Reuben Potter Helps Flooring Installers Fill Knowledge Gaps

With nearly 40,000 YouTube subscribers, Reuben Potter, owner, Floors By Southern Boys, dedicates time each week to creating how-to videos to help fill in knowledge gaps for other flooring installers. A more than 30-year flooring veteran, he combines industry standards with his own experiences on the job and in some cases, tosses in a little humor.

Having only learned about the available installation certifications a few years ago, Potter pursued certifications through the Natural Fiber Installers Certification (NFIC) and the Certified Flooring Installers (CFI) association. According to Potter, the education and training are well worth the money, but it does take time for it to pay off.

"The education and the pay will come with it; it just takes time,” he said. “You can’t go do it and expect the store to give you the money the very next job after you’re certified. It don’t work like that, but it does work, I assure you.”

To further his commitment to education, Potter has started an annual workshop event where he invites only a select few installers to learn more about flooring installation. This year they focused on pattern matching. They got to practice hand skills, use new tools and exchange knowledge. It is worth noting that the topics are determined by the attendees. Most of these requests come through the comments on his videos.

Beth Miller began her journalistic journey in 2005 while still working as a mechanic in her dad’s garage. She has written about everything from artists to WWII veterans and in 2010 stepped into the healthcare sector where she created digital content for 11 years. She, then, received her master’s degree in English from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In 2017, she took the leap into the flooring industry. Here, she has discovered a place where she can apply both her technical and journalistic abilities.