Page 1 - 2018-09-CFR Volume 120 - First, What is the Commercial Flooring Market - September 2018

I’ve taken some information from our very first issue of The Commercial Flooring Report
which began in February of 2003 and blended it with some new information. Often it’s
good to go back and look at issues that become more important and relevant to the mar-
ket place.
The aging of our population is certainly a market that continues to grow both in planned
communities, elder care facilities and the biggest, aging in place. Aging in place is
where most of the growth exists. Aging Americans would rather stay in their homes and
the system would rather they be there. Staying at home is less expensive, taxes the
system less, that being insurance companies, health care and government, and home is
where we’d all rather be. Furthermore, we can’t build enough facilities fast enough to
absorb the aging population of Baby Boomers. But we’re going to address both aging in
place and independent care facilities as a growing commercial flooring market.

On Page 4 September 2018

As for the products in the commercial flooring market there are segments
that include corporate, retail, institutional, health care and hospitality. These
categories can then be broken down further to include specialty products for
each. For example, the work space of the general employee population of a
financial institution may be carpeted with carpet tiles or broadloom that has
been chosen for longevity of performance and appearance retention. This
type product would be a “run of the mill” style and a bit more utilitarian. In the
executive offices a higher quality, more expensive and generally more aes-
thetically pleasing, upscale product would be used. This type of product
would more aptly fit the environment and stature of existence in which it was
to be used. Here one could utilize a higher end woven product or a custom
made and designed tufted carpet.
The commercial flooring market is many categories of specifically designed
and engineered products each constructed for use in a particular environ-
ment. The common denominator being the generally high volume of traffic
the flooring material will be subjected to or the stature or level at which it will
be employed. All of the products must fulfill the basic characteristic of perfor-
mance, without structural or aesthetic compromise.

1 Commercial Flooring Report