Hardwood Floors August/September 2017

FINAL COAT

By Michael Martin President & CEO, NWFA

The Impact of Millennials on the Wood Flooring Industry

This is also a trend the wood flooring industry is beginning to see on the installation side as well. At this year’s NWFA Expo, one trend that became clear when talking with younger people in the business is the desire to work with the beauty of wood – refinishing and working with reclaimed product are becoming a niche craft. A few years ago, conversations were much more geared to howmany square feet you could put down in a day, or howmuch you could sand in a day.

A tweet from a Millennial caught my attention recently – in essence, it said that the next time Baby Boomers want to blame Millennials for all the problems in the world, remember that it was the Boomer generation that covered up all the hardwood floors with linoleum and carpet! While it’s not a very serious way to start a column, this thought reinforces two things about Millennials that market research does reflect: 1. Millennials prefer natural wood products; and 2. Millennials would rather have something old and authentic than something perceived as “fake.” Both of these preferences point to good news for wood flooring from a purchasing and an industry perspective. First, Millennials are starting to buy homes. According to the Wall Street Journal , “the number of new owner households was double the number of new renter households in the first quarter.”The Journal went on to note that luxury home sales are already in high gear, and that Millennials are pushing an additional kick with starter homes. While a starter home may not initially feature more than a foyer and perhaps a great room in hardwood, starter homes today have more hard surfaces than ever before in what was traditionally a carpet market. Whether or not the Millennial preference for naturals, such as wood, will help raise the spend on wood over other hard surfaces in a new starter home remains to be seen. However, in existing home sales, it’s fair to expect Millennials who are buying an older home to prefer tearing out the carpet if there’s a hardwood floor underneath, and then use the flooring as the base of design. What is old, beat up, scraped, and battered is a trend that is here to stay. Mixing old with new, preferring natural products or repurposed products, is part of the thriftiness that comes with living through a bad economy combined with a sense of sustaining the environment by repurposing.

Floor by DM Hardwood Designs.

This is good for the industry – while we can continue to grow the wood flooring market in new home construction with both

factory finished and unfinished products, a new generation of craftsmen, interested in our industry because the product is wood, is starting to evolve and impact our market. Many of the professionals in this new generation are coming to NWFA for training because they are far more interested in the craftsman level of working with wood than simply laying flooring. In fact, it’s actually not about the flooring at all. A few years ago, people thought the art of sand and finish was going away. But, the trend is bearing out to show a market shift from a standard practice toward an artisan craft, something consumers will actually pay more for in the long run. While our industry has to take note of look-a-like products and the disposability of thin wear layers in our own wood products, the good news is that the largest generation with the most buying power for the next several decades is set to love wood from the outset. So, rip up that linoleum, tear out that carpet, and show the Millennials the natural beauty beneath!

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