Sector: Retail
Client: American Furniture Warehouse
Location: Conroe, TX
Contact: Nolan Morrison, MBA, PMP
Area: 150,000 ft2
Product: Karndean LooseLay collection, Hartford LLP112, Colorado LLT201, Indiana LLT202
The Challenge
American Furniture Warehouse is one of the top retail furniture companies in the country, with 10 locations across Colorado, Arizona and Texas. Having specified Karndean Designflooring in some of these locations - and impressed by the floor’s durability and performance - when store planning began for the Conroe, TX location, American Furniture Warehouse Real Estate and Development Executive Nolan Morrison turned to Karndean Designflooring yet again.
Previously, American Furniture Warehouse stores incorporated a combination of hard surface tile, a competitor brand of luxury vinyl tile and commercial carpet throughout. Still, Morrison had encountered some obstacles using these materials. These include the added cost of laying a moisture barrier down before the luxury vinyl flooring materials due to high relative humidity levels that the LVT couldn’t tolerate; and trying to get forklifts across the tiled sections of the showroom proved to be a delicate task to prevent damage to the flooring.
“We had seen a couple of competitors getting rid of carpet and tile altogether, which we wanted to do moving forward, and then our architect recommended Karndean,” Morrison said.
The showroom flooring also needed to be durable and easy to install, replace and maintain. “It has to hold up to the public (typically between 800 and 1500 visitors a day), to the lifts and to constantly moving furniture around,” he added.
The Solution
Because of the vast size of the Conroe store – 150,000 square feet - Morrison worked closely with the area Karndean Commercial Business Manager and Purchasing Team to finalize a color palette and procure the materials. “Our representative and I have a great relationship as far as planning and it makes my life a whole lot easier,” Morrison said.
With Karndean Designflooring to be installed throughout the entirety of the showroom, including main walkways and display areas, Morrison chose multiple colors and designs to zone these spaces.
“We were considering leaving the main walkway as concrete and wanted to put some type of travertine look in the patio area, and then the regular display areas would have a wood grain look. Furniture is in the fashion industry, just as flooring is, and there are so many different looks; so we have to have different styles of flooring that can pull the various colors from the furniture pieces.”
Products from the Karndean LooseLay product range address all of the performance and visual requirements: it can be installed over subfloors with up to 95% RH, has a durable 20mil wear layer, planks and tiles are easy to replace, it can handle rolling loads, and it can be cleaned with any pH neutral cleaner approved for use with vinyl flooring. What’s more, the range includes a variety of visuals inspired by woods, concrete and travertine, along with other stones. The final palette included Colorado, a concrete-style visual; travertine-inspired Indiana; and the rustic wood-look Hartford, that Morrison notes has a mixture of grays and browns that suits their furniture offerings particularly well.
The Results
Moving forward it is Morrison’s goal to continue using these and other similar Karndean LooseLay products in new American Furniture Warehouse builds, citing the overall ease of working with Karndean Designflooring, and the loose lay products’ ease of installation, performance and maintenance.
“For construction purposes, we try to move as quickly as possible. The crew at SET Floors could install 150,000 square feet in two to three weeks. Some of the reasons that I like it so much are the ease of installation and the ease of replacement of an individual piece. We wanted the selection of looks and styles, and quite frankly, the products’ availability.”
“Any one of our employees, whether it’s our CEO or the person who started yesterday on the sales floor, if something’s damaged, they can grab a new plank and pop the damaged one in place of it on the floor and nobody would know the difference. The floor has performed 100% how we wanted it to and has held up very well.”
Karndean LooseLay Product Specifications
| Standard | Result | |
| Size | Plank: 41.3" x 9.85" Tile: 19.7" x 24" |
|
| Thickness | 4.5 mm | |
| Wear Layer | 20 mil | |
| Commercial warranty* | 15 years | |
| Bevelled edge | No | |
| Slip resistance** | ASTM D2047 | Dry 0.92 |
| Acoustic impact noise reduction | ASTM E2179-09 ASTM E492-09 |
ΔIIC = 16 dB IIC = 56 dB*** IIC = 71 dB**** |
Download the full Karndean LooseLay technical data.
Explore the Karndean LooseLay collection.
*Subject to terms
**Slip resistance is measured on ex-factory product. Slip resistance can be affected by many factors including but not limited to: product installation and underlayment, surface contamination, use, wear and how the product is maintained. Textural variation along the surface of the product can affect nominal values.
*** (6” Concrete Slab w/Drop Ceiling)
**** (6” Concrete Slab w/Drop Ceiling + QuietChoice)
