By Holly Kelsy-Henry

If there’s one industry that has continued to thrive despite the upsurge in the popularity of online shopping, it’s the flooring industry.

After all, as Superior Flooring owner Jack Cameron points out, who wants a 1,000-pound roll of carpet delivered to and dumped in one’s front yard?

“What then? Who moves it for you? Who installs it? What will you do with the carpet you just ripped out? You can’t just take it to the dump,” Cameron noted recently from his expansive showroom at 1021 Tower Ave. in Superior. “Besides, people want to touch and feel the carpet they are going to put in their homes. They want to take pieces home and see how it looks in their house. You can’t really do that on the Internet.”

“People want to take pieces home and see how it looks in their house. You can’t really do that on the Internet.”
– owner Jack Cameron

Replacing flooring in your home or business can be a daunting decision as well as a daunting task, but the team at Superior Flooring can help you choose and install your hardwood, carpet, tile or vinyl with very little disruption, and a huge serving of peace-of-mind. And you’re guaranteed to get the service and product you want. You won’t be put on hold if you call with a concern, and you’ll always get a real person on the other end of the line.

“If it’s not right, we make it right,” noted President Joel Stutsman. “Our best advertising has been word-of-mouth and that is because we take care of our customers. We make things right for them. The warranty on a product is only as good as the retailer who sells it. We stand behind our customers every step of the way.”

Sales Manager Maria Ackerson concurred. “We live in a society of ‘I want it, and I want it right now and I want it to be right’,” she said. “That’s such a bonus for us, because we warehouse a huge variety of carpet and flooring – and it is right here, right now, with a staff that will help you choose your flooring, design the room and guarantee customer satisfaction. This is a long-standing
commitment and one that has gained us a lot of good word-of-mouth.”

“The warranty … is only as good as the retailer who sells it. We stand behind our customers every step of the way.”
– President Joel Stutsman

This successful business model was launched by Jack Cameron in 1988, when he operated the predecessor company (called Commercial Flooring and Superior Flooring), housed in what was formally a grocery store at the Tower Avenue location. He renamed it Superior Flooring in 1993 and the business has always remained at the same address. The store currently provides 16,000 feet of showroom space, allowing Superior Flooring to display an impressive variety of product  – 90 percent of which is American-made.

“The space was perfect for us, because it was originally built to withstand enormous weight because of the food shelving and weight of freezers required in a grocery store,” Cameron noted. “It also had the potential for a lot of storefront windows, which gave us good exposure and good lighting so people can see the true color of the products they are choosing. We also have special lighting to enhance this. The space allows us to keep in stock a large variety of flooring for people to choose from.”

And Cameron is just the person to help people choose those products. He’s been installing flooring with his father ever since he was 12 years old. He continued the family tradition while in college, driving to Virginia, Minn., on weekends to help his father, who worked for Johnson Carpet. Through the years, he has developed a keen eye for design and knows intuitively what works in a particular space.

“Having a design consultation for replacing flooring in your home is a great idea,” Cameron said. “Regardless of the type of floors you are looking to install, we can help you decide the right type of flooring, what will look best and at prices you can afford.”

Customers have posted online reviews such as “Beyond delighted with my hardwood floors.”

When you meet with the team at Superior Flooring for a design consultation, one of the professionals will walk you through the process of selecting the right product. They will discuss the size of space the client needs to cover and review a variety of options for flooring, such as carpet, vinyl, hardwood and tile.

“You can compare the different options and see how they will look in your home,” Ackerson noted.  She added that consultation is an important part of the process, so customers don’t make a mistake with the choice and regret it later, which ultimately would put them in a position of having to redecorate the space to match the new floors.

No one is more aware of the need to get it right the first time than customer Debbie Woods, who has twice reached out to Superior Flooring to ensure she was choosing  the perfect flooring product.

Since they were looking to downsize, Woods and her husband, Dan, had their Superior home on the market when they realized they had a flooring issue. The property was not moving, and the real estate agent pointed to the outdated flooring throughout the home as one of the main reasons.

“We live in a society of ‘I want it right now and I want it to be right.’ That’s such a bonus for us.”
– Sales Manager Maria Ackerson

“The house was on the market for a while and it had dated, old carpet,” she explained. “Buyers today are quite discriminating, so our Realtor said to go to Superior Flooring. So we did; we went and saw Jack. He came out to the house and had a look and made a lot of really great suggestions. What we decided was we would put in very pretty, neutral whitish carpet. When the carpet installer came, he even moved our grand piano and he did a wonderful job. It was beautiful.”

In the dining room Cameron helped the couple select a light oak floor with a cherry inlay. “It was just gorgeous,” Woods said. “We were really happy and the house sold right away.”

Stage two of the process was locating a smaller house to buy. The couple eventually located what she described as a “darling little place with character, but bad flooring.

“It was a foreclosure. Our house was closing and we found it just in time,” Woods explained. “I was just about ready to go on Airbnb to try to find a place for us to stay, but the sellers accepted our offer. The house had a lot of character, but it also had this unattractive brownish carpeting throughout. So we had Superior Flooring come out and refinish the floors and, of course, they did an excellent job.”

The business recently started carrying cabinets sourced from a rapidly growing company called Fabuwood.

Woods went so far as to describe the team at Superior Flooring as “artists.” She also said the customer service was above and beyond what she expected. “The people who do the work are super friendly,” she said. “We really liked them all. They do incredible work. They also did some tile in the bathroom and it is beautiful. Maria is incredibly helpful, Jack was just great, and all of their finishers and installers are just wonderful.”

The Woodses are now looking at remodeling their kitchen and have Brazilian cherry flooring on hold to complete that project.

They will also likely look to Superior Flooring for other elements of their kitchen design, since the business recently started carrying cabinets sourced from a rapidly growing company called Fabuwood. That company, which originally launched with a small team of employees, has grown to more than 400 and has attracted the attention of forward-thinking, cutting-edge retailers. Fabuwood creates customized cabinetry and accessories in hundreds of unique designs and finishes.

Cameron said the addition of offering cabinets is in sync with the trend of floor-covering centers becoming more like home centers. “People want the convenience of the big box stores, but they also want expertise and affordability,” he said. “We buy in bulk so we can offer the affordability. And we have the experience adding to the expertise. We also want to give people what they are looking for in one stop, so we’re adding the cabinetry.”

Superior Flooring serves both residential and smaller commercial customers in Wisconsin from Superior to Solon Springs and beyond and also serves customers in Duluth, Hermantown and Proctor in Minnesota. The company employs three full-time staff members and a wide variety of local tradespeople and contractors.

According to Ackerson, the staff works hard to stay on top of the hottest trends in flooring, one of which is luxury vinyl. The flooring uses photo technology that mimics wood so closely it’s almost impossible to tell it is vinyl.

In carpet, Berber is still a popular choice, but today’s versions have more texture and pattern. At the end of the day, according to Cameron, people seem to have one prominent request when it comes to their choice of carpet: “They want it to be soft and nice to walk on.”

While Superior Flooring carries a wide variety of new styles and designs, the team is also ready and willing to restore the flooring a client already has in place. Superior Flooring provides the services and expertise needed to bring back the shine and beauty of your existing hardwood floors.

Over time, hardwood can become distressed from everyday use. Superior Flooring provides dustless hardwood sanding and refinishing, restoring a customer’s floor to its former glory. Cameron noted that the dustless sanding and refinishing approach ensures appliances or electronics will not be damaged from all the dust created from the sanding. Refinishing flooring back to its original condition is the best route to take if your hardwood floors look like they need to be replaced. The team at Superior Flooring reiterated that it’s never a good idea to try to refinish your floors yourself, because if you damage the wood, it could cost you more than you bargained for.

No doubt that’s why happy customers have posted online reviews such as “Work and professionalism was superior” and “Beyond delighted with my hardwood floors.”

Superior Flooring is also proud to supply flooring delivery installation of all its products throughout the region, including carpet, carpet padding, rugs, hardwood flooring, laminate, laminate flooring, wood flooring, vinyl, sheet vinyl, ceramic flooring, ceramic walls, porcelain tile and its newest line of kitchen cabinets.

“We stand behind our work and guarantee top-notch installation of all our products,” said Stutsman. The fleet of Superior Flooring vans stands ready to deliver to your home or business and oversee installation by a team of trained professionals.

Among the products carried by Superior Flooring are: Mohawk, USFloors, Mannington, Quick Step, Congoleum, Marazzi, Dream Weaver, Casabella, Floridatile, Bruce Hardwood Floors, Mercier, Armstrong and Florim. They also carry a full line of cleaning products suited to individual floor coverings.

Thanks to this business, you can have your new floor when you want it and when you need it. Visit the Superior Flooring store, pick out a style or fabric, and the staff will measure and provide a free estimate with no obligation. The business also offers 90-day same as cash, quick, convenient financing.

For more information, visit greaterfloors.com or call (715) 394-3637.  P.S.