50 years of Family Business at East Windsor Floor Covering

In 1955 Abraham Block started a floor covering store in Lakewood, but by the time his three sons, Marvin, Bruce and Michael, joined him in the business a decade or so later, they saw the phenomenal growth in the East Windsor area and made the strategic decision to move to where they saw the population exploding.

The Block family moved out of Lakewood in 1972 into 2000 square feet space in the shopping center on Route 130 North that today is anchored by the . From there, the store expanded to the corner of Route 571 to the shopping center where Super Fresh stood until just last year. It was in 1988 that moved to its current location on the southbound side of Route 130, taking up 20,000 square feet of retail space, ten times its original size when it first came into town. 

“This was all potato farms around here,” said Michael Block, “but we were seeing all the farmland being over taken by new housing developments and we knew everyone would need flooring.”

The business continues to be very much a family affair more than 50 years later with the third generation now playing an active role, and that includes Michael’s own son, Joe, Marvin’s son, John, and Bruce’s daughter, Samantha Jacobs.

“In a family-owned business, you are always going to have some differences of opinion, but that’s normal and over the years, we have all learned to live with it and work together,” Michael Block said. “We are very family-oriented, and sometimes we’ll quit work and go to dinner together.

When it comes to floor covering, does it all, from working with contractors to residential and commercial work. Some of their biggest clients include First Constitution Bank in Cranbury, the East Windsor Municipal Water Company and Six Flags Great Adventure, where much of the work is done in the winter off-season.

It takes considerable staying power to remain successful for the better part of five decades, and Michael Block attributes that to the service his family provides, which he thinks is unparalleled by anyone.

“We have a team on staff. That way we know we have control over the high quality our customers have come to expect over decades,” he said. “We hand-select our carpet, wood, vinyl and ceramic technicians. My brothers and I used to do the manual labor ourselves so we know who we need to hire to get the job we want to get done with the same high quality that we would do it ourselves. There are always new products coming out and new techniques, so our technicians go to classes and stay on top of the latest with constant education.”  

carries major brands of carpet including Karastan, Masland, Fabrica and Lee’s Carpet.

“We carry quality to fit everybody’s pocketbook, for people who can’t afford very expensive carpet all the way to the high end customers,” said Block, who says his customers get the kind of understanding and service that is impossible for the big box stores to deliver.

“They’re not going to get the same kind of quality from those stores because the big box stores can’t relate to customers in the same way that people who have been in the business as long as we have can understand them. We know what our customers need and want and we know how to work with them to get the results they’re going to love.”

has established a strong reputation in the area and works hard to maintain it with traditional advertising and social media. But Block says the best advertising is always word of mouth from satisfied customers.

“People talk about us all the time,” Block said. “We’ve gotten letters on how courteous our mechanics were, how salespeople treated them and followed up. Customers also know that the owners – that’s us – are always available for them if they want to talk.”

Block says people should never underestimate the importance of good flooring.

“It’s like when you buy a car, you have to feel good about it. It’s the same thing with flooring. People come into our store and look at the hardwood flooring on our floor and the wife says that’s what I want and the husband tries to make her happy. With carpet and any kind of flooring, there are always new colors, materials and styles that come out. You have to live with it every day so you want to make sure that you love it.”