Costen Floors, Inc.

Looking for a dependable company you can rely on to install your commercial floor? Well, your search is over! Costen Floors, Inc. is a fully licensed company established in 1948 to serve Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Washington D.C. With over sixty years in the business, you know we must be experienced and dependable! Our specialty is athletic and hardwood floors as well as tile, wood, and carpet flooring. We accept commercial, industrial, and residential projects. Contact us now and we'll show you what quality truly means!

In 1948 when Costen Floors, Inc. was founded by Ralph L. Costen, Sr., the flooring business was very different than it is today. All homes and most businesses had hardwood flooring. The reason was simple, most financial institutions and federally insured home mortgages required homes to have hardwood floors because of their structural longevity. In the mid-1960’s the federal government changed the rules to also allow FHA/VA home mortgages to apply to homes with carpet over a wood underlayment floor. The financial rule-change triggered the explosion in flooring options that we enjoy today.

Costen Floors competed with the other flooring materials for over two decades by concentrating on hardwood flooring, offering a variety of woods and flooring styles while keeping the price competitive with less expensive flooring alternatives. In the process, Costen Floors, Inc. became the largest hardwood flooring dealer in Virginia. However, by the late 1980s, many of the carpet and tile dealers started entering the hardwood floor business. Costen Floors owner, Ralph L. Costen, Jr. decided what was good for the goose was good for the gander.

In May, 2000 the new Costen Floors showroom opened at 9840 Mayland Drive in the West End behind the West Park Shopping Center. Costen Floors then expanded the business to include all facets of flooring not just hardwood. The 30,000 square foot brick facility allows customers building or remodeling a home or commercial facility to have one location to find a huge selection of hardwood, ceramic tile, laminate, carpet, vinyl, and marble. Costen notes, "Our work is found in the Virginia Museum of Fine arts, the VCU Siegel Center and thousands of homes around Richmond that are the personal showplaces for those particular customers. 

The family legacy continues today with Ralph (Tripp) L. Costen, III. Tripp joined the company full time in 1997 as a helper/mechanic after spending summers during his high school years working part time for the family business. In 2001 Tripp moved into the roll of salesman and then to Vice President in 2006. He now overseas the company as its President since 2011.

Combining all of their product lines and workers under one roof has also made it easier for customers to understand that Costen Floors is much more than oak hardwood these days. While the Richmond home buyer will probably never abandon their desire for oak flooring, some recent Costen jobs have included bamboo and other exotic woods. They are also finding people using the larger, more decorative ceramic tile in non-traditional spaces, such as for flooring in screened porches and throughout kitchens. The new laminate flooring is also replacing vinyl in many of its traditional places, like utility rooms, where the laminate provides moisture resistance and superior durability needed in a utility room, yet have the look of wood, stone or other materials that vinyl just can’t match. It is more expensive though, so many people still use the popular, low maintenance vinyl flooring. If you’ve seen it or can imagine it, they probably stock it, or can get it and have it professionally installed in your personal showplace. 

We have our family name and over 60 years of experience and reputation that stand behind our products and work. The secret to our success has been the value statement my father used to run this company and instilled in me, “do quality work for a fair price and the customers will come”.