Despite numerous opportunities for product and installation education through multiple channels, flooring professionals continue to make costly adhesive application mistakes by failing to research how evolving chemical formulations impact their specific projects and bottom line. Here, installation educators explain how they and the product manufacturers they represent are working to help prevent failures on the front end.
Just when Michael Barrows thought he was ready to retire, he launched Atlanta Flooring Studio with Mimi Mulugeta—two bold career pivots, one shared flooring vision.
Traditional trades like interior contracting now embrace EOS and EXO 2.0—structured systems previously limited to tech sectors—to document institutional knowledge, strengthen succession planning, and navigate modern market pressures.
Fishman Flooring's West Region sales manager, Tyler Trick, discusses how tariff uncertainty, supply chain disruptions, and severe labor shortages are challenging the flooring industry in 2025.
While flooring distributors struggle with outdated supply chains, Texas Roadhouse processes 400,000+ daily orders with 98.7% accuracy using digital systems. The restaurant chain's transformation offers a blueprint for flooring companies to reduce inventory costs 30% and eliminate project delays through AI-powered operations.
Successful flooring salespeople excel by asking questions and actively listening to customer needs, recognizing that flooring represents a significant, infrequent purchase for most consumers who rely on professional guidance—a strategy that drives not only immediate sales but cultivates valuable repeat business and personal referrals.
The CR Design Center Westside, located at the adaptive reuse Westside Paper development near the Atlanta Beltline, represents the culmination of the company's 55-year evolution and signals a dynamic shift in how the Home Depot-owned company approaches customer service in the building and design industry.
