Rigid core flooring’s rapid rise in the U.S. has spawned a veritable gold rush among traditional hard and soft surface manufacturers looking to expand their product offerings. But the overheated SPC race has also had an unforeseen yet welcomed effect—the emergence of complementary accessory products such as stair nosings and treads derived from the same materials as the rigid core planks.
One company in particular, Finished Edge Technology, is looking to take the lead on this developing trend. While the Chandler, Ariz.-based company doesn’t claim to be the first to tackle this specialty segment of the flooring accessories market, it certainly makes a strong case that its novel approach to manufacturing stair nosings is unlike any other.
“There are companies that have tried to do what we do—and they can do it with certain products, but not with others,” Charlie Iannacone, Finished Edge Technology founder, told FCNews. “We’re the only company out here that’s able to do it with not only all the vinyl products, but with laminate, engineered wood as well. There’s no one out there doing it on any sort of scale that we are while providing the quality we offer.”
According to Iannacone, Finished Edge Technology’s patented processes yield both decorative and functional accessories that aim to better coordinate with the wide range of rigid core floors hitting the market. “With our square stair nosings we are able to offer a 100% match, because they’re made out of the same material,” he explained. “The clear coat, the visual, the tongue and groove system—everything is exactly how it came from the factory, so it all intertwines perfectly together.”
Heretofore, according to Iannacone—longtime floor-covering-installer-turned-inventor—most round stair nosings largely entailed an overlap nosing or a flush mount nosing, or they were made in a different factory than the source material. This often created aesthetic inconsistencies, he said, especially if an accessory supplier used a different clear coat for the finish. “In different lighting conditions, for example, you wouldn’t get a 100% match,” he explained. “With T-moldings or end moldings, it’s not a big deal. However, when you get into stair nosings where you have alternating planks, treads and nosings, it just stands out like a sore thumb if the color’s off even a little bit.”
Another problem installers often encountered with some traditional, round stair nosings—even those made from the same SPC plank material—is a change in the design pattern created during the process of heating/bending the plank to create a curve for the nosing. As Iannacone explained: “Sometimes when you make a round nosing, you have to stretch the film and the clear coat. With our square nose profiles we’re not heating excessively beyond the manufacturer’s specifications. We don’t stretch the clear coat or the picture. We’re not doing anything to compromise the material in any way. Everything is perfect all the way through.”
Hip to be ‘square’
The square stair nosings manufactured by Finished Edge Technology do much more than match the SPC flooring to a “T,” according to Iannacone; they are also designed to install more effortlessly. That’s due, in part, to the product’s design, which does not require removal of the existing nosings. The company’s website features in-depth instructional videos on how to properly install the product.
“In the past, you had to either cut off the old nosings and turn that step into a box or fill in the riser; that’s the way it’s been done for 30 years,” he explained. “Either way you would’ve had to create a box, which would shorten up that step. With our design, you just wrap it around the existing tread, which keeps the tread the same depth as it was before. It eliminates all the fabrication you typically would have to do to the existing treads to install it. Everything’s the same, essentially; it’s just a bigger, better looking stair in the end.”
Dealers who sell the company’s products share that sentiment. Take, for example, Doug Lentz, owner of Phoenix-based Legend Flooring. Prior to sourcing from Finished Edge Technology, Lentz used off-the-shelf stair nose pieces provided by the various manufacturers. After growing weary of dealing with what he called poor designs and lack of consistency in color and/or finish, he decided to make a change. “Since I switched over to Finished Edge Technology, I haven’t had a single problem with either of those [issues],” he said. “Beyond that, the customers absolutely love the look, feel and ease of maintenance. It’s been a game-changer.”
Another client, Mozaik, a St. George, Utah-based distributor of specialty flooring products and accessories, was similarly impressed. “Finished Edge Technology has been a great company to team up with—not only for their product quality but also their exceptional support team,” said Dallan Robinson, president of Mozaik. “By partnering up with Finished Edge, we have been able to eliminate the issues such as color match and poor design. We believe that Finished Edge wrap around nosings are the future in stair nosings, so much so that we are stocking all our products with their style nosings. The feedback in the field has been overly positive. It is exciting to present a new, innovative product to our long-term customers.”
Finished Edge Technology’s offerings are also gaining notoriety at a time when design trends in flooring accessories are shifting. For decades, according to Iannacone, rounded stair nosings were all the rage. But that started to change a few years ago—at least in certain pockets of the country. “If you go anywhere in Arizona or California, for example, it’s all about square, clean lines and modern looks,” he noted. “Everyone wants that plank, ‘block’ look. You’re starting to see that now with all the manufacturers converting to square nosings, even in the flush mount versions, and getting away from the round nosings, which look a little dated.”
Beyond hitting on style points, accessories like stair nosings also represent an additional profit center for manufacturing partners, Iannacone noted. “Our stair nosings have the potential to help manufacturers drive up their sales dramatically by having our style nosings in stock with their products.
“With every job that has a staircase, there’s an opportunity to sell that manufacturer’s products where maybe they wouldn’t have that opportunity if they didn’t stock the nosings. I believe it would make a huge difference in profits.”
Room to grow
In the early years of its young history, Finished Edge Technology was able to generate traction in the marketplace by servicing brick-and-mortar specialty retailers in its backyard as well as homegrown building material suppliers. Along the way, the company gained a strong foothold in the region over the past few years by developing a reputation as a solid supplier to floor covering dealers.
“We do roughly 15 staircases a day for all the flooring stores here in the valley every day on top of the tens of thousands of nosings that we do for manufacturers nationwide,” Iannacone stated. “I would say we have the majority of the market in Arizona where our main presence is.”
On those occasions where homeowners discover their products and services online, the company refers those customers back to retailers. “We try to direct retail sales back to the dealers in the area,” Iannacone stated. “Customers can put in their zip code to find the closest dealer in their area where they can buy instead of buying direct through us.”
But that go-to-market strategy is poised for a dramatic evolution as the company builds on its production capability. Presently, it has the capacity of 100,000 units per month on the vinyl lines alone, thanks to ongoing investments in automation. “Every year we’re moving into a building that’s double the size because we’re growing rapidly and running out of room,” Iannacone said. “We’re already on our fourth move.”
The next step, according to the company, is to expand its current list of private-label partners to include what Iannacone calls the industry’s “big boys.” One idea Finished Edge Technology is floating is establishing production licenses with some of the major flooring manufacturers whereby the mills would bring the company’s stair nosing production equipment in house.
“We’ve got a full production line where you put a piece in at one end and it comes out as a stair nosing at the other and gets packaged up,” Iannacone explained. “So that line is what we’d want to set up and then work with the manufacturers so they would be handling that added workflow by doing some sort of a licensing agreement with us, with our machines, and then setting that up in their facility. That way they can convert their flooring into our nosings and it would save a ton on shipping, logistics, etc. That’s ultimately what we want to do.”
