INSTALL, the International Standards and Training Alliance, marks its 25th anniversary with a new strategic priority: performance assurance. The organization is bringing documented training and installer qualifications into the commercial flooring procurement process so contractors, specifiers, and owners know exactly who will install their floors before a project goes out to bid.
In commercial construction, where project complexity and financial exposure are highest, the absence of a credentialed standard at the procurement stage represents a systemic risk. The need is sharpest in markets where installation failures carry the highest consequences.
In healthcare, for example, where INSTALL’s Infection Control Risk Assessment training prepares installers for working in active clinical settings, the margin for error is effectively zero. In sports flooring—a growing specialty within the alliance—subfloor tolerances and performance characteristics demand a distinct skill set.
“Installation failures rarely trace back to the flooring itself,” says INSTALL Executive Director David Gross. “They stem from job-site variables: substrate issues, jobsite management due to tight schedules, and lack of sufficiently trained installers, both in number and competence, for the tasks at hand.”
Combating these kinds of risks has driven INSTALL to help reshape the trade over the last quarter-century. Today, the INSTALL-built training system is one of the most rigorously credentialed specialties in construction.
For more, visit www.installfloors.org.