Everyone in this world at one point in their life must choose what they will do to make a living for themselves. When you are in High School, there is a lot of pressure for students to go to college and to get jobs that don’t require manual labor. There was a day that Vocational School was an option, and you even got to go while you were still in High School. When you graduated, you not only had a diploma, but you had a skill that you could go straight to work without debt.
Flooring is a trade that is not talked about a lot. You hear of wielding, machine shop, electricians, plumbers, and many others. They are honorable trades as well and are very much needed. Those trades and the flooring installers are in dire needs of new workers to come into those fields. Not only are the men and women of those trades getting ready to retire, but there are not enough people coming in to replace and expand to meet the need out in the markets. Without these skilled workers, America will no longer exist.
I began to learn to install flooring after I got out of High School. It was something that I did part time, but I really enjoyed it. I got to learn a lot from different men in my life and learn from their past experiences what to do and what not to do. I still made mistakes, but I would learn from them and move on. It is a trade that when you finish your work, you can look at what you have done and really be proud of how it looks and enjoy how it can bless the ones you do it for. So many times a home owner will thank you for your hard work and you begin to want to always improve your quality so that your work gets better and better.
There are many different types of flooring that you can learn to install. You can go to Certified Flooring Installers, National Wood Flooring Association, or National Tile Installers Association as a few to find instructors to help you learn the different trades in flooring. You may think that it isn’t a big deal to learn how to install flooring. You can find all the tools at Home Depot and Lowes. How hard can it be to put it in yourself? To be honest, incredible hard in some cases, and very technical in others.
Just because you can buy tools and watch a video on how to do something, doesn't mean you know what you are doing. It also doesn’t mean you know what to do to make sure the flooring you install will be under warranty and last as long as it is made to. Installing flooring isn’t just the labor side of things either. You have to be an artist and be creative with different products.
Wood flooring and tile are two of the most creative flooring products you will see more often. Carpet can be as well and some commercial flooring. Wood flooring installations can consist of different species, shapes, patterns, and colors all on one floor. If you look at some of the older palaces in Europe, you will see detailed designs and colors of wood flooring. You can create installation jobs that are never the same in any home or workplace that you do. Go look at Pinterest or Instagram and look and see what you can find. You will find basic flooring installations, and you will find beautiful boarders and inlays that will make a floor look incredible.
Tile installations are both technical and creative. I have never seen any job the same when you are looking online. The technical side is that you are working with a surface that is made to get wet all the time. That means a mistake can be very costly if it is done wrong. It also means that you can either be working on a kitchen or bathroom, or you may have walls and whole homes to design. Tile comes in thousands of colors, shapes, and sizes. You can also custom cut your tile so that you can even do portraits or pictures in tile. There is no limit to what you can create with tile.
Now the question is, how much do you make as an installer? That will depend on several factors. Where you are, what is your skill level, and how good is your work? There are many flooring installers that may get $3 to $5 a foot to install and finish a wood floor. If you are doing custom boarders, mixing species, and applying an oil finish, you may be in the $15 to $20 range. The same can be said for tile. You may do a basic floor installation at $10 a foot, or you may do a herringbone pattern with a boarder and mosaic tile in the center and tile on an accent wall for $20 to $30 a foot. There is no set number, and it will always depend on your market and what you can provide for your customer. The better and more skilled you are, the better and higher profit you can ask for.
Great installers are hard to come by. Doing the right thing and getting trained and working with other installers will help you immensely. It also won’t put you into years of debt like a four-year run of college. Many times, you can work for other professionals and get paid to learn and work. It is an occupation that you can feel pride in doing and creating something that others will enjoy for years. You will always have work. It may be slow at times as with any trade in areas, but it will always be needed. The better you are, the more likely you won’t see slow times. There have been many installers that work for years, and then retire and have enough put aside to do whatever they have wanted to do.
