February 27/March 6, 2017: Volume 31, Issue 19
By Lindsay Baillie
If you are not currently selling moldings and accessories, 2017 might be the year to start. As flooring trends and categories continue to evolve, moldings manufacturers are unleashing a slew of trendy, matching products designed to provide greater add-on opportunities for retailers.
Following are new product offerings from some of the leading manufacturers.
Airwood Flooring Accessories
Airwood’s Matchables were designed to address the challenge of accurately matching moldings and vents with the wealth of new flooring products hitting the market. These products are available in a variety of profiles including Euro profile nosing, traditional bullnose nosing, reducer, t-caps and standard HVAC vents. New to this line are various profiles reflecting popular trends such as heavily textured, wide plank hardwood flooring.
According to Carmi Mooser, director of sales & marketing, Matchables is made from the manufacturers’ prefinished wood floor to ensure a perfect match. This approach, she explained, provides seamless installation and eliminates site reinstallation. Airwood partners with most of the major Canadian and American mills, but the company can also work directly with retailers to recreate styles and designs.
Selling customized moldings as well as other complementary accessories such as vents not only helps retailers differentiate themselves, but it also broadens a dealer’s overall selection. “It’s a really good product to add to any retailers lineup,” Mooser said. “Most hardwood installations require these moldings, but most homeowners have no idea about hardwood flooring accessories.”
Pedross
Pedross’ new products follow consumer and retailer demands to match moldings with specific types of flooring, especially the red-hot LVT category as well as perennial favorites such as hardwood.
“We are introducing flexible, stainable flooring transitions as a new product offering,” said Joe Albany, national sales manager. “We also will continue to focus on our digital printing capabilities for both hardwood flooring and LVT flooring lines.”
Pedross distributes products throughout the United States and Canada. Its offerings include wood, cork, laminate and LVT moldings, stair treads, aluminum profiles and digital prints.
Pennwood
Pennwood has the capabilities of producing moldings from 40 different species and in over 6,000 different colors. The company uses species for species when constructing its moldings and makes its best effort to match its products to the flooring, explained Kraig Coxon, executive vice president. “The biggest thing we focus on is quality.”
This quality is found in Pennwood’s various moldings including its Retro Treads, Retro Risers, and LVT and hardwood flooring transitions.
In addition to moldings, Pennwood is currently working on a vents program to complement its other flooring accessories. Coxon noted many consumers want their bases and vents to match, so the incentive to produce these accessories is high. Pennwood hopes to have vents available by June and is starting out with bamboo products. “The biggest thing for us is we’ve been asked to do it from customers. If you’re going to do moldings and treads you might as well do vents.”
In terms of its future with moldings, Pennwood is also looking into WPC products.
Zamma
Some of Zamma’s newest innovations come from the company’s extruding products. These include a flush luxury vinyl tile nosing as well as a threshold made of waterproof core for ceramic installations. According to Peter Spielman, president, the new WPC product has a zero breakage rate and is price competitive. “On the luxury vinyl tile or luxury vinyl plank side we’re the only manufacturer that thermally fuses the same decorative layer and wear layer as the floor itself. We use the actual décor from the floor with a .5mm commercial-grade wear layer, so all of our transitional moldings for luxury vinyl floors are commercial warranty items and we use the same vinyl as the floor.”
Seneca
Seneca’s updated stains and finishes follow the popular gray and white tones trending in hardwood flooring. “At Seneca Millwork we continue to see matte finishes and shades of grays and whites play an important role in today’s flooring colors and styles,” said Mark Pacacha, national sales manager. “While these high-end finishes are more challenging, we continue to meet our deadlines on these and all hardwood moldings. We utilize our exclusive ColorMaster system to ensure our transitions are a customer-approved match to their flooring.”
All Seneca transitions are individually shrink-wrapped for protection during shipping, and to preserve on-site quality of the product.