Tom: Welcome to this edition of the Money Pit Top Products Podcast. I’m Tom Kraeutler, I’m in the Tarkett showroom in New York City speaking with Kaye Gosline. Kaye is the creative director for Residential Lines of Tarkett Flooring.
They’re introducing a new type of flooring called FiberFloor but I think it’s going to really give you a new opinion of what you might currently think of as vinyl flooring.
Kaye, how’s FiberFloor different?
Kaye: FiberFloor is made by taking fiberglass and then treating it on the top and on the bottom with vinyl product. It’s a fiberglass reinforced composite product. Lots of layers to give it durability yet still very flexible and easy to install but the fiberglass reinforcement makes FiberFloor really unique.
Tom: Now when you think of FiberFloor, you think of hard surfaces like boat hauls and many cars are made of fiberglass. With FiberFloor it’s not really a hard product at all, it seems to be very, very soft and comfortable. Why is that?
Kaye: Because with the fiberglass reinforcement you can make it very light, you can make it very durable and you still give it that bendability and easy kind of almost textile quality and yet because it also has on top of it a wear layer. It creates a surface that’s very durable, it resists scratches and dents but you can install it with just very simple tools, just a cutting knife is all you really need.
Tom: Now, in terms of the installation, the old vinyl products used to have to strip it down to the wood and make sure that very divot was filled in and you needed to apply an adhesive to get that floor to adhere properly. What about FiberFloor, can that be dry laid?
Kaye: It can be. We call it loose lay. You just cut it to fit and lay it down and it lays flat. It’s a great product for those surfaces where you don’t want to replace what’s underneath it as long as it’s level. You might see, if you have a very unlevel floor, you might have to do some stronger floor prep but for the most part, many consumers can just loose lay it and go on.
Tom: Now I have three kids that are all very active in sports and not the most gentle type like most kids. What if something gets dropped on the floor, if you ultimately do have to make a repair, is that possible with FiberFloor?
Kaye: Absolutely. You can use a releasable adhesive and you can make a patch and then just like you patch the blue jeans, only on this case you don’t see it because you cut it exactly to fit and then smooth it back out and you are good to go.
Tom: We’re talking to Kaye Gosline, she is the creative director for Tarkett’s Residential Flooring lines about FiberFloor, a new type of flooring that’s fiberglass reinforced.
Let’s talk about the designs that are available and the warranties that are available on FiberFloor. What kind of choices do consumers have?
Kaye: We try to give consumers a wide variety because we know that everyone has price point concerns, they’ve got budgets, they’ve got durability issues to think about. We go all the way from a lifetime warranty that also has even a five year commercial-like warranty or you can go down to our lowest products have a five year warranty on them.
Tom: The price point, it sounds very expensive, is it?
Kaye: Oh, absolutely not. The average is about $2.00 a square foot including installation.
Tom: For the avid do-it-yourselfers, can they install a floor themselves, especially with the no requirement for an adhesive?
Kaye: Sure. They can do that and they can get material, starting somewhere around $1.00 a square foot going up to may be $3.00 a square foot. You can have the best of the best on a small budget.
Tom: We’re talking to Kaye Gosline, she’s the creative director for Residential Flooring for Tarkett. Kaye, if we want to learn more, where can we go?
Kaye: Sure, you can go to our website, tarkettna.com and one thing consumers should look for is our live design chat button. If you tap on the button, one of our assistants will be happy to give you design advice about color coordination to talk about what style and design might work in your home.
We have design students, senior level design students from Kent State University, who man the line for us and they can give you advice about what color and design might work, how to coordinate room to room using our I select system and any other questions that you have about color and FiberFloor.
Tom: Kaye Gosline from Tarkett, thank you so much for being a part of the Money Pits Top Products Podcast.
Kaye: Thank you. Appreciate being here.
Tom: Again the website is tarkettna.com. It’s T-A-R-K-E-T-T-N-A.com.
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