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Alterna Luxury Vinyl – A Love Story
It’s always nice to “know” someone…
When you’re in the market for a new car, it’s helpful to have a close friend or family member in the auto business. They can give you the “inside” information you’re looking for and you know you can trust their recommendations. Same goes for just about any large scale purchase that you’re planning to make that will change your home or lifestyle. For the people close to me, I am their “friend in flooring”.
A few months ago, my brother-in-law (David) and sister-in-law (Vicki) were in the process of building a new home and came to me when it was time to choose a floor for their kitchen. Since they have two small children and another one on the way and a very large Doberman, they were looking for a floor that would accommodate their active lifestyle, but still look high end. David would not stop talking about ceramic tile and how “there is nothing like the look of natural stone in a home.” But Vicki was fearful, like any expectant mother, and kept talking about her new baby crawling around and “cracking his/her head open” on the ceramic tile.
Planning for a New Year/New Floor
The time is fast approaching when New Year’s resolutions are uttered with growing frequency, and most of us start thinking about renovations: for ourselves and our homes. If you’re considering a new floor in the new year, I’m going to help you start planning!
In our customer service group, I’ve learned from our callers that their main concerns are about the aesthetics of a new floor and the cost. Typically, we recommend that callers review the flooring products on our website first to get an idea of the type and color of floor they want and then we suggest they visit their local flooring retailer or home center to get samples and pricing. But there is so much more to think about!
The Newest Design Trend in Home Remodeling? Personalization!
Decorating or remodeling a home can be exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. Where to begin? First, it’s important to create an environment that reflects your personality and accommodates the way you live. Creating a beautiful home is as much a personal journey as it is about understanding the latest trends. It is not about being “matchy”, but mixing the pieces you love. So, how do you identify the things that seem to express your lifestyle, hobbies, and the mood you want to set?
One starting point could be a painting, a family heirloom, rug, or a personal collection. Find the things you love and build around them.
Get Design Help to Create Your New Room
Does your Wish List this year include a brand new floor? Whether you’re actually shopping for a new floor or just dreaming about one, you can use our Design a Room tool to help you visualize what a new floor might look like in your home. Design a Room is an interactive program that lets you experiment with wall colors and flooring options so you can see the room you have in mind come to life. There are 20 different room scenes to choose from – covering a wide variety of room types and room styles.
Here’s how to use the tool:
First, choose the room type where you plan to install your new floor: Kitchen, Bathroom, Living/Family Room or Bedroom. Then select the design style of that room. Is it Casual, Contemporary, Traditional, Eclectic or European Country? more ►
Inside Armstrong Flooring’s Customer Service Group
With over 18 years in Customer Service, you know I gotta love this job! Nothing gives me more pleasure than knowing I work for a company who takes pride in providing quality products and service to our customers!
As a customer service rep and now manager, I’ve come to the conclusion that most of our customers don’t call to complain. Truly, they are calling because they bought our product – which they love and adore in their home – but have an issue or a question about it. They want to be treated with respect, speak with a knowledgeable person, get solutions to their issues or inquiries, and have the answers provided accurately and efficiently the first time they call. Like most of us, they don’t want to be transferred between departments or from rep to rep! So we do our best to accommodate them.
Finding the Right Bathroom Flooring
The bathroom is one of the busiest rooms in a home. According to one survey, working women spend about 90 minutes a day in a bathroom getting ready for work. (By contrast, in the same survey, men spend about 11 minutes.) If you’ve got teenagers, they’re spending 30-40 minutes in the bathroom before school. And if your children are younger, then you know at the end of the day, bath time can go on and on – and on. Here’s the question: is your bathroom floor up to the challenge?
Finding the right bathroom flooring is a matter of knowing: the look you want, the floor type you want and the performance you expect from a floor. more ►
The Popular Appeal of Hand-Scraped Hardwoods
Texture is quickly becoming the new “color.” By that I mean color has always been the main driver for people looking for a hardwood floor, but over the last few years, texture has been overtaking color as the new driver. The reason behind that trend is that texture stimulates our senses with tactile and visual elements.
Hand-scraped hardwood floors are a good example of how popular texture is with floor shoppers. There is a big demand for hand-scraped hardwood floors in the U.S. Geographic areas around the country have various desires. In California, the hand-scraped hardwoods are sculptural and undulating with minimal character. In the Southwest, the hand-scraped look is much more rustic and features heavy graining, knots and mineral streaks. And the Northeast seems to just be discovering the hand-scraped phenomenon, and their desire is somewhere in the middle.
To Grout or Not to Grout
Anyone who has installed flooring in their home has had to make choices about which floor fits their space and decorating style. My husband and I recently went through this when we were shopping for new flooring for our first floor. We chose laminate flooring over carpet for the main living areas, but we were still undecided about the mudroom and bathrooms.
The mudroom is where we have our washer and dryer, and it also serves as the “pet containment” area. To say the least, it is a high traffic area. In addition, the flooring in this area would be subjected to various degrees of moisture. We needed a floor that was economically practical and would hold up to a couple of newlyweds, a dog, a cat and, someday, children.
Make a Flooring Match!
So you’re looking for a floor. Let’s say you’re starting from scratch. You’re ready to replace your floor, but you don’t know what to replace it with. You like hardwood, but you’re not sure if it’s in your budget. You’ve heard good things about the durability of laminate and how easy it is to install, but you need to learn more about it. Vinyl sheet is a possible option, but you’re not convinced you’ll be able to find the look you’re going for. Right now, you’ve got more questions than answers.
A World of Flooring Options
Recently, a consumer on one of our social media sites asked for advice on finding a floor. She said she wanted an Armstrong floor in a specific color. That was all the information she gave us. Now, we make more than 2,000 different flooring options under four different brand names, and many of those floors are available in the color she requested. We told her we needed to know a little more before we made any recommendations.
Finding the right floor for your home can be overwhelming at times – there are so many choices. That’s because there are so many consumers with different tastes and different decorating styles! To help you – and our social customer – find a floor, let me offer a few thoughts.
When you’re looking for an Armstrong floor, first consider what type of floor you’re looking for. Armstrong makes hardwood, luxury vinyl, vinyl sheet and tile, laminate and linoleum. Below is a description of each of our flooring options and their benefits. more ►