Welcome to the 12th Annual Installation Awards where we celebrate the flooring installation industry’s highly skilled craftsmen and women in both residential and commercial settings. Each project entry details the challenges faced and the unique features that help set that installation apart. This year, we had several one-of-a-kind installations and even a few from across the pond! 

We are eager to celebrate the wins, but more than anything, we want everyone to know that putting yourself and your work out there for others to see and critique requires courage. So, thank you for entering the Awards, and I hope you will come back next year! I challenge each of you to bring a friend and submit your amazing work together.

We thank our sponsors for their steadfast support. Key sponsor Performance Accessories demonstrates its commitment to the installation community through innovative products designed to simplify challenging projects. QEP/Roberts also maintains its sponsorship, reinforcing its dedication to equipping professionals with quality tools.

 

Photos: Vassallo Tile & Stone

Materials used: DalTile, Go Board, and Laticrete 

Challenges: Creating the backsplash was great. That was pretty straightforward. I did little baby miter returns at the end of the wall, so that was super custom. I followed all the TCNA guidelines. I took the Artisans Revolution in Tile (A.R.T.) extensive training—a four-day course—and creating something with that much detail was quite challenging. 

Picking the right colors to match exactly what they were looking for—the look, the feel—[was a challenge]. Then, there's not only colors, but a lot of that tile was porcelain, so it's super hard. To try to cut the porcelain that detailed was a little tricky.

Unique features: I would say nailing what the client's inspiration was for their design. They wanted it to be subtle, classy, not too loud. I think we really hit the nail on that. 

 

Photos: Burkholder’s Flooring America

Materials used: Karndean Fumo LVT in Opus, Sureply underlayment, and Ardex products  

Challenges: The hardest thing was cutting everything in by hand. I cut everything in with a utility knife. There are tools that make what it took here a lot easier. Aside from that, it went smoothly.  

Unique features: The pinstripe—that really made everything pop. It would have just been a herringbone right up to the wall, but that border really made everything pop.  

I got all my inspiration from the LVP design groups over in the UK. Those guys really inspired me a lot. I didn't really have any training; I've been just watching them.

 

Photos: Davis Interiors

Materials used: Anderson Tuftex: Speak Style ZZ085 (Color 00717 Desert Palm); Retailer: Con Carpet Tile and Design  

Challenges: I didn't measure it. The very bottom landing was measured to run the opposite direction of the stairs. It, I believe, is in four pieces. I was scared I wasn't going to have enough, but I did, and it ended up working out in the end. Most of my stairs I do are cap and band stairs, and I do them all in two pieces. I know a lot of guys try to do it with one, but I don't think it looks right where the riser and tread meet at the bottom with one piece because you can't get that crisp angle underneath there like it is before we put carpet on them. I know with two pieces I can get that angle I'm looking for, and I can get the clean look that I need.

Unique features: The homeowner bought another 14 feet of the same carpet to have a 30’ runner made to match the stairs from the front door to the living room. I cut it into three pieces and seemed it all together for him.

 

Photos: NAJD Co. LLC

Materials used: Floors Inc. hardwood and Bostik adhesive

Challenges: One challenge was the humidity. All the doorjambs had custom cuts. Plus, in the middle of the rooms, they have columns. We had to cut trim around all that. It was not cut around, no base on it, so everything has to be tight. On the side of the expansion gap, we have to be very careful. If we don't make sure we cover all the perimeter, the base will not cover and to replace one board of that, it will be a mess.

Unique features: I think the time that I spent doing this one. All the precision and all the time [put into it]. This project is special because when I was laying the hardwood, if the board don't like me, I just don't put it [down]. I selected [them] one by one. I moved the stagger around until I felt good about it because it was a lot of money [spent] on the flooring. It was a lot of love and time.

 

Photos: Certified Finishes

Materials used: DalTile, American Olean: Color Story; Schluter

Challenges: The primary challenge was executing a complex tile installation in an occupied collegiate athletic facility without disrupting daily operations. With multiple restrooms and locker rooms spread across several floors, strategic phasing and precise coordination were essential. Tight timelines, maintaining player and staff safety, and working around active facility use required the team to be highly adaptable. In addition, the intricate tile design—with varying colors, sizes, and angular layouts—demanded exceptional planning and craftsmanship to meet both aesthetic and performance goals.

Unique features: The installation’s standout feature is its intricate and highly customized tile layout, which integrates UTC’s school colors into a bold and cohesive design. The use of multiple tile formats and angles from the American Olean collection required expert precision. Additionally, the incorporation of Schluter strips ensured clean transitions and enhanced the durability and polished finish of the space. Combined with a high-performance thin set, this installation not only delivered a visually striking result but also ensured long-term functionality in a demanding athletic environment.

 

Photos: FloorRescue

Materials used: Advanced Resins from Superior Decorative Concrete Supply

Challenges: We were battling wind. The wind was howling. We had to work from inside the house. Actually, I put the garage doors down. Usually, we come from the driveway in, but we did it opposite, so we protect it. We protected all the wood, and we dropped [the epoxy] that way. We had a walkway all the way from the door all the way to the garage. But yes, the heat can be severe. It’s getting hotter here.

Unique features: That one is a lot of colors and a lot of shades of everything from white to black and some special silvers in there. We've got a lot of unique ways to create some of these effects with different types of mica powders—the metallic powders. Great client. Had a lot of fun with them. And of course, he took me for a ride in his McLaren after we got done! That project had a ceramic topcoat. You have urethanes and polyaspardics, and this was a ceramic. Overall, that was a very successful install.

 

Photos: Pruitt Flooring

Materials used: Philadelphia Commercial In the Grain II 20 mil

Challenges: The biggest thing for me on night gigs like that is just making sure you have everything when the job starts. Even stuff that you don't think you're going to need because at 2 a.m. your stores are closed. We had, I think, three trucks there. We had two and three of every tool we thought we may need in case one breaks. We had stuff ready to do a self-level pour if we needed to. We had stuff for skim coat, extra transitions. That's the biggest thing for that is just getting staged and having everything you think you could possibly need.

Unique features: I just like the way it looked. Everything looked nice, especially when it was all done. Everything matched well—the color of the LVP, the style. We don't pick colors or anything, but it all tied in real nice.

 

Photos: Certified Finishes

Materials used: Brintons custom Axminster broadloom

Challenges: There was no pattern repeat for the ballroom for the whole first level. It went into ballrooms, down corridors, around corners. You can't use a regular flood drawing. If you made one miscut or something didn't line up, the whole thousands of yards were shot. It was presented as an ocean with waves, and it just flowed. There was no set pattern. We had to have multiple meetings with the London manufacturer because they had never manufactured something like this. The difficulty is when you're going around corners out of the ballroom, having a seam or the carpet line up perfectly on the other side of the wall was extremely difficult. We basically installed this twice. One dry lay [where we] maneuvered stuff around. [We] had to be very careful with the cuts around the walls and corners and have a lot of access so we could make sure with the flood drawings, the exact seam was coming together in the right place.

Unique features: (Charlie Rapplean) The carpet install was absolutely beautiful. We had no issues. I've been in this industry for over 25 years, and this is by far one of the most unique and beautiful installations of a carpet and pattern I've ever seen. I said if we have to submit anything, we have to submit this because it was just the uniqueness of the pattern. I mean it looked like an ocean when I saw the rendered drawings. It blew my mind. It was absolutely beautiful.

(Jake Hoffman) I would say the most unique thing was actually getting on a call with the Brinton's team. They really set the stage as this being one of their most complex carpets that they've produced. After hearing that, you get a little nervous, but somehow everything went extremely smoothly. We couldn't have asked for a better install.

 

Photos: LuxeFloors Co.

Materials used: Engineered hardwood and Tovcal MS Polymer 2C by Tover International

Challenges: You can imagine construction in New York and San Francisco just shuts the city down. It's the same with London. So, very small street where it's off of, and then very small entrance where you go in. We have to be mindful of all the builders as well. So, I think a lot of the challenges were based on the logistics, delivery, not overwhelming the space where people are working, doing a lot of back and forth with deliveries and then setting [up] a timetable to ensure that the scope of the project is done on time because that's really important. You never want to let down the client. It is very difficult because where we're based and where the job is in mileage terms is very small but because it's London, traffic is basically a nightmare. You're looking at two hours there and two hours back, and I would tell you that it's no more than 12 miles. You're doing that every day for two weeks.

Unique features: What’s most unique about it is the fact that we chose the direction of the herringbone. We realized that we wanted it to be very spacious in a confined space. We wanted to give the illusion of as much space as possible because I think that that's fair on anyone that's going to live there. That was probably very unique because the client told us they'd never seen this before. They'd never had someone come to the site, take some drone imagery, use satellite imagery and then use arrows in a quotation and show us the direction of the herringbone.