- Contents
- *Scope and Themes
- What you need to know
- Definition
- Data sources
- Sales data
- Consumer survey data
- Abbreviations and terms
- Abbreviations
- Terms
What you need to know
The $22 billion residential flooring industry, hit hard by the recession, regained some momentum in 2012 and picked up steam in 2013, driven by continued improvement in the housing and home renovation markets and in the economy as a whole. Prospects for further growth look good as consumers continue to renovate their homes and upgrade their flooring. While simply upgrading old or worn flooring continues to drive some flooring purchases, increasingly a variety of lifestyle-oriented motivations are coming into play as well. Shoppers are looking for flooring that not only makes their homes look good but also makes their lives easier, and their homes healthier, more energy efficient, and more eco-friendly.
Definition
Residential flooring is defined as any floor covering used for private residences. This report excludes commercial/public flooring purchases.
The report covers the following flooring types:
Wall-to-wall carpeting
Carpet tiles
Ceramic floor and wall tile
Stone and marble flooring
Hardwood flooring
Vinyl sheet and floor tile
Laminate flooring
Rubber flooring
Linoleum
Area rugs
The report covers products that homeowners buy and/or install for themselves, as well as products installed for consumers by professional homebuilders, contractors, and management companies in advance of or following the sale of a residence.
This report builds on the analysis presented in Mintel’s Residential Flooring – US, April 2013, as well as the March 2012, July 2011, and August 2010 reports of the same title.
Value figures throughout this report are at rsp (retail selling prices) excluding sales tax unless otherwise stated.
Sales data
Market Size: based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies; US Census Bureau, American Housing.
Consumer survey data
For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer research through GMI to explore consumer purchase of and attitudes toward residential flooring. Mintel was responsible for the survey design, data analysis, and reporting. Fieldwork was conducted in February 2014 among a sample of 2,000 adults aged 18+ with access to the internet.
Mintel selects survey respondents so that they are proportionally balanced to the entire US adult population based on the key demographics of gender, age, household income, and region. Mintel also slightly oversamples, relative to the population, respondents that are Hispanic or Black to ensure an adequate representation of these groups in the survey results. Please note that Mintel surveys are conducted online and in English only. Hispanics who are not online and/or do not speak English are not included in the survey results.
While race and Hispanic origin are separate demographic characteristics, Mintel often compares them to each other. Please note that the responses for race (White, Black, Asian, Native American, or other race) will overlap those that also are Hispanic, because Hispanics can be of any race.
In addition to quantitative consumer research, Mintel also conducted an online discussion group among a demographically mixed group of adults aged 18+. This discussion group was asynchronous (ie not run in real time), functioning like a blog or bulletin board, with questions remaining posted for a predetermined period of time. This method allows participants to respond reflectively, at their leisure, or to log off to think about any issues raised, and return later to respond. Participants were recruited from GMI’s online consumer panel with responses collected in February 2014. All quotes are included verbatim, and as such, include typos and other grammatical errors as they originally appeared.
Abbreviations
The following is a list of abbreviations used in this report:
| CEO | Chief Executive Officer |
| CPI | Consumer Price Index |
| CRI | Carpet and Rug Institute |
| DIY | Do it yourself |
| VOC | Volatile organic compound |
| PET | Polyethylene terephthalate |
| R&D | Research and development |
| rsp | Retail selling price |
Terms
Generations, if discussed within this report, are defined as:
| World War II/Swing generations | Members of the WWII generation were born in 1932 or before and are aged 82 or older in 2014. Members of the Swing Generation were born between 1933 and 1945 and are aged 69-81 in 2014. |
| Baby Boomers | The generation born between 1946 and 1964. In 2014, Baby Boomers are between the ages of 50 and 68. |
| Generation X | The generation born between 1965 and 1976. In 2014, Gen Xers are between the ages of 38 and 49. |
| Millennials* | Born between 1977 and 1994, Millennials are aged 20-37 in 2014. |
| iGeneration | Born between 1995 and 2007, members of iGen are aged 7-19 in 2014. |
| Emerging generation | The newest generation began in 2008 as the annual number of births declined sharply with the recession. In 2014 members of this as-yet-unnamed generation are younger than 7. |
* also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers
In order to provide an inflation-adjusted price value for markets, Mintel uses the CPI to deflate current prices. The CPI is defined as follows:
| CPI | The Consumer Price Index is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. The CPI and its components are typically used to adjust other economic series for price changes and to translate these series into inflation-free dollars. Examples of series adjusted by the CPI include retail sales, hourly and weekly earnings, and components of the national income and product accounts. In addition, and in Mintel reports, the CPI is used as a deflator of the value of the consumer’s dollar to find its purchasing power. The purchasing power of the consumer’s dollar measures the change in the value to the consumer of goods and services that a dollar will buy at different dates. The CPI is generally the best measure for adjusting payments to consumers when the intent is to allow consumers to purchase, at today’s prices, a market basket of goods and services equivalent to one that they could purchase in an earlier period. It is also the best measure to use to translate retail sales into real or inflation-free dollars. Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics definition. |
