Choose Flooring through an Interior Designer’s Eye
How often have you opened a home design magazine and thought “Perfect! – That’s what I’m looking for!” only to be later disappointed when looking for a similar product at your local ‘Big Box’ Home Improvement store?
You know the Big Box store we’re talking about – right? It’s the one that sells the garbage bags next to the hydrangeas.
Interior designers drive right past those Big Box stores on their way to the specialty flooring store because they realize that when you are ready to spend the dollars it takes to turn your house into a home; the hydrangeas and garbage bags can wait.
Interior designers know that specialty flooring stores have:
· Better Selection
· Transparent Costing Methods
· More Permanent Installation Methods
· More Knowledgeable and Empowered Sales Associates
· A Local Owner
Better Selection
Specialty flooring stores have a better selection of products – especially higher-end products because they are not trying to sell to the masses. They are selling to you.
Transparent Costing Methods
Even if this year’s version of vanilla will work for you, the price shown in the advertisement of a Big Box store is not the price you’ll see on your invoice. Those ads don’t show the line item fees they charge for things like moving your furniture or throwing away your old flooring. In the end you will most likely spend more than you expect.
Unlike Big Box stores - specialty flooring stores simply don’t have hidden fees. The price you see is the price you get.
More Permanent Installation Methods
Our installers use a tool called a power stretcher that literally stretches your carpet to precisely fit your room. This tool prevents the carpet from bumping up in the middle or “wrinkling” which otherwise can happen in as little as 2 to 3 years.
The Big Box store carpet installation uses a much cheaper tool called a knee kicker. They line the carpet up against the wall and use bodily force to push it into place. The knee kicker is not capable of preventing carpet from getting wrinkles the way a power stretcher can.
Both carpets will look great when the installer walks away, but only ours will continue looking great 2 years later.
More Knowledgeable Sales Associates
We know flooring should be chosen based on your personal use and the climate of your area. Our sales associates receive intense training to allow you to make educated choices. This training often includes weeks spent exclusively with the manufacturer and then months of internal training. Our job is to recommend what is best for each individual consumer not merely recommend a ‘product of the month’ that a corporate headquarters dictates.
It is customary for a Big Box store to give you a 1-800 number to the manufacturer in case of problems. However, our staff will help you with any flooring problem you have for the life of your floor. If there is a need to contact the manufacturer we will personally do that for you. Just pick up the phone and make one call to us, and we will handle the rest.
A Local Owner
Interior designers realize we will be looking them in the eye at the grocery store, school functions, and perhaps their place of worship. When you shop at a neighborhood store, you’re purchasing from your neighbors, and that’s valuable too.