Specify Quality. Specify INSTALL

It is important to always be sure that your flooring contractor is competent and staffed with well-trained, productive installers before they arrive on your job site. One way to ensure that is through detailed specification. Mandate that your flooring materials are installed by an INSTALL-trained or INSTALL-certified professional. That specification still keeps your project open to dozens of prospective, qualified contractors, while at the same time weeding out poorly trained, ill-qualified, less reputable or less-equipped outfits.

Here is suggested language for various sections of Division 09 of the Master Specification program, such as:

096000 Flooring
096100 Flooring Treatment
096200 Specialty Flooring
096400 Wood Flooring
096500 Resilient Flooring
096700 Fluid-Applied Flooring
096800 Carpeting

Part 1 — General: Quality Assurance

Installers shall be skilled tradespeople enrolled in a state-approved apprenticeship program, or certified by a training and certification program equal to the INSTALL program. Key attributes of the training program must include: Four-year (minimum) apprenticeship program, totaling 160 hours per year; Career-long training; Manufacturer-endorsed training; and Fundamental journeyman skills certification.

Or, if you prefer, specification language may be used in paragraph format, such as the following: INSTALL certification is a requirement for journeymen floor coverers, or membership in a state-certified apprenticeship program is a requirement for floor coverers who have not yet become journeymen, to be eligible to install flooring on this project.

By using the above specification, you are assuring yourself that installers handling your materials have the training, skills and experience to implement any project’s plans. This specification still keeps your projects open to dozens of highly regarded local contractors, while at the same time weeding out poorly trained, ill-qualified, or less-equipped outfits.