Hard-surface flooring trend comes to the Ozarks

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In past years, floor covering businesses provided everything to do with flooring, but the trend today is to specialize, according to Mark Thompson, owner of Floorcraft Carpet. Contractors now tend to go to a carpet shop for carpeting, a hardwood specialist for wood surfaces, and a stone and tile dealer for those products.|ret||ret||tab|

Thompson said he believes the switch is the result of higher demand for hard-surface floors in residential properties. More people are using wood, marble and tile in their high-traffic areas.|ret||ret||tab|

Years ago, wood was the standard in bedrooms, with carpet used throughout the home, Thompson said. Greater selection of styles and materials, and improvements that make surfaces easier to care for have caused the market to flip-flop, he said.|ret||ret||tab|

Carpet is still the primary floor covering in mid-priced housing, and people still use carpet for variation and as a sound buffer in upper-level homes. However, more homes in the $150,000-plus range are being built with creative floors in wood, tile and stone. The trend has taken a bite out of carpet sales, Thompson said.|ret||ret||tab|

Hardwood floors are more expensive than carpet, but the ease of maintenance and durability offsets the added up-front expense, said Cindy Hiatt, co-owner of Phoenix Hardwoods.|ret||ret||tab|

Hardwoods are easier to keep clean than they used to be, they are beneficial to people with allergy problems and they are permanent, Hiatt said. She added that she believes these are the main reasons many people have switched.|ret||ret||tab|

People can personalize their homes with floor designs that reflect their own tastes and personalities, Hiatt added. Medallions can be made in any design imaginable.|ret||ret||tab|

Phoenix Hardwoods buys its wood products from all over the United States and abroad. Exotic woods, often used in medallions and borders, come from around the world, Hiatt said. |ret||ret||tab|

Jane Hush, co-owner of Ozark Mountain Granite, agreed that variety has lured people to hard-surface floors.|ret||ret||tab|

"People are amazed when they come to my showroom and see what they can do with marble, ceramic, slate, limestone, granite and porcelain," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

For a long time natural stone floors were considered to be an option for the rich, Hush said. Homeowners have learned that it is not that much more expensive to utilize stone and tile.|ret||ret||tab|

Ozark Mountain Granite receives a lot of stone from Europe, mainly Italy, where natural stone floors have been extensively used for centuries, Hush said.|ret||ret||tab|

Hush and her husband, Denny, have been in the tile and stone floor-covering business locally for eight years. In that time, they said they have seen a huge increase in demand.|ret||ret||tab|

Both Hush and Hiatt have experience in the flooring business in other parts of the country. They said they have noticed the trend toward hard-surface floors has been slow in coming to this area.|ret||ret||tab|

Thompson added that, now that the trend has reached the Midwest, he believes it is here to stay.|ret||ret||tab|

"There is seldom a new home built anymore without some hardwood," said Rod Brown, Cindy Hiatt's husband and co-owner of Phoenix Hardwoods.|ret||ret||tab|

Hiatt and Hush work with contractors and homeowners to create the special looks they want in their homes. Much of their business comes from people who have seen their work on previous jobs.|ret||ret||tab|

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