The Carpet Inspectors Reference Guide is being rewritten as a new ANSI standard. This undertaking addresses the long overdue update of this guide and is actually a new document. I have the honor and privilege of being the Vice Chairman of the new standard along with representatives of the three largest carpet manufacturers, inspectors, installation experts and many other wonderful volunteers. In the process of selecting the committee members we wanted to make sure that if a standard was to be written the carpet industry had to be involved from all aspects. It was important and imperative the manufacturers be involved since most claims are filed against them; they volunteered immediately when asked.
There are fourteen chapters of the guidelines which include: How to write an inspection report; Commissioning party guidelines which should bring standardization to what’s required of the inspector and the commissioning party; What is a professional textile flooring inspector and conducting the inspection; Inspection tools which includes tools not only for doing routine inspections but for all types of testing equipment and repair services which should open up a large market in this field; Types of complaints which include, spots, stains, soil, bond failure, poor performance, appearance retention, shedding, fuzzing and tuft issues, general fading and color change and loss issues, shading, pooling/watermarking, pile reversal and side match; Testing, both in the field and lab tests; Authorizing corrections and repairs; Photography and Manufacturing defects which covers visible and latent defects, odors, product damage and a myriad of other things.
The document should be completed by the first quarter of 2012 and will then have to undergo ANSI certification. After that there will be work to do, which is also currently underway, on the courses which teach, train and certify carpet inspectors.
Also at this time the S600 is being written which will be the new Carpet Installation Standard. This document has participation by carpet manufacturers, installation groups, residential and commercial flooring groups, ancillary manufacturers and independent organizations such as LGM. This document will also be an ANSI standard, which stands for American National Standards Institute. ANSI is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. These standards ensure that the characteristics and performance of products are consistent, that people use the same definitions and terms, and that products are tested the same way. Once these standards are put in place we should be able to eliminate many of the problems with textile floor covering materials and their installation. Everyone in the industry will be on the same page, there will be uniform and conforming training and warranties will then be based on the product being installed by a certified installer, inspected by a certified inspector and maintained by certified cleaners.
Following these standards we expect that other segments of the flooring industry will follow suit and begin implementing standards as well. The talk has already begun. To help eliminate controversy, finger pointing and ignorance it is necessary to have standard language, training, skills and knowledge about that which one is supposed to have a working knowledge of. The Inspectors Guide and the Installation Standard will accomplish that. Given also, that much acquired knowledge will be lost when the current “boomer” generation vacates the market, there will have to be information, standards and guidelines for those who follow. I have made sure that LGM is as involved as we can be in these new standards and you can be sure that we will be here to help you with whatever concerns, issues or problems you have now.
Author: Lewis G. Migliore
LGM and Associates – The Floorcovering Experts