By Jacqueline Hinchcliffe—While it might not be the first thing that comes to mind, flooring accessories can enhance the appearance of a customer’s new floors. From an aesthetic point of view, they put the finishing touches on a beautiful flooring installation. With respect to functionality, accessories can create seamless transitions from one surface to the next. But the best part about accessories is what they represent for retailers. By offering an assortment of trims, moldings, stair treads and vents, floor covering dealers also have access to additional revenue opportunities.
Following is a sampling of some of the accessories currently available.
Artistic Finishes
One of Artistic Finishes’ hottest new product lines is its digitally printed treads and risers for WPC. These products feature a high-density, waterproof core wrapped in a vinyl texture that enables the company to digitally print it to mirror a custom look to the floors being installed in a particular setting.
“The introduction of a tread/riser program is something that the industry has been asking for since all of the multi-layer flooring products have exploded on the market over the last eight years,” said Bill Treiber, the company’s technical sales and education manager.
While only offering their digitally printed finished profiles for about three years, Treiber said they have had great success. In fact, Artistic Finishes is adding an option for a rounded bull-nose to be available in July.
“You’re always going to have different level floors that are going to be next to [each other] and in those situations you have to be able to have a finished edge,” Treiber explained. “The cornerstone of any transition, be it a stair nose or a T-mold, square nose, tread or riser, is safety and proper function. And keep in mind that any of these transitions, at the same time, can protect the longevity of the flooring.”
Mohawk
Performance Accessories, Mohawk’s accessory product line that boasts easy-to-sell and easy-to-install products, provides key finishing touches with a full-range of accessories expertly designed for hard and soft surfaces. The company’s latest effort in this regard is a new stair tread program that will be offered across the entire suite of Mohawk products.
“Stairs are always the focal point—it’s always the central point in the home that life lives around and we wanted to get into that space,” said Scott Porteous, product manager, Performance Accessories, Mohawk.
Performance Accessories stair treads are made up of a brand-new, engineered wood fiberboard complete along with a 3⁄4-inch MDF nose. What’s more, the products are designed to be moisture resistant—a feature that provides the homeowner with
additional confidence. “If you have a set of stairs, it is the most trafficked place in your home and you don’t want something subpar,” Porteous said.
Performance Accessories come in different colors, providing retailers and designers with endless options to coordinate with different flooring types, patterns and visuals. “In addition to the size of this program, the quality of the product is significant,” Porteous said. “We want to build Performance Accessories as a standalone brand—one that’s so synonymous that it is as recognizable as Pergo is to flooring.”
Perfect Vents
Perfect Vents has expanded its offering in order to fit a variety of unique and specific flooring needs. The company offers 2 x 10 all the way up to custom sizing that can be as wide as 8 inches x 5 to 6 feet long. Each of the sizes have a coordinating template to go along with them to make the installation as simple as possible.
“We’ve tried to cover just about every size that we run into across the country so we can help out any job across the country,” said Joe Kennedy, president.
In addition to new sizes, Perfect Vents also expanded its product offerings with a number of new brands that are able to be stocked in every colorway. In addition, retailers are able to send colors of any material to produce any vent available.
“We’ve come across a few instances across the country where they need different sized vents or different positioned vents so, we’ve tried to accommodate that,” Kennedy explained. “Perfect Vents are custom matched to every floor that is installed. We use the actual flooring itself. We don’t just use a similar color.”
By custom matching the vents to the specific flooring, this allows the product to have the correct shade, sheen, thickness and every other aspect that makes for an identical design to pair with your new floors. The vent also comes complete with a metal support plate. The installer can use a coordinating template to cut the hole in the floor and drop the vent perfectly into place.
Shaw
The most impactful launch for retailers and installers in 2022 is Shaw’s newest accessories brand, totalworx. The brand has been designed for simplicity, service and satisfaction by splitting the products up into five categories: prepworx, groundwork, lockworx, finishworx and careworx.
Prepworx includes products that prepare the subfloor for installation, while groundworx includes underlayment and cushion. Lokworx includes adhesives, seam tape and tack strip and finishworx is made up of all trims, stair treads and wall bases. Finally, careworx comes after all of the installation is finished, giving customers the correct products to take care of their new floors.
“Accessories are must-have add-on sales for every purchase and are a fantastic way for retailers to increase profit margins,” said Jon England, vice president of enterprise accessories, Shaw. “The purpose [of totalworx] was to streamline operations for our customers, reducing pain points and increasing profits.”
Totalworx was designed to successfully aid installers/customers in completing a job from start to finish. Shaw has done away with third-party branding for this product, meaning each product will be branded totalworx, thus creating a consistent message to Shaw’s customers.
Ventiques
Ventiques specializes in uniquely designed and highly functional flush mount vent designs. While the original inspiration behind the development of the product line was the need to provide vent options for tile projects, Ventiques vents can be used with a variety of flooring materials, including laminate, carpet and LVP. Virtually any type of flooring will work with Ventiques vents, the company said.
Composed of powder-coated aluminum, these flush mount vents do not bend, crack, rust, peel or chip, according to the company. The products are made of aluminum, can support up to 850 lbs of compression strength and the flush-mount frame design ensures a smooth transition between the face of the vent and the underlaying flooring material. That means no more raised vents above the floor, no more stubbed toes or tripping hazards to worry about. And thanks to Ventiques’ two-part design, vents/grills can be interchangeable, thereby giving the homeowner or client greater flexibility.
Ventiques’ vents add to the look, feel and value of a home instantaneously, and they are strong enough to be used in industrial settings and stylish enough to be utilized in luxury multi-million-dollar homes.
