Key Takeaways from NALFA’s 2026 Fall Meeting in Savannah
FALL MEETING RECAP · OCTOBER 13–15, 2026 · SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
NALFA members gathered in Savannah October 13–15 with a clearer question in front of them: where can the association make the greatest difference for the laminate flooring industry?
That conversation began before Fall Meeting during NALFA’s strategy work and carried through the committee meetings, presentations, and discussions that followed.
Three areas emerged as NALFA's clearest opportunities to lead: advancing performance standards, delivering industry intelligence, and championing laminate flooring. Together, they reflect what an industry association can bring to the market: technical credibility, collective expertise, broader industry perspective, and resources no single company can create alone.
Savannah gave members the opportunity to put those priorities into practice.
IN THIS RECAP
Performance standards · Industry intelligence · Championing laminate
Beyond the plank · Member connections · What comes next
Advance Performance Standards
Standards and certification remain at the center of NALFA’s technical work.
Throughout the Fall Meeting, members examined how testing can support product-performance claims in ways that are consistent, repeatable, and relevant to field conditions.
The Technical Committee continued work on scratch and wear performance, reviewing interlaboratory research and the variables that can affect testing results. Rather than treating preliminary findings as finished conclusions, members focused on what still needs to be understood before a method or claim is ready for broader use.
The Underlayment Committee took the same approach.
As laminate with a factory-attached pad becomes more common, retailers and installers increasingly ask whether they can use additional underlayment beneath those products and what impact the combination may have on performance. Members discussed the issue as a complete flooring-system question, recognizing that plank construction, locking systems, underlayment, and installation conditions all matter.
The Moulding Committee continued similar work around flooring accessories and the performance expectations applied to components that are part of the finished installation.
That same system-level thinking carried into the installation discussion. If flooring, underlayment, mouldings, and transitions all play a role in performance, the guidance installers rely on needs to be just as clear.
Jared Mathusek, Vice President of Installation Services at Empire Today, returned to continue the installation guidance work that began at Spring Meeting.
Members discussed how instructions can be easier to navigate across manufacturers without eliminating the product-specific requirements that matter.
The challenge is that professional installers often work across multiple brands, while DIYers may need more visual guidance and a simpler way to navigate instructions. A more consistent structure could help both audiences find critical information quickly without sacrificing the product-specific technical detail each manufacturer needs to provide.
Across all of these discussions, the objective was the same: strengthen the connection between what a product is expected to do, how that performance is evaluated, and how it performs once installed.
Deliver Industry Intelligence
NALFA’s second area of focus is helping members better understand the market around them.
The association’s new Industry Intelligence Program is gathering perspectives from across the flooring value chain, including executives, retailers, installers, and inspectors.
The goal is to identify patterns that individual companies may not see in their own businesses alone. Initial findings presented in Savannah are already beginning to connect customer expectations with what professionals are seeing in the field.
Retail responses show strong interest in performance, price, and appearance, while installer responses continue to point to subfloor preparation, expansion, and moisture as key contributors to field problems.
These perspectives can help NALFA focus future technical work, education, and market resources.
Members also received a broader economic view from Chris Kuehl, Managing Director of Armada Corporate Intelligence.
Kuehl described an uneven economy. Inflation stood at 3.7%, while higher-income consumers continued spending more freely than lower-income households, which are experiencing substantially greater pressure. Middle-income consumers remain particularly sensitive to employment and purchasing power.
At the same time, investment remains active in areas including data centers, healthcare, manufacturing, robotics, and corporate capital expenditures. Housing continues to face pressure from borrowing costs, while transportation and energy conditions are adding another layer of uncertainty.
For flooring companies, the takeaway was not that the market is moving in one direction. Instead, different customers, geographies, and sectors are experiencing very different conditions.
That outside perspective, combined with NALFA’s industry data, gives members more context for the decisions they make inside their companies.
Champion Laminate Flooring
The third strategic priority is ensuring the market understands what modern laminate offers and why credible standards and certification matter.
NALFA’s New Era of Laminate campaign has significantly expanded the association’s reach this year.
Through mid-October, the Google paid-search campaign had generated more than 34,700 clicks from nearly 86,000 impressions.
More important than the volume is what people are searching for.
Top-performing searches include broad questions such as “flooring options for homeowners,” “types of flooring materials,” “residential flooring types,” “best flooring for home,” and “modern flooring trends.”
These searches suggest NALFA often reaches consumers before they have selected a flooring category.
That creates an opportunity to help people evaluate laminate based on the factors that matter in a flooring decision, rather than assuming they already understand what today’s products can offer.
The Marketing Committee discussed how to build on that opportunity through retailer education, consumer resources, and clearer communication around certification.
The question is increasingly moving from “Why laminate?” to “What makes the information coming from NALFA credible?”
For NALFA, that credibility comes from the standards, technical expertise, testing, industry data, and collective experience behind the message.
Looking at the Business Beyond the Plank
Fall Meeting also gave members a chance to examine parts of the business outside NALFA’s traditional technical work.
Ray Setlock, Segment Vice President of Corrugated Packaging at Smurfit Westrock, explored how packaging affects the flooring product before it ever reaches the installer or homeowner.
His session covered protection during shipping, package handling, pallet configuration, printing, product information, and the tradeoffs between different packaging and print methods.
Full-wrap cartons are becoming more common, while edge and corner protection can help reduce damage during transportation. Setlock also discussed how package information such as square-foot coverage and product specifications can make packaging more useful to contractors and customers.
It reminded everyone that the customer experience and product performance extend beyond the flooring itself.
The Work Depends on the People Behind It
The Savannah agenda also left time for members to connect outside the formal sessions.
The meeting opened at Bar by Fleeting before members boarded the Ghosts & Gravestones Trolley Tour to explore Savannah’s history. Thank you to SELIT North America for sponsoring the evening and giving members time to reconnect before the working sessions began.
After Wednesday’s full day of committee meetings and presentations, members boarded the Georgia Queen for dinner on the Savannah River.
The setting changed, but many conversations continued. Members had time to catch up with colleagues, meet newer participants, and spend time with people they might otherwise interact with only through committee calls or industry events.
Those relationships matter because much of NALFA’s work depends on people from different companies being willing to share experience, raise questions, and solve problems together.
What Comes Next
Savannah did not produce a finished answer for every issue discussed, nor should it have.
Instead, members left with clearer priorities and a better understanding of where NALFA can provide the greatest value: strengthening performance standards, building useful industry intelligence, and helping the market better understand laminate flooring.
The technical work, market research, educational resources, and industry conversations will continue between meetings.
For companies considering NALFA membership, Fall Meeting offered a clear view of what participation provides: access to expertise from across the flooring industry and an opportunity to contribute directly to work that extends beyond any one company.
NALFA will come together again for the 2027 Spring Meeting, March 8–10 in San Antonio, Texas.
