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Mateflex: Base Alternative

Matéflex helps protect substructures, flooring and sensitive feet

Nestled in upstate New York is a family-owned business with a solution to your customers’ decking needs. Matéflex specializes in American-made modular flooring designed to be installed over a customer’s existing indoor or outdoor structure. “The deck itself is structurally sound, but the homeowners are tired of the look of it,” says Gabe Martini, Matéflex sales manager. “The wood dries out and it starts to splinter. They’re walking barefoot to try to get to the spa and they’re walking on this uncomfortable decking material. We can float our product right over the top of that; it’s not going to interfere with the existing structure. They can keep the investment in the wood deck they have and put our product over the top of it.”

Matéflex modular tiles don’t replace the current structure or concrete slab that supports the hot tub or the swim spa, but these 12-inch by 12-inch tiles can be trimmed to fit any size. “If the spa is indoors and the floor itself had some sort of floor drain — which would be logical with a spa in that room — then our product would float right over the existing floor,” Martini says. “Water would flow through it so you’re not going to slip and fall, and the water would run down whatever drainage system you already had in place in that environment.” There are more than a dozen colors and patterns to choose from.

One of the biggest perks for homeowners is the secure investment. “In time, if one of the supporting boards fail they would just have to unsnap the tiles that are on top, replace the damaged board, and put the tiles back down,” Martini says.

Matéflex began as a manufacturing company in 1912 but didn’t invent its first tile until 1974. The company kept adding new tiles for different applications. Its tiles are made of polypropylene, so they are extremely durable, but an additional feature helps it stand out from competitors. “Our tile is the only one in our segment of the industry that has expansion and contraction joints in it,” Martini says. “If you put plastic in the sun, it’s going to expand and contract. We engineered the expansion joints into our tiles, and that’s going to allow it to react to the environment.”

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The team at Matéflex is committed to working with local retailers without requiring a significant investment. The top question installers ask is, “What’s my investment to get started?” The answer is zero. “It’s a relatively easy product to install,” Martini says. “The tools they have on their truck already are the same tools they’ll need to install this. It’s not like they have to invest in a whole new set of tools.”

The Matéflex sales staff is cross-trained on product and installation knowledge, so one call to the company can help you find the answers you need. The team can also answer questions about product recommendations and design options for customers. Its modular tiles are only available through your business; customers can’t purchase them through big-box stores.

“[Business owners] are only going to carry a few floor samples and color selections,” Martini says. “They place the order and we drop ship it to them, so there’s no inventory requirement. All they need to have is our showroom samples, which we don’t charge for.”