Rockwall, Texas—Flooring installation veteran, Robert Varden, and Val Chestohin, lead floor covering instructor DC 16 FTI Northern California and Nevada of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), announced the development of a new, intensive, four-day certification program called Masters Commercial Carpet Certification. Applicants must have four to five years of on-the-job experience as an apprentice/journeyman with IUPAT.
“This will be the toughest certification in the installation profession to attain,” said Varden, a consultant for IUPAT. “It’s strictly a pass or fail, and you can’t receive the certification simply by years in the business. You must take and pass the test to qualify.”
Ken Kennedy, director of technical services, The Dixie Group, added after seeing the presentation by IUPAT: “We’re in full support of anything that does training throughout the industry. This is probably one of the most detailed testing programs we’ve seen to date by anyone.”
Chestohin added, “A lot of the certification is concerned with proper job site analysis. The preparation before the flooring is installed is where many flooring jobs can fail.”
In addition to job site analysis, applicants must know adhesive compatibility and requirements, substrate testing, substrate prep, material layout, patterned carpet identification and installation, carpet tile layout and installation, woven carpet and double stick installation. Written, oral and skill tests will be conducted.
“We’ve had excellent input and response from the mills in support of this Masters certification, including The Dixie Group, Engineered Floors, J+J Flooring, Kane Carpets, Shaw Industries and Taylor Adhesives,” Varden said. “ISE Logik is also helping with understanding the effect of admixtures and moisture mitigation for concrete substrates.”
The Masters Commercial Carpet Certification program is slated to be offered in June of this year.