Resources for Flooring Contractors and Installers, from FCI

You’re holding the print version of our annual FCI Buying Guide in your hands right now. It’s a slimmed-down version of the much more comprehensive, detail-packed and features-rich edition located on our website at www.fcimag.com/buyingguide. From there you can search for companies and categories using a variety of parameters, request additional information, locate spec sheets and company videos, and find relevant industry associations, manufacturers, schools/certifications and ancillary services.

For a brief tour of what the online version of the Buying Guide has to offer, watch the short video here.

Something else I wanted to talk about is our Flooring Installation Resources page. We hand-picked 16 articles from our archives that cover mainstay topics—including installation troubleshooting, flooring adhesives and underlayments, subfloor prep, moisture concerns, radiant heating systems, and a range of flooring installation tips for hardwood and laminate, cork and bamboo, carpet, ceramic tile and stone, and LVT/resilient.

Our hope is you’ll find this information useful, especially if you’re ever in a pinch and want to review some of our past articles with industry experts. This resource can be found at www.fcimag.com/flooring-installation-resources. Feel free to bookmark this page and visit it often, and also feel free to offer suggestions on other topics you’d like to see covered there.

Finally, I wanted to talk about our third annual FCI Installation Awards, with entries being accepted now through the end of July. Sponsored by ProKnee and HPS Schönox, the program celebrates the most professional and creative flooring installations of the last three years in both residential and commercial settings in five flooring categories: Carpet, Ceramic Tile/Stone, Hardwood/Laminate, Bamboo/Cork and Resilient.

Anyone in the flooring installation industry can enter, and after the final entries are gathered, online judging by your industry peers will begin and run through Sept. 1. Winners will be announced online and in a special feature in the November/December issue of our magazine. They will also receive a special award plaque to proudly display in their businesses.

Our sponsor ProKnee is generously offering several prizes to contest winners this year. All first-place winners will receive a custom-made and custom-fit pair of the company’s Model 0714 kneepads. ProKnee recently told us it is also planning to throw in a free pair of the company’s all-new AP16 All Purpose kneepads to all winners.

If that’s not enough, all contestants—whether they win or not—can receive a 25% discount on all ProKnee products until the contest ends.

Find out more at fciawards.fcimag.com. And as always, if you have any questions, call or e-mail me. I love hearing from you.

Michael Chmielecki wrote about the floor covering industry for BNP Media for more than ten years. As editor of Floor Covering Installer and senior editor of Floor Trends, he always sought ways to better connect and inform the installation and contracting community. Mike has a degree in journalism from the University of New Hampshire.