experience, a guided sales process with QR codes and modern technology that is all really easy to use and allows that consumer to feel that they have this experience in the showroom that you otherwise don’t see anywhere else.”

Developed based on feedback from commercial sellers, Küberit’s new KR-J profile allows for ADA-compliant transitions between materials of varying heights, such as carpet tile and LVT or concrete. “We’re seeing a trend of decorative concrete and lots of retrofits,” noted business development manager Rhyal Knight. The profile features a ridge that runs along the underside, offering the option for adhesive to be applied. Made of anodized aluminum, the offering will likely be expanded to include other finishes and widths, said Knight. Its current construction can withstand heavy rolling loads and traffic.

Versatrim debuted its patent-pending VersaCap Round stair nosings, offering an alternative to its existing squared options. Customized to match the floor material, the new low-profile nosings can accommodate hard surface flooring of various thicknesses, including floating floors that experience expansion and contraction. Also new were white stair risers, available in 3/8” and 5/8” thickness, as well as primed 3/4”x3/4” quarter round and 1/2”x3/4” base shoe.

This year marked Taylor Adhesives’ first Surfaces since Ralph Grogan’s appointment as commercial president of the organization’s flooring division in August 2023. Grogan has over 35 years in the industry, including leadership roles at Parterre, Bentley Mills and Tarkett’s commercial carpet division.

Gravity, Taylor’s new product at Surfaces, is actually not an adhesive but a non-skid coating for installing looselay LVT over approved subfloors. Taylor was also celebrating its signature line, workhorse product Dynamic, which has sold enough to now circle the globe 19 times, according to the firm. Taylor Adhesives was founded in 1977 by Wallace F. Taylor and has been part of the Meridian Adhesives Group since 2018.

BEYOND THE SHOW
While Surfaces offers the largest debut of new products for the residential market, it is not the only, nor even the first, event of the industry’s introductory season. Here are some highlights from this season’s regional events.

Kicking off in Dallas, Texas, Shaw Industries’ “Elevate” road trip around the country provided the first real glimpse of new products from its family of residential brands: Shaw Floors, Anderson Tuftex (A/T) and Coretec. Having pulled out of Surfaces as Shaw focuses on more intimate regional events with its dealer base this year, it was also one of the only scheduled chances to see its introductions in person.

A/T’s largest soft surface launch in at least five years, the brand gained 17 new carpet styles as it transitions from a traditional aesthetic to a more contemporary one. Examples include Ambitious, an irregular organic linear inspired by impasto painting and made from 100% post-consumer recycled PET. Shown in a predominantly black colorway interrupted by small white strokes, it also illustrates A/T’s refreshed approach to color. Even the traditional textured weaves were infused with hues that included muted jewel tones, with the majority of A/T’s new collections offering dozens of colorways. The brand also debuted two new hardwood styles, including a hickory offering, Transcendence.

Coretec’s wood-inspired WPC offerings gained a host of new colors in keeping with both the continued appetite for light naturals and the current move toward midtones and even some dark browns and near-blacks. The brand also added new stone looks in SPC, WPC and mineral core formats. The Coretec Tile platform is a replacement for Coretec Stone, which suffered from issues such as chipping and cracking.

It was unusual to see actual ceramic offerings on display under the Shaw Floors brand, but the Dallas area is a hotbed for new residential development, and Shaw is looking to grow its position in the ceramic market. Several new floor tile collections, including Pacific Ridge and Natural Strata, answer customer requests for stone looks, said Romeo Tejada, South region divisional manager for tile and Shaw’s TotalWorx sundries brand. In small formats, the focus was on color.

Shaw recently added mineral core LVT to its Shaw Floors’ Pet Perfect line, and the two new offerings were showcased alongside the line’s complementary carpet styles. Both of the resilient collections feature trendy colors on a 9mm core, but they are differentiated by their format: Paw-some’s 9”x86” versus Cattitude’s 7”x48”. Among the line’s soft surface rollouts, category director Dakota Aft said dealers were particularly drawn to Sincere Focus, a subtle organically textured pattern reminiscent of tree bark, and Calm Expression, a bold crosshatch. Both are part of the new No Pattern Match Required platform of designs across Shaw’s residential broadloom offerings.

Typically an anchor exhibitor at Surfaces, Dal-Tile pulled back its presence to a small section of Mohawk’s massive space, a last-minute decision following the positive reaction to its pared-down approach at Mohawk’s Momentum Roadshow stop in Dallas. Transitioning its main showing to KBIS this year-where Daltile’s new travertine-inspired Calligo collection of floor tiles and mosaics was a finalist in the Best of KBIS Awards-the brand displayed mostly running-line products at its Mohawk-focused showings. New among the lineup was Acreage, a refined European white oak-inspired visual, and Artcrafted, which aligns with the ongoing desire in the market for a handmade, artisanal-feel wall tile. Artcrafted’s rich, earthy color palette is available as an elongated subway (3”x12”), a “kitkat” (1”x4”) and 4”x4” square, all of which are trending in small formats.

The big push at Dallas was for Daltile’s relatively new countertop display, a small-format yet curated way of promoting its growing quartz offerings. Comprising two acrylic stands, the display pairs Daltile’s top-selling quartz options with complementary wall tile and mosaics, with QR codes on the back of samples that link to the online visualizer.

At Southwest Flooring Market, the first market event of the year, Beauflor displayed its new laminate and SPC lines, but vice president of sales Kevin Howell said its cushionback sheet vinyl got the most attention. Noting sheet’s improved aesthetics, performance and value position, he said there is “a huge surge toward sheet vinyl, and not base-grade products.” The wood-visual Blacktex sheet on the floor was, in fact, hard to discern from an LVT.

Howell said there’s also been a return to laminate. “It’s gone from 800 million square feet to 1.4 billion square feet in the last 24 months,” he said, citing general consumption. A relatively new category for the company, Beauflor is growing its laminate offerings with the Oterra collection, its second laminate line. Oterra has a 12mm core treated to withstand water and features EIR, a painted bevel and a 2mm attached pad, and it is domestically made. The ten SKUs predominantly speak to the desire for light to midrange natural colors, bookended by a few washed-out milky hues and rich darks.

The firm’s new SPC program, Innovious, offers a complete ‘good, better, best’ lineup, starting with a 12 mil wearlayer atop a 4mm core.

Set up in distributor JJ Haines’ booth at the Southeast Flooring Market, Mullican offered a sneak peek of two new hardwood collections set to launch this spring: Haven and Serenity. The hickory and white oak offerings showcase the natural beauty of each wood species in eight contemporary colors. With lengths of 5-1/2’ and widths of 7-1/2”, the planks provide a striking visual presence. Offering comparable style and design but representing a step up is the Bellême collection launched last fall, which features premium white oak visuals on planks 7-1/2” wide and up to 6’ in length (random).

The show was the Tennessee hardwood producer’s first since transitioning leadership to Pat Oakley on January 1. A veteran of the hardwood flooring industry for more than 25 years, Oakley succeeds Neil Poland, who is now executive chairman of the company. Oakley has been with Mullican since 2000, serving in a variety of roles. In his most recent position as vice president of marketing, he led various strategic initiatives, including the company’s rebrand in 2018.

Kährs typically hosts an off-site event at Surfaces where it provides information and a few samples, but as it works to achieve market saturation across the U.S., it exhibited at the three regional flooring markets for the first time this year. President Sean Brennan said the company is focusing on cleaner visuals with an ultra-matte finish, as well as patterned options.

Catering to the desire for natural-looking and -feeling floors, the Swedish engineered wood producer featured its Beyond Retro and new Capital collections at the Southwest Flooring Market. Their ultra-matte finish provides the aesthetic of an oiled floor but allows it to be cared for in the same manner as traditional prefinished wood floors. While hitting on the desire for light blondes, warm honeys and sables, the collections feature light wirebrushing for a little more character. Beyond Retro, the more character-grade of the two, comes in both a plank and strip format.

In Las Vegas, the focus was on Kährs’ new LVT lines-which the company refers to simply as luxury tile (LT) since most of its offerings are PVC-free. Due out in late spring, Ranch and Hacienda also follow the drive toward lighter colors and natural looks.

Copyright 2024 Floor Focus 

Related Topics:Parterre Flooring Systems, AHF Products, The Dixie Group, Broadlume, RD Weis, Haines, Tarkett, LG Hausys, Domotex, Phenix Flooring, Shaw Floors, Masland Carpets & Rugs, Novalis Innovative Flooring, Crossville, American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), Kaleen Rugs & Broadloom, The American Institute of Architects, Couristan, Engineered Floors, LLC, Lumber Liquidators, The International Surface Event (TISE), Daltile, Mannington Mills, Mohawk Industries, Tuftex, Armstrong Flooring, Shaw Industries Group, Inc., Coverings, Karastan, Anderson Tuftex, HMTX