Forney, Texas—In an effort to address the ongoing shortage of qualified commercial floor covering installers, Fuse Alliance and the International Certified Flooring Installers Association (CFI), have joined forces. The goal of the partnership is to promote and expand awareness of the CFI training programs within the Fuse membership community and the importance of using certified installers.
“While CFI has always had a very strong commercial training program, the organization is primarily viewed as residentially oriented,” said Robert Varden, vice president, CFI. “Having started my flooring career on the commercial side of the business, I have an insider’s perspective on areas where we can really expand the CFI business model. CFI’s trainers are some of the best commercial installers and educators in the industry. There are a number of opportunities on the commercial side where we can easily expand our footprint.”
Varden acknowledged that the unions do a great job of training, but there a significant number of non-union Fuse members that would benefit from quality commercial installation, training and certification.
“CFI’s mission has always been to provide second-to-none installation training to the community as a whole—regardless of any union or non-union affiliation,” Varden stated. “As always, our goal is for those individuals to become prominent professionals in their field by teaching them skills that enable them to partner with the retailers and dealers who utilize their services.”