NFA board members map out the way forward

The newly elected NFA board: Dave Chambers, Nebraska Furniture Mart, vice president; Penny Carnino, Grigsby’s Carpet Tile and Hardwood, board member at large; Ian Newton, Flooring 101, past president; Susan Hadinger, Hadinger Flooring, treasurer; Scott Browne, Macco’s Floor Covering Center, president; and Sam Locher, AJ Rose, secretary.

Sint Maarten—The National Floorcovering Alliance, the success-minded group of 40 of the top retailers in the industry, elected its board of directors for the next two years at its fall meeting here earlier this month. The incoming board includes president: Scott Browne, Macco’s Floor Covering Center; vice president: Dave Chambers, Nebraska Furniture Mart; treasurer: Susan Hadinger, Hadinger Flooring; secretary: Sam Locher, AJ Rose; board member at large: Penny Carnino, Grigsby’s Carpet Tile and Hardwood; and past president: Ian Newton, Flooring 101. Two more at-large board members will be elected in January. FCNews publisher Steven Feldman sat down with the newly elected board for a 30-minute interview to discuss, among other things, goals and objectives going forward.

 Ian, what do you believe to be your greatest accomplishments over the last four years?

Newton: Not screwing it up! But seriously, changing the bylaws where it takes five votes [not one] to block a new member from joining the group was important. But I think the greatest accomplishment was bringing in some strong members. Jordans Flooring, USA Flooring, Thornton Flooring are all great, solid members. I also think we brought some value as a board. I was truly blessed to have such strong board members by my side every step of the way.

Scott, you’ve been on the board for five years. What made you decide to run for president?

Browne: I had a backseat to Jeff Macco as his business partner when he was NFA president. I saw the opportunity to engage and grow. I watched our business grow because of relationships with members and vendors. And I looked at it as an opportunity for me to give back to what this organization and industry has given to me after these last few years on the board, on the resilient committee. These people are the best–the current board, the future board members, our member engagement, our vendor partners, even some of the media are OK!

Dave, what makes you want to be vice president for what will wind up being at least seven years? What’s the drive?

Chambers: It’s such a great group, it’s hard to not want to give. I want to make the industry better than it was when I entered it. So I’m finding ways to make an impact and this is just one way. NFA is about making an impact in the industry for me.

Carnino: Being in this group since 1998 or ’99 has really helped me grow as a leader. I got the first opportunity to serve on the board because it was time to help other people and mentor people in the group. If you look at our elections this year, we had some tremendous people who were up to be elected. It made some decisions very difficult because we had great candidates.

Locher: We’ve gotten so much from the group that we want to be able to give back and further whatever efforts we have. There are so many opportunities that we have both as a group and individually.

You talked about wanting to give back to the group. What has the group given to you as businesses and as individuals?

Carnino: The roll buy and pallet buy are amazing opportunities. Our best practices [sessions] help us learn from other members. The networking. If I have an issue or problem, I know somebody to call. Especially on the vendor side, if have a problem, I always have a connection. Those things have made such a difference for all of us.

Newton: We’ve built lifelong relationships within the group. Not only that, but being able to pick up the phone and call someone and say, “I have this issue.” We were a $10 million dealer when we joined the group; now we’re in the mid-$40s. And when we were $10 million, there were $20, $30, $40 million dollar dealers that had been through the same challenges we were going through. The ability to pick up the phone and ask, “How did you handle this? How did you grow? What did you do in this situation?” is invaluable.

Browne: Everything from marketing in the early years as an NFA member, what we learned, not just in our local market, but what others are doing. For us, a lot of times it was reassurance. You make a phone call and say, “Hey, I’m trying this. I’m working through it. I have this struggle. Did you find a better way to do it?” And they would say, “You’re doing it right. It took me some time to navigate through, but we got it all figured out.” It’s the people who you have an immediate link to that can either give you the reassurance or advice you need.

Hadinger: Everybody here is supportive of each other. Everybody in the group is among the smartest people in the industry.

Newton: I think the transparency of the setup of the group, too. You get reports and can see everybody’s rebates, so you can say, “Hey, this guy’s up with this company. What success does he have?” And you can pick up the phone and say, “Hey, is there a product or something to be doing with this that you’re up for that or down or whatever?” Or a company that you don’t do any business with and somebody is having success with that vendor.

What are your goals and objectives over at least the next two years for this group?

Browne: It sounds cliche, but continue on the path we’re heading down. I think we’ve seen in the last 10 years, especially in the last four, that transparency piece from board to membership and back. I think there’s a huge opportunity to continue to build on that foundation we have with our vendors, to establish the NFA year after year as the premier flooring group in the market. A group that our vendors respect.

We have some ideas on bringing back some of the past leaders and establish a past leadership council. Having the ability to have our individual CFOs get together quarterly or twice a year, maybe virtually on Teams, to have a CFO subcommittee where they can talk about some of the nuances in the flooring business and things they have figured out. I’ve had a few members reach out to me and say, “I would love the guys that run my builder team to be engaged with your builder people.” So I think there’s an opportunity to get more people engaged in an organization than just the principals or decision makers. There are a lot of important people in our businesses. We have the ability to make each other better, make all our businesses better and hopefully make the industry better than what it was when we found it.

You talk about maximizing vendor relationships. What does that mean?

Chambers: Finding unique programs that can help elevate and benefit every member. That’s the whole point–we’re trying to partner with them to create opportunities that don’t exist for other dealers out there. It doesn’t have to be exclusive products; it could be anything. It’s maximizing the relationships and continuing to build this. It’s looking at what we are missing from the other categories, broadening the business, how we make our businesses successful by bringing in new categories.

Locher: We always say it’s a relationship business. The relationships matter because it builds trust, and if we mutually trust each other…  We want the vendors to make money, we want to make money. When there are issues like a claim, you know who to call and say, “Hey, this is legit. I’m not just looking for a money grab. I need you to take care of this.” And generally you can get that done.

Is increasing member engagement also a priority over the next few years? How do you do that?

Browne: You just have to present the opportunities. We have a lot of great professionals in our organizations that aren’t the principal or operator. You have to give them the opportunity to get engaged, to help build businesses out and take off that hat of “I work for XYZ Floor Covering, so I don’t care what happens in the marketplace,” and to become a part of something a little bigger. Our membership has been transitioning and there are a lot of new faces around that table that were not there 10 years ago. And I think just through that transparency and communication piece, more and more people are getting excited about being involved in either the board or at the committee level. We have a lot of talented people at the helm.

Give me a supplier that’s stepped up for the group this year in a big way.

Newton: Karndean and Stanton. Numbers wise, I know the group has had successes. Stanton’s a relatively new vendor to the group and I think they have figured out how to build those relationships to grow within the group.

Browne: We have a lot of great partners that have been working with the NFA. But to me, Shaw has done a tremendous job with offering deltas on products, holding prices as clean as it possibly can, full transparency on the backside of the business. And then, quite frankly, the pallet buy programs, rebate opportunities and growth have given us the best opportunity to win in our marketplace.

Locher: There’s been a push for Shaw to recapture how they used to be. I think they’re heading back.

Carnino: Cali and Shaw. Our business has grown a lot with Cali as it has for a lot of members. They’ve made personal trips to visit us and develop relationships with my people. That relationship makes all the difference in the world.

Hadinger: Karastan, Shaw and Cali. We have great relationships with all the people at Karastan, but this year they sponsored a designer event at our store. And it went a long way.

In other NFA news coming out of the meeting….

* The NFA celebrated Lisa Browning’s 20th anniversary as executive director. What has Browning done for this group over the last two decades? “She is the group,” Carnino said. “She keeps us all together. She keeps track of everything.” And Chambers added, “I don’t think the group would exist without Lisa.” Specifically, Browning bridges the gap between the members and vendors, then communicates everything to the group. “I don’t think there’s a high-end executive out there where she can’t pick up the phone and have a personal relationship with,” Newton said.

* Two economists from investment bank Piper Sandler–Jake Oubina, managing director and deputy head of economic research, and Peter Keith, managing director and senior research analyst–told members they are starting to see flooring sales normalize and there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. They believe interest rates should start to come down in the second or third quarter of 2027. While they don’t expect massive rate reductions, they believe 6.5% might be the new 6% that will be the catalyst for increased activity.

“It’s just a matter of affordability,” Chambers said. “Either home prices or interest rates have to come down, or a combination of the two. Right now housing is just not affordable for younger generations. The average first-time home buyer is now 41, which is crazy.”

High interest rates are also negatively impacting renovation, which in the past ticked up when people were not relocating. “The HELOCs are just not great right now,” Chambers said. “That’s the problem. Although people have more equity in their homes now than they’ve ever had before, the interest rates are still not friendly enough for people to want to go get a HELOC.”

* The biggest challenges to NFA members’ businesses right now are how to best utilize AI, the ongoing battle to find good labor, and vendors raising prices on freight “or anything on which they can raise prices.” Members say increases disrupt business because everything has to be repriced or they take a hit on margin.

* One of the best opportunities going forward for the group, members say, is the new Daltile countertop concierge program. “If you don’t already do countertops, it’s a great opportunity,” Carnino said. “They have fabricators lined up. Grigsby’s had previously utilized a fabricator outside of our business. We just sold the slabs, but now with the countertop concierge, we not only make margin on the slabs, we make it on the labor as well.”

* Two potential new NFA members that attended the fall meeting were Atlanta Design Center and Carpet Weavers. Newton described both retailers as “solid fits for the group, not just in their volume but what they can bring as people to the group.” Both retailers have strong, diversified businesses. Browne added, “The bottom line is the people, their willingness to give back and their desire to be engaged.”

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New Cyncly Flooring manager brings relevant experience to bear

Wynn Grubbs

Cyncly, a leading global provider of AI-driven software for the spaces-for-living industry, recently named Wynn Grubbs as general manager of the Cyncly Flooring business unit. Grubbs brings more than two decades of experience in high-growth SaaS companies and has spent the past two years leading Cyncly’s Kitchen, Bath and Furniture retail (KBFr) business unit, where he built a multi-product strategy to help independent retailers connect their entire business, from design and specification through to customer management and sales. He also brings firsthand experience as a retail business owner and operator, complementing his software background with a practical understanding of the day-to-day demands of running an independent retail business.

James Hamilton, Cyncly COO, points to Grubbs’ track record. “He understands how independent retailers operate, what slows them down and how connected software helps them grow.”

FCNews recently caught up with Grubbs to talk about his experience on both the digital and retail sides, and how he plans to apply lessons learned to his new position.

Following are excerpts of that discussion:

FCNews: Congratulations on your appointment.

Wynn Grubbs: Thanks. It’s exciting. It does feel like a lot of things coming together for me and for Cyncly. While I don’t have deep roots in the flooring industry, I have experience as a retailer and a retail technology provider. A lot of what we’ve learned serving kitchen and bath retailers applies directly to flooring, and so does my software background prior to joining Cyncly.

FCNews: What’s the main challenge facing flooring retailers today?

Wynn Grubbs: Flooring retailers are running sophisticated businesses, but too much of their operation still depends on stitching together tools that weren’t designed to work together. I have run retail businesses, and the administrative burden of managing disconnected systems is real. My priority is helping dealers spend less time on their software and more time on their customers and their growth.

FCNews: Many specialty retailers have diversified into other segments like kitchen and baths, other related home improvement markets, renovations, window treatments, paint and what have you. Can you share with us some of the lessons that you’ve learned in leading Cyncly’s kitchen, bath and furniture retail business that you can apply to the flooring business unit as you transition to that role?

Wynn Grubbs: The amount of diversification in what we call spaces-for-living businesses, and the overlap of services they offer, is larger than most people think. That’s a big part of why Cyncly’s so focused on connecting all the processes that go into each job from start to finish, and to enable different lines of business with software that helps coordinate every step.

The lesson we’ve learned is that complexity and fragmentation can grow quickly as a flooring dealer grows into other types of services. Diversifying into another line of business seems exhausting and scary to a lot of the folks that I talk with. They tell me, ‘I’m adding a second line of business, and that revenue stream needs to grow. But in the meantime it seems like I’m duplicating all of my systems just to go get jobs done. It seems like a tall order to manage all of this.’

So as a dealer grows from flooring into countertops and cabinets, they’re now managing multiple catalogs and multiple scheduling systems, and they feel pressure to add people to fill all of those needs. Adding headcount to absorb that complexity isn’t sustainable. What my team serving kitchen and bath retailers found is that success didn’t come from owners working harder to manage 12 tools instead of the five tools that they had before. It was the ability to start to bring the systems together and make things simpler.

Specifically in kitchen and bath retail, businesses were worried about the upfront part of the process, the design-to-quote stage where things can fall apart. Once they were able to manage quotes the same way across different types of projects, they prevented the downstream mistakes that eat into margin.

Simply put, you don’t want to discover errors during installation—you want to get it right at measure and quote, right from the start. Most businesses moving into new segments are doing it to grow. If you’re going to scale, you need consistency. When you have one segment, you generally have a subject matter expert on hand who knows everything. They can patch everything together and it mostly works. But as you get into diversification of segments, the system should be the guide rather than relying on the experience or the heroics of individuals.

FCNews: You covered a lot of territory there. One of the things that you said sticks out in terms of a slower adoption of new systems, software, etc. As you’ve probably come to learn, the flooring industry has been slow to embrace new technologies. But once they finally do, we find that they are certainly benefiting from that. Looking at some of the obstacles that those adopters on the kitchen and bath side of the business had to overcome, I would imagine that that was a two-way learning experience also for the clients in terms of how Cyncly could adapt and helping those clients accelerate that learning curve for customers.

Wynn Grubbs: It definitely was two-way learning. The biggest lesson was phasing. It’s a biggie. It’s not practical for a business to roll out a system or process that changes everything at once. If a business wants to start with lead generation and inspiration, it can focus there first. If it’s already strong on leads but weaker in the back office, it can start there instead, then connect each step to one record over time.

Beyond the systems themselves, another thing we’ve learned is that training is essential. The team needs to learn how to do things consistently with their software or it doesn’t work. Depending on the size and the nature of the organization, that training aspect can be the longest component because it takes time to get people comfortable and every business is a bit different.
So it’s a combination of the phasing of changes by priority, the training, and then the systems component.

Change management is a big aspect of our work with customers. I think everyone we talk with has a vision of how their people, their processes and their systems should work, and part of our job is to help them overcome the fear of disruption, which is completely understandable when you have a business to run. There’s rarely a perfect time when you can pause everything to make a change. And as a company, we’ve learned to bring customer success, training and the system change together as one program.

FCNews: The fear of disruption—I get it. In your experience on the kitchen and bath side, where’s the greatest need? Are clients having more difficulties or challenges in developing bona-fide leads? Is it streamlining certain aspects of their business? Based on your experience with clients thus far, where have you seen most of those needs?

Wynn Grubbs: The data we’re seeing from the Cyncly Flooring platform is that there’s a shift in where leads are coming from. Many businesses are seeing fewer phone calls, while online form submissions are holding steady.

Some independent dealers see new approaches to lead generation as a challenge because they have done business one way for a long time, and they don’t want to lose the sense of community and locality that builds referrals over time. Like flooring dealers, a lot of kitchen and bath retailers rightfully take pride in the way they win customers. But the reality of the situation is, businesses need a digital storefront as another way of creating leads on top of referrals.

One of the great things about lead generation technology is that it shows you what each lead costs, what it produces, and whether the jobs you’re winning are growing in value.

Embracing new approaches to lead generation at a dealer level starts to get you on par with larger operators who can solve a problem by adding headcount. As a dealer, you can’t scale by adding staff for everything—you have to embrace digital tools to compete.

Cyncly Flooring is building a full, closed-loop lead generation system, where dealers start to get much more efficient at generating high-value projects. Our leading dealers see which online journeys and first conversations lead to the biggest jobs. So even though they take pride in referral business, the successful dealers will be flexible in the way they bring in more jobs.

FCNews: You bring firsthand experience as a retail business owner, and that certainly brings a lot of credibility and credence to the dealers once you start meeting and sitting down with them face-to-face or at trade shows, et cetera. Can you share some more details in terms of specifically what type of retail business that you specialize in in your former life?

Wynn Grubbs: I’ve owned and operated several retail businesses. One was what I would call a “resort general retail store” in New Hampshire, which my brother and I operated for quite some time. It helped me to understand operating on thin margins and the importance of consistent accounting. My brother and I also owned and operated a Dairy Queen franchise.

I also started a landscape and garden center business from the ground up with a partner— we bought the land and built buildings to start it up from nothing.

Building a business from scratch and working alongside family members has given me a lot of experiences in common with the flooring dealers I’m now serving. It helps to have walked a little bit in their shoes. I’m also spending a lot of time visiting our customers to shake their hands, walk their stores and understand their businesses. It’s been a great learning experience to hear from them firsthand.

FCNews: Certainly a varied experience, but relevant for sure.

Wynn Grubbs: Separate from my direct retail experience, I’ve spent a decent amount of my career serving retailers from the software side. I sold point-of-sale systems to industries including dealers and agents in the wireless industry. I spent time at a company called Commercialware that offered order management and e-commerce. And when I was at PTC, we offered CAD and product lifecycle management tools for the retail industry. So for me, it feels like a lot of things are intersecting, and I’ve been getting a crash course on the specifics of the flooring domain.

FCNews: Lastly, you’re coming on board a few months ahead of the official rollout of an exciting new launch you have for Surfaces. I’m quite sure there’s certain things that you want to keep under wraps until that time, but perhaps there are certain aspects of it that you’re still putting the finer points on? Are there any details that you can share with us at this point?

Wynn Grubbs:  I can only give you the shape and a little bit about it at the moment. We’re building a cloud-native business management system, created from the ground up, specifically for this industry and built for today’s environment. It will offer a single connected system, rather than pieces bolted onto each other. One record for the whole job, if you will, from the first contact all the way through the process until you get paid. It will make that process far more efficient, improve the customer experience, and help our dealers get paid faster.

What I like about how Cyncly is approaching this is that we’re not doing it in a vacuum. We’re doing this with a co-innovation community of customers and, in some cases, dealers who aren’t yet customers. They’ve given great feedback and shaped this product, which means it’s designed around the way the work actually happens today. And it’s resulting in a more effective product than the standard approach of building something and then trying to get customers to adapt their ways of working to fit.

That’s about all I can share so far, and we’ll have a lot more to say in the coming weeks.

FCNews: It definitely sounds like a more customer-centric approach.

Wynn Grubbs: Very much so. It’s helpful that Cyncly already supports a lot of these workflows: websites and digital storefronts for lead generation, payment systems that help our customers get paid faster, CRM, supply chain management, and accounting. That experience is what we’ve built on. The new platform puts the whole business on one record, on one cloud-native system, so dealers can bring all their business together on one record.

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Flooring Sustainability Summit returns to Washington, D.C., in 2027

Washington, D.C.—The Flooring Sustainability Summit will return here, July 14-16, 2027, bringing together leaders from the flooring, sustainability and built-environment sectors.

The event will take place at The Mayflower Hotel, where attendees will discuss sustainable building materials and practices, exchange ideas and address shared industry priorities.

Building on the momentum of the 2026 event, the summit will focus on advancing sustainability efforts across the flooring industry. As policies and sustainability priorities evolve, attendees will examine emerging challenges and explore opportunities for greater collaboration throughout the flooring value chain.

Seven industry associations will co-host the event:

• Carpet and Rug Institute
• North American Laminate Flooring Association
• Natural Stone Institute
• National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association
• National Wood Flooring Association
• Resilient Floor Covering Institute
• Tile Council of North America

Together, the organizations will bring manufacturers, distributors, architects, designers, contractors, policymakers and sustainability professionals to the event.

Organizers will announce additional details about the 2027 program, speakers and registration as they become available.

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Axiscor Performance Floors launches two new WPC collections

Johnson City, Tenn.—Axiscor Performance Floors has expanded its portfolio of WPC rigid core. The company launched two new collections, Elevate and Vantage.

The Elevate collection features an 8 mm thickness and a 22-mil wear layer. Its i4F locking technology allows for glue-free installation. Designed for everyday use, the flooring resists scratches, stains and heavy foot traffic.

Elevate comes in six colors: Canyon, Ember, Haze, Mist, Slate and Storm. The collection offers 7 x 60 inch and 9 x 60 inch planks.

The Vantage collection targets active households with 10 mm-thick, 9 x 60 inch planks and a 22-mil wear layer. The flooring resists dirt, spills, scratches and heavy foot traffic.

Pressed-bevel edges and ends create a defined, modern appearance, while i4F locking technology supports efficient installation.

Vantage is available in six colors: Driftwood, Dune, Flint, Harbor, Meadow and Tundra.

“With the addition of Elevate and Vantage to our Axiscor collections, we’re expanding our flooring options to meet the needs of today’s homeowners,” said Kevin Murphy, vice president of sales. “Both collections combine durability, style and easy installation, making it simpler to find a floor that fits a variety of lifestyles and design preferences. By offering a range of colors and distinctive plank options, Elevate and Vantage deliver the performance families need with the styles they want.”

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ConsoCon 2026 hits on all cylinders

This rug was woven entirely from undyed natural wool.

New York—The sixth iteration of ConsoCon, an event hosted by Consolidated Flooring, drew a record 278 attendees last month, mostly designers and architects.

The turnout represented a nearly 10% increase from the prior ConsoCon, which followed a similar format with vendor partners creating works of art, in many cases using actual materials from flooring. “Our team did a great job planning this event from start to finish,” said David Meberg, president and CEO of Consolidated Flooring. “ConsoCon seems to grow in popularity every year, and this year I feel we really hit on all cylinders with a great venue, great catering and, most importantly, great support from our vendor partners.”

While the night was about networking and enjoying the festivities, the vendors who participated brought their best artwork to the fore. “It’s amazing to see how much our vendor partners have embraced this concept,” Meberg said. “The first year we did this we felt only a couple of our vendors took it seriously. This year, the competition was stiff, with each vendor showing amazing creativity and design. Honestly, any one of the pieces displayed this year could have been in the running for year one winner if judged against those first submissions. The creativity and growth has been inspiring.”

Here are the top three finishers and a synopsis of their work:

First place – EGE

“Untitled”

Woven entirely from undyed natural wool, the rug uses the inherent tonal spectrum of the fibers from New Zealand sheep—from pale cream through gray, brown and near black. Each tone of the yarn pays tribute to the natural variation of the fleece from which it originates. Undyed wool becomes the substance of the artwork directly from its subject. The sheep fleece is transformed into fiber, the fiber into textile, and the textile back into an image of the sheep.

Second place: Shaw/Patcraft

“What We Pass On”

“What We Pass On” depicts an older generation teaching a child the art of origami, a practice that transforms a single, uncut sheet of paper into something new without creating discarded offcuts. That simple act becomes a metaphor for thoughtful design, achieving beauty, function and transformation while considering what happens to every material along the way.

The artwork is made from recycled-content flooring materials from Shaw Contract and Patcraft brands with the cranes created from EcoWorx M backing.

Third place (tie): AHF Products and Apollo Distributing Co.

AHF Products

“Interstellar”

Earth’s blues and greens unfold across a geometric field of VCT, a material composed primarily of abundant limestone. At its center the landscape gives way to Mars—a handcrafted hemisphere formed from copper plates used in a static-control flooring system. Around it, an orbit carries a small rocket crafted from AHF wood.

Apollo

“Evolution”

Apollo’s “Evolution” is captured through craftsmanship, innovation and longevity. The artwork transitions from black and white into color, representing Apollo’s journey from its beginnings in 1920 to today. Black and white reflects Apollo’s heritage, craftsmanship and strong foundation, while color symbolizes growth, innovation and the future of design. Created collaboratively by Apollo employees, this piece celebrates where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going.

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Tuesday Tips: Midterms and flooring’s future with Brett Richards

Dalton—The World Floor Covering Association (WFCA) released a new “Tuesday Tips” this week. In the series, WFCA experts present short video tips for improving customer service and optimizing staff performance. In the end, it’s all about understanding the importance of doing 100 things just 1% better than your competition.

In this week’s Tuesday Tips, WFCA’s Brett Richards examines the political landscape and its potential impact on flooring businesses. He’ll dive deeper into the topic at the upcoming TISE event.

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NALFA launches hybrid flooring standards initiative

Springfield, Mass.—The North American Laminate Flooring Association (NALFA) has launched an initiative to define and develop performance standards for wood-based hybrid flooring. The effort aims to establish consistent testing methods and performance requirements for the emerging hard surface flooring category.

As manufacturers introduce new material technologies, hybrid flooring products continue to evolve in durability, water resistance and overall performance. However, the industry lacks consistent terminology and established benchmarks for evaluating these products.

“As hybrid flooring continues to evolve, the industry needs a clear and credible framework for understanding what these products are and how their performance should be evaluated,” said Tom Wright, president of NALFA. “Our goal is to apply NALFA’s established expertise to wood-based hybrid flooring, developing consistent testing methodologies and measurable performance expectations that build confidence throughout the marketplace.”

NALFA plans to address those gaps by defining the category, developing testing methods and establishing measurable performance expectations.

The initiative follows the association’s October strategic planning discussions in Savannah, Ga. During those meetings, NALFA leaders identified wood-based hybrid flooring as an opportunity to expand the organization’s technical expertise.

The effort will focus on hybrid flooring products that incorporate wood-based core technologies.

Next steps

NALFA will initially focus on defining eligible product constructions and determining the scope of future standards. Potential testing areas include scratch resistance, moisture and swell performance, dimensional stability and other durability characteristics.

The association will determine specific testing methods, performance thresholds and potential certification requirements through its technical evaluation and review processes.

NALFA said its experience with independent, third-party testing will help establish credible product performance standards. The initiative also aims to give manufacturers clearer technical guidelines while helping retailers, specifiers, installers and consumers evaluate hybrid flooring products.

The association is inviting manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, installers, testing laboratories and other industry stakeholders to participate in the initiative.

NALFA plans to take a phased approach and will release additional details about the technical scope, participation opportunities and next steps as the initiative progresses.

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