Dalton-based USFloors brings innovation to market, gets first license partner

The COREtec hardwood floor displayed here takes multi-layered luxury vinyl flooring and puts a tested-and-approved waterproof core at the center. The new type of flooring was developed by USFloors in Dalton.
The COREtec hardwood floor displayed here takes multi-layered luxury vinyl flooring and puts a tested-and-approved waterproof core at the center. The new type of flooring was developed by USFloors in Dalton.

COREtec technology is here, and it's improved a segment of the floor covering market that's existed for 30 years and which finds itself in increasingly high demand.

Developed by Dalton-based USFloors, COREtec takes multi-layered luxury vinyl flooring and puts a hardy, tested-and-approved water-proof core at the center.

With greater resistance to moisture and a more stable core, COREtec eliminates some of the old drawbacks to luxury vinyl and laminate floors -- like swollen seams and susceptibility to moisture-induced bucking and discoloration.

"So you can have that kind of rigid plank that installs like laminate, but it can go in areas where you can't normally put laminate," said Gary Keeble, product and marketing manager as USFloors.

USFloors has introduced COREtec to the flooring industry and is currently trying to secure a patent number for the technology.

USFloors specializes in specialty floor products like cork and bamboo and was incorporated in 2001 as an importer of those products. In 2008, the company opened manufacturing facilities in Dalton and started making cork and bamboo flooring products.

USFloors is now the only cork and bamboo flooring supplier in the country with manufacturing facilities here.

Continuing on the path of carving out a place in the competitive floor covering industry, USFloors developed COREtec two years ago.

USFloors is working now to get COREtec into the hands of consumers, while balancing the protection of the company's intellectual property. It took two years to get an allowance for a patent from the federal government, and a patent is still pending.

The good news for the Dalton firm is that a Chinese floor manufacturer, Chinafloors, recently agreed to a licensing agreement in order to implement COREtec technology in some of its products.

Chinafloors is the first licensing parter for COREtec, and the deal represents the way USFloors hopes to work with other flooring manufacturers.

Think of it like the operating system on your computer, said Keeble.

There are many brands of PC on the market, but windows predominantly only one PC operating system: Windows. USFloors wants COREtec to be like the Windows of engineered flooring.

Keeble said the company is willing to negotiate naming and branding rights, and until a patent is granted, is worried most that another manufacturer is going to use USFloors' technology without giving USFloors any credit or rightful royalties as COREtec's developer.

He said there are already some manufacturers turning out products containing technology very similar to COREtec, without permission from USFloors, which "basically invented this product."

But USFloors does, meanwhile, have a branding agreement with Beaulieu America, which partnered with USFloors to introduce the Bliss COREtec ONE collection of engineered flooring. USFloors acts as distributor for the product.

And others in the industry are aware of COREtec, say experts.

Matt Spieler, editorial director of BNP Flooring Group and editor of Floor Trends, said COREtec "has created a tremendous amount of interest" among floor covering manufacturers and retailers.

He said COREtec is a genuine innovation in an industry where "companies say it's the newest, greatest thing" even when it isn't.

"They've taken something, and they've made it better," said Spieler.

And "it doesn't happen as often as you might think."

Keeble said USFloors' intention is not to hog COREtec or corner the market on hardy, waterproof engineered flooring.

"We would like, as the inventors of this construction and this technology, to keep it at a certain standard as a product that's affordable for consumers," he said.

Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.

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