Los Angeles—Emser Tile has launched Expanse Dynamix, a comprehensive porcelain tile panel system designed for a wide range of surfaces and environments. The collection aims to simplify product specification for indoor, outdoor, residential and commercial projects.
“The versatility of Expanse Dynamix is truly endless,” said Wendy Williams, senior vice president of sales at Emser Tile. “We created a complete surface system that combines the beauty and character of natural stone with the performance, scale and efficiency of porcelain.”
Williams said Emser Tile developed each element to simplify specification and streamline installation. The collection also helps designers create coordinated spaces across multiple surfaces.
Made in the U.S., Expanse Dynamix includes 12 designs inspired by natural stone. Each design offers the visual character of stone with the performance benefits of porcelain.
The designs are available in five sizes as well as mosaics, countertops, trims and prefabricated elements. The system also includes installation materials and ready-to-ship, secure-crate tub surround sets with four panels.
These coordinated options can simplify projects and reduce lead times. The system allows designers, architects and homeowners to mix, match and extend materials across multiple surfaces.
The collection also includes large-format panels measuring up to 48 x 96. The oversized surfaces create a more seamless appearance with fewer grout lines. Large-format panels can make rooms appear larger and cleaner. They also can improve installation efficiency, particularly on walls and in shower areas.
Emser Tile engineered the system to perform across interior and exterior environments. The porcelain surfaces resist stains, scratches, moisture and ultraviolet exposure.
Dallas—Registration is now open for the 2026 NAFCD + NBMDA Annual Convention. The event will take place Nov. 3-5 here at the Hilton Anatole. The event will again bring together leading distributors and suppliers from North America’s flooring and building materials channels.
Attendees can expect targeted one-on-one meetings between distributors and suppliers. The event also will feature education sessions led by industry thought leaders. An interactive exhibit hall will showcase the latest products, innovations and services. Networking events also will help attendees build relationships and strengthen collaboration across the channel.
“We are excited to once again bring together the building material and floor covering channels for a convention truly unlike any other,” said Michael Wilbur, executive vice president of NAFCD + NBMDA. “This event is specifically designed to facilitate real, genuine partnerships and to send attendees home with real insights and actionable ideas.”
Wilbur said the groups also will unveil their regional Distributor Forum series. The series will conclude with Distributor Forum Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
The series builds on the legacy UID In-A-Day program. It will give distribution professionals a chance to sharpen leadership skills, engage with NAFCD + NBMDA and connect with peers across the channel.
Early registration is encouraged as space is limited. Hotel accommodations also are expected to fill quickly. Special rates are available for members. All attendees can save by registering before Aug. 1.
Anderson Tuftex’s In Rhythm is a cut-pile carpet known for its modern, linear texture and tonal color shifts.
In today’s flooring landscape—where hard surface can account for two-thirds of the floor and most options favor wood looks with minimal pattern—incorporating patterned rugs or installing patterned carpet in adjacent spaces can significantly enhance the overall design.
Indeed, for homeowners, patterned carpet provides the opportunity to bring greater personality, texture and visual interest into a space while still creating a warm and comfortable foundation.
“Patterned carpets give homeowners a way to add personality, warmth and visual interest to their spaces while keeping the overall design elevated and livable,” said Abigail Ayson, senior manager of product design for Karastan. “Today’s patterns are moving beyond traditional looks and leaning into more handcrafted, organic and nature-inspired expressions, which can help a room feel more customized and high-end.”
Bailey Walton, vice president of Anderson Tuftex, added that residential carpet trends are shaped by a desire for spaces that reflect both personal identity and a shared commitment to sustainability.
“Consumers are seeking designs that foster genuine connection, with a strong emphasis on personalization and customization,” she said.
Mill executives agree that patterned carpet offers both aesthetic and practical benefits, making it an increasingly attractive choice for today’s homeowners.
DreamWeaver’s Darlington, constructed of 100% solution-dyed polyester, is durable and pet friendly.
“From a design perspective, pattern adds personality, visual interest and depth, allowing consumers to create spaces that feel more curated and expressive,” said Eliza Pace, senior designer for Engineered Floors. “It can add a sense of flavor to each living room inside the home and brings warmth and character to a room without overwhelming the space. The drive for each room in the house to be a space that allows consumers to feel is increasingly important.”
Unlike 20 years ago, when carpet was often the dominant flooring choice throughout a home, today carpet is typically selected on a room-by-room basis.
“As a result, consumers have more freedom to make unique design statements in the spaces where carpet is used, most commonly bedrooms, home offices and lower-level living areas,” said T.M. Nuckols, president of the residential division of The Dixie Group.
Advances in tufting technology have dramatically expanded the range of available patterns, textures and visual effects, allowing homeowners to create spaces that feel more customized and fashion-forward.
“Whether the goal is subtle texture, added dimension or a more distinctive statement, patterned carpets provide visual interest that can elevate a room beyond what a traditional solid-color carpet can achieve,” Nuckols added.
The advantages of patterned carpets range from subtle tonal designs to bold geometric statements. Beyond style, patterned carpets are also highly practical, as they can help minimize the appearance of everyday wear, footprints and soiling, making them especially appealing for active households.
Stanton’s Chambord is a handloomed wool featuring a softly textured, plaid-inspired pattern.
“While hard surface flooring often serves as a neutral canvas, consumers are increasingly realizing that patterned carpet can be an active part of the design of the room,” said Lauren Schnakenberg, senior director of marketing & design, Tarkett Home. “It gives homeowners a way to bring texture and personality into the space, while still enjoying the warmth and comfort that carpet is known for.”
For retailers, patterned carpet gives them a strong design story to share with customers because it brings both beauty and practicality to the home.
“Visually, pattern helps create dimension, movement and a more finished, designer-driven room,” said Cole Lewis, marketing director at Kaleen. “From a performance standpoint, patterned constructions can also be very forgiving in lived-in spaces, helping to minimize the appearance of everyday traffic.”
Key trends
Mill executives note that homeowners view carpet not just as a floor covering but as an overall part of the design story of the room.
Catwalk Chic is made from Tarkett Home’s 100% PAWSH solution-dyed nylon.
As Tarkett Home’s Schnakenberg noted, woven-inspired visuals are popular because they bring the look of textiles into the room. Classic patterns, like trellis and subtle geometrics, are resonating because they feel familiar while still offering enough visual interest to make a room feel thoughtfully designed.
Finally, designers are seeing botanical influences that draw inspiration from nature gaining momentum. These patterns create a sense of calm and connection in the room.
TDG’s Nuckols noted that small-scale patterns continue to resonate strongly with homeowners, often outselling larger, bolder designs by a margin of nearly two to one.
“While dramatic patterns can create a beautiful statement, many consumers find them more challenging to visualize in their own homes and are therefore less comfortable making that commitment during the purchase process,” he explained.
“Fortunately, advances in digital visualization tools are helping bridge the confidence gap. The room visualizers available on our websites allow consumers to see how a particular pattern will look in their own space, making it easier to embrace both classic and more fashion-forward designs with confidence.”
From a colors and materials perspective, carpet design is evolving toward warmer tones and richly textured surfaces, celebrating the beauty of imperfection, according to Anderson Tuftex’s Walton.
“Products are increasingly valued for their character and authenticity, featuring deep colors that are connected to nature and bring a sense of warmth and comfort to the home.”
Executives say they are also seeing market movement in traditional patterns and fibers like wool.
“Elements like herringbone, chevrons, mid-scale geometrics, stripes and plaids bring customers a nostalgic retro vibe,” explained Vincent Ciricosta, executive vice president, residential division, Couristan. “These patterns paired with soft and modern color palettes give customers the ability to make a statement, add creativity and truly customize their space.”
R&J Flooring Supply reported brisk activity at its booth at NWFA earlier this year—a clear sign of growing interest in the brand.
Orlando, Fla.—R&J Flooring Supply followed up on its strong NWFA 2025 debut in Charlotte last year with an equally impressive showing at the 2026 expo here earlier this year.
“It was really a great show for us,” said Bill Schollmeyer, vice president of sales. “We had a lot of dealers—not just contractors—stop by the booth. There were a lot of meaningful conversations.”
Despite a relatively short time operating in the U.S. market (but more than eight years globally), R&J Flooring Supply has built brand awareness while establishing itself as a reliable source of imported hardwood flooring.
“We’ve really grown as a company,” Schollmeyer told FCNews. “We’re committed to strictly selling hardwood floors—which is a nice lane to be in. More importantly, we have the full support from the family-owned mill overseas.”
That makes a world of difference when you’re a company like R&J Flooring Supply, which is structured to service dealers on a direct basis.
“I come from a distribution background, so I respect distributors and what they do,” Schollmeyer said. “But we entered the market at a time when there’s not really a lot of room in a crowded distributor space for a company like ourselves. So we decided to go direct to the dealer. We’re offering very reasonable prices on great products, but we’re also offering service and inventory and molding and samples and operational support.”
“Again, no disrespect to distributors, but they’ve got a lot of lines to deal with. Coming in at this point in the game it’s hard to carve out your own space. We’re able to offer all those things that sometimes can get lost with a big distributor.”
For example, R&J Flooring Supply is able to leverage its sprawling warehousing capabilities to service its customers. The company currently stocks more than $10 million worth of inventory via two company-owned and staffed warehouses in Sutton, Mass., and Franklin, N.J.
“Between both of them, we ship pretty much all up and down the East Coast through the Midwest,” Schollmeyer said. “They’re staffed by our people to ensure customers get really good service. We also offer flexibility when customers need to make pick-ups. Having our own people in the warehouse makes a huge difference.”
Embracing technology
Beyond providing the core requirements of a “defacto-distributor,” R&J Flooring Supply is also leveraging technology to its advantage.
For instance, the company is in the process of onboarding Lightbeans—a digital sampling program—to assist customers and potential buyers in selecting products and materials. According to Schollmeyer, the program should be up and running within 60 days.
“It’s a high-tech program that’s expensive to get into, but it’s worth the investment,” he said. “It’s really geared more toward the commercial community.”
Over the past year R&J Flooring Supply has also enhanced its website to feature a room visualizer powered by Roomvo.
But it doesn’t end there.
“We’ve really stepped it up in terms of our social media presence,” Schollmeyer said.
R&J Flooring is also expanding its brand and presence across traditional channels. Earlier this year the company signed on to become a core supplier to Alliance Flooring, making its first appearance at the group’s recent convention in San Antonio.
“That marks our first entry into a buying group, and it’s been really favorable,” Schollmeyer said. “It helps build our presence, and it gives them a good value line from a supplier that’s easy to do business with.”
Of course, it can only help retailer partners when you offer an expansive yet relevant assortment of products.
Standouts include the company’s signature Denali line of premium engineered hardwood, named after the Denali Mountains in Alaska and the preserve that bears its name. Planks in the Denali line feature widths up to 9.5 inches and thicknesses up to ¾ inch with a wear layer up to 6mm.
Another product highlight is the Eterna collection, which features clean grades in soft, warm hues. The line covers today’s popular hardwood trends, including an ebony-toned product called Epoch, which features a custom cerused treatment.
“Our breadth of products is pretty broad,” Schollmeyer said. “It goes from a half-inch thick, white oak floor with a 2mm wear layer at the entry level, all the way up to a ¾-inch-thick line with a 6mm wear layer. We also launched a completely unfinished engineered line—there aren’t many mills supplying that. And we’re pretty close to launching a rift-sawn line that’ll be out in a few months. So a lot of great products coming out that are different than just your basic hardwood flooring products.”
(Part 1 in a series) I worked with a dealer who runs a large flooring business on the East Coast, and his story is one I’ve watched play out dozens of times in this industry. You may recognize a little of yourself in it.
He started from scratch. No family money, no handed-down customer list—just a guy who knew flooring and was willing to outwork everybody. And it worked. He built that business past $5 million in annual revenue. By any measure, that’s a real accomplishment.
But here’s the part that matters for you. He built it almost entirely on one thing: his own two hands and his own long hours. As the business grew, his answer to every new demand was the same: work more. Come in earlier. Stay later. Take it home on the weekend. By the time he and I started working together, he was putting in 70-plus hours a week and had hit a wall.
Here’s the irony of it all: The very thing that grew his business to $5 million was now the thing keeping it from growing past $5 million. He had become the ceiling.
Think about it: When the owner is the marketing department, the sales manager, the problem-solver and the final word on every decision, the business can only get as big as one exhausted human being can carry. Every new customer, every new employee, every new headache flows back to one desk. Eventually, that desk is full. There are no more hours in the week to give.
And when an owner hits that wall, it doesn’t just stall growth—it starts breaking things:
Profit and cash-flow problems that nobody had time to dig into
Marketing dollars going out the door with no one really watching what came back
Good leads slipping through the cracks
A close rate stuck well below where it should have been
If any of this is hitting close to home, you need to hear this: you will not break through your ceiling by working more hours. You’ve already proven you can outwork almost anyone. That’s how you got here. But effort got you to the ceiling; it cannot get you through it.
What gets you through is a shift from being the business to leading the business. It means building systems that run without you standing over them, and then putting real leadership over the parts of your company that have been running on autopilot. This starts, in most cases, with your marketing.
That’s often emotionally difficult for a hands-on owner. When this dealer began to let go, I asked him how it felt.
“Weird,” he told me. “Like I’m losing control.”
When you’ve succeeded by doing it all, handing things off feels exactly like that: losing control. But the dealers who break past their ceiling all make the same move. They stop being the hardest worker in the building and start being the leader of it.
In the next installment, I’ll discuss the specific steps I took with this particular dealer to achieve the main objectives.
Marketing leadership. Jim Augustus Armstrong is the founder of Armstrong Marketing Systems, providing fractional CMO leadership to flooring and home service companies. He takes ownership of his clients’ marketing — building the strategy, installing the systems and managing the KPIs that drive predictable, profitable growth. Reach him at connect@ armstrongmarketingsystems.com or visit ArmstrongMarketingSystems.com.
As the Floor Covering Education Foundation (FCEF) prepares for its Annual Instructor Training Clinic in Dalton, we are once again reminded of the critical role educators play in shaping the future success of the floor covering industry. This year’s clinic will bring instructors from across the country together to strengthen their knowledge, refine their skills and expand their professional networks.
We are especially grateful to Shaw Industries for graciously opening Plant 1 and providing access to an acclimated training lab where instructors can participate in hands-on learning in a professional environment. This unique opportunity allows educators to gain valuable experience while ensuring they are equipped with the latest installation techniques, industry standards and instructional best practices needed to train students nationwide.
Leading this year’s clinic are three of the industry’s most respected trainers and educators: Roy Lewis, Roy Allen Lewis and John Steier. Their extensive experience, technical expertise and commitment to workforce development make them invaluable resources for instructors attending the event. By sharing proven installation techniques, effective teaching methods and real-world industry insights, these trainers help ensure participants leave prepared to deliver high-quality flooring installation education in their classrooms and training labs.
Last year’s Instructor Training Clinic was an incredible success. Instructors arrived eager to learn and left energized, inspired and better prepared to lead their programs. The event created valuable opportunities to network with industry professionals and build relationships with some of the flooring industry’s top trainers. These connections help ensure students receive the highest quality training possible.
One of the clinic’s greatest strengths is its focus on empowering educators. By equipping instructors who already know how to teach with specialized flooring installation knowledge, FCEF creates a multiplier effect. Every instructor who attends returns to their program better prepared to educate dozens—often hundreds—of students throughout their career. This investment directly benefits FCEF’s Basic Floor Covering Installation programs and contributes to long-term student success.
The Instructor Training Clinic is just one example of FCEF’s commitment to workforce development. Just a few weeks ago, FCEF hosted its Workforce Development Forum, bringing together representatives from Senate offices, House offices, college and high school programs, industry leaders and members of the FCEF board of directors.
While the forum featured important discussions about workforce development and educational opportunities, one of the biggest takeaways was hearing from three young students whose lives have been transformed through flooring installation training. Their stories demonstrated the power of career education and showed how these programs create pathways to meaningful employment, financial stability and long-term success.
Despite these accomplishments, this important work cannot continue without your support. Please consider making a financial contribution today by visiting fcef.org.
Kaye Whitener is executive director of the Floor Covering Education Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting recruitment, training and retention of floor covering installers. For more information, email kwhitener@fcef.org.
Chicago—Daltile hosted its annual “Parked At NeoCon” luncheon event earlier this week at its Chicago Design Studio.
The event welcomed architects, designers and customers during NeoCon 2026. Daltile used the luncheon to showcase new products and give attendees a place to relax away from the trade show floor.
Daltile’s Chicago Design Studio is located across from The Mart. The location is part of Daltile’s nationwide network of design studios and design service centers.
“Attendees had a great time at our Daltile ‘Parked At NeoCon’ event,” said Hilary Frank, vice president of commercial sales and business development at Dal-Tile. “There is no other event like ours during NeoCon each year.”
Design Studio highlights
Daltile’s Chicago Design Studio showcases samples from the brand’s full product line, including newly launched products.
“Like all of the showrooms in our nationwide network, Daltile’s Chicago Design Studio showcases samples of our entire line, including our newly launched products,” Frank said. “It was really exciting to see the very positive reaction the commercial design community had to our new products this week.”
Attendees also spent time with supporting vendor partners, including Mapei, Custom Building Products, Schluter-Systems and StyleAccess.
Los Angeles—Emser Tile has launched Expanse Dynamix, a comprehensive porcelain tile panel system designed for a wide range of surfaces and environments. The collection aims to simplify product specification for indoor, outdoor, residential and commercial projects.
Dallas—Registration is now open for the 
(Part 1 in a series) 
Chicago—