Dalton—The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) has updated its installation standards for carpet 104 (commercial) and 105 (residential). Developed by a team of industry leaders, these changes address innovations that require new approaches to carpet installation, particularly planning and subfloor preparation.
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen a flood of new carpet products, materials and technologies in the market,” said Joe Yarbrough, CRI president. “Carpet installers need updated guidance to ensure customers fully benefit from these advances and receive high quality installation.”
To update CRI’s carpet installation standards, industry leaders drew upon practical experience and research and information obtained from carpet manufacturers, retailers, installers, customers, testing laboratories and other experts. Woody Belflower, technical support manager, carpet for Shaw Industries and task force chair for CRI, said the new standards were five years in the making. “With all the new innovations in the marketplace, it was time to upgrade; we needed a good refreshing to be current with what all of us are doing. If you don’t do anything, you become stagnant.”
CRI’s refreshed standards emphasize proper planning and preparation and testing of subflooring to ensure high quality commercial and residential carpet installation. The organization worked on the new installation standards with representatives from 10 carpet mills. “Industry leaders worked together to enhance flooring’s most widely regarded standards to ensure installers, retailers and builders have the best guidelines for commercial and residential carpet planning and installation,” said Jim Walker, founder of International Certified Flooring Installers Association (CFI) and president of the American Floor Covering Institute. “If it doesn’t start right, it will not finish right. This is an industry that supports all parties working together for the common goal of customer satisfaction, starting at the time of the sale through the finished installation.”
The document containing the standards is accessible via carpet-rug.org. If desired, it can be downloaded to a smartphone or tablet. CRI is also planning to package some how-to video tips with the document. “With the mobile app installers can have it readily available at the jobsite and refer to it whenever they want,” Yarbrough said. “We think this is a big deal and that the installation community will appreciate the effort we are putting forth, which is ultimately intended to meet the needs and expectations of the consumer.”