| Indoors and Out
Tile Crossing Over Into New Frontiers
Manchester, NH (May 30, 2006) — Long the champ for color and style combinations, ceramic tile is now showing up in an increasing array of new sizes – with some outdoor tile stretching two feet wide.
“It’s pretty amazing what’s happening with tile,” said Bill Snowdon, Flooring America’s director of hard surfaces. “There’s always been an endless variety of colors and styles, but now we’re seeing lots of different sizes to meet the growing list of uses for the surface.”
Snowdon credits the explosion of sizes and styles to tile’s steady march into other areas of the home from its longstanding dominance in kitchens and baths.
“Tile is now being used to decorate entire rooms – to cover walls as well as floors,” said Snowdon. And we’re seeing huge gains in porcelain because it’s a denser tile and better at resisting moisture. You can put porcelain outside without any problem, and I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing big gains in sales of large tiles down south and in the southwest – a lot of tile is headed outdoors these days.”
Custom tile floors are also seeing a surge in popularity for stores delivering precise, up-front planning that’s needed to handle the complexity of high-end patterns and designs.
“The initial planning and design is absolutely essential to a trouble-free installation and a satisfied customer,” said John Schnaitman, who has owned his Flooring America store in Stroudsburg, PA for 34 years. “We find that most customers have difficulty visualizing the complexity in large custom tile designs so it’s our job to make sure they’re comfortable from the start. The last thing you want is someone who falls in love with a floor at the showroom, but hates it when it gets to her house - and that’s easier to do with tile than any other surface because you often have so many accents, borders, and inlays.”
An ongoing emphasis on helping the customer “see” has made custom tile jobs a prominent part of Schnaitman’s business – double the average for most Flooring America and Flooring Canada stores. And to ensure the best possible planning, Schnaitman designs every detail to scale so customers can visualize full rooms.
“By designing tile jobs to scale, customers can not only visualize the full design, but also appreciate why we suggest the use of all those sometimes pricey moldings,” said Schnaitman. “The other benefit is the ability to predetermine the outcome of a tile installation, rather than relying on the artistic and math abilities of the installer. That way we ensure that the customer gets exactly what they had envisioned.”
Flooring America and Flooring Canada, with a sales volume of $1.55 billion, consist of more than 575 member-owned floor covering stores throughout the United States and Canada. Flooring America and Flooring Canada provide members with exclusive brands and warranty programs, comprehensive multi-media advertising programs, complete Showroom merchandising packages, plus training in management and sales. They operate as a division of CCA Global Partners, the world’s largest flooring group. For information on becoming a member, call Chris Ramey at 800-450-7595 ext. 2131. Flooring America and Flooring Canada logos can be downloaded at www.weintraubadv.com/fame.
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