Danielle Posimato, Owner and President of Coastal Flooring Solutions, with her father, John Posimato.

Haviland Middle School in Hyde Park, NY, had Coastal Flooring Solutions install and polish vinyl composition tile flooring. Like luxury vinyl tile, it is a popular choice for high-traffic areas due to its durability.

Though Coastal Flooring Solutions (Coastal Flooring) Owner and President Danielle Posimato started her own company a few years ago, her industry education long precedes that.

With her father involved in flooring and construction and owning his own company, she grew up hearing the language of the business for as long as she can remember.

“Through that, I was exposed to all facets of a job—such as how one should listen to a customer’s needs, the planning, the preparation process, what should take place at a work site, how to manage project timelines with all details checked and double-checked through to completion. It was education passed on to me, with him having decades and decades of knowledge,” she says.

In 2018, Posimato decided to follow in her father’s footsteps, picked a company name, got a business license, secured insurance and went out on her own.

Coastal Flooring, based in Scarsdale, New York, completes commercial and residential projects of all sizes throughout the tri-state area of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.

Services include full flooring installations, refinishing of existing floors and preparation of floors for client projects. Coastal Flooring supplies and installs a full range of flooring surfaces such as luxury vinyl tile, carpet, athletic flooring, sheet vinyl and tile. “We do it all, including real hardwood installations in beautiful high-end patterns,” Posimato says.

The company also has showrooms in White Plains, New York, and in Danbury, Connecticut, where customers can view flooring along with other décor elements and see the full range of variety and quality of the company’s products, Posimato says.

Coastal Flooring is a Women-owned Business Enterprise (WBE). More than a badge of honor, Posimato says, the designation represents accountability standards—standards that strengthen the company by helping it build a diverse client base.

Certification Opens Doors

WBE certification programs, operated by city, county or state agencies, accept applicants who own, operate and manage at least 51 percent of a business, along with other detailed criteria. Each applicant must undergo a comprehensive vetting process, which includes document submissions, contract reviews and industry references.

Posimato welcomes the transparent accountability that the structured program demands.

“It’s a rigorous approval process to be awarded certification, with a purpose of showing your credibility as a business,” Posimato says. “These are qualities we pride ourselves on. We always strive to have that positive reputation.”

She believes so highly in the program that her company has multiple WBE certifications, in New York State, New York City, Westchester County and Connecticut.

The WBE certifications, along with other certifications Coastal Flooring has obtained—such as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Women-Owned Small Business certification—open doors to government contract work, says Posimato, where the accountability continues, with originating organizations checking to be sure it is Coastal Flooring that has performed each job, putting all contractors on a level playing field.

Variety is the Spice of Life

Certifications help make it possible for Coastal Flooring to bid on as broad a range of projects as possible, which is important to Posimato, who does not want to serve too narrow of a niche. The company has installed flooring for multifamily and mixed-use buildings, hotels, Verizon properties, Chase banks, Capital One banks, retail buildings and educational facilities such as Haviland Middle School in Hyde Park, for example.

“Serving many markets keeps the work exciting and fresh. Different projects allow us to use different materials we offer, depending on the customer’s needs, such as hardwood, ceramic tile and stone, carpet, laminate, luxury vinyl plank or athletic flooring,” she says. “It’s exciting to work on all different touchpoints of projects, too, whether starting from the beginning, middle or toward the end. It keeps it fun.”

She finds it especially rewarding to work on projects that make a difference in the community, such as a project underway now with Lettire Construction in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York.

Rockaway Village complex is an eight-building development that will include 1,700 affordable housing units and over 112,000 square feet of commercial space. The project site is an underutilized area of the city, Posimato says.

Coastal Flooring’s work on the project, where over a million square feet of flooring will be needed overall—with the construction on the third of the eight buildings underway now—began in January.

“It feels very good to be a part of something of this magnitude, making an impact in a community by helping to create affordable housing. Jobs will also be created in the community with the retail space that’s part of the project as well,” she says.

Partnering with another builder in June, Posimato looks forward to Coastal Flooring helping to meet another community need. The company will be teaming up with sister companies Broadway Builders and Hunts Point Builders LLC for over 700 units of affordable and supportive housing, or housing with services for residents to help prevent homelessness. Coastal is working on 230 units in the Bronx, with over 100 additional units in the preconstruction phases, Posimato says.

Whether installing or supplying flooring at a commercial or residential property, Coastal Flooring’s access to a large range of materials keeps it competitive in the marketplace. In this way, it can showcase its potential and help to build its reputation. Posimato says strong relationships with manufacturers and private-label flooring products give Coastal Flooring an additional edge in getting customers the materials they need quickly, at an affordable rate, under its Coastal Living brand. The brand includes luxury vinyl plank, luxury vinyl tiles and hardwood flooring.

Though Coastal Flooring is still a relatively new company, it has been doubling its revenue year after year, says Posimato, steadily building its reputation, client list and employee numbers.

The company’s 20 employees include 15 field employees comprised of four project managers who oversee work across the company’s various job sites, tasked with ensuring there are adequate materials and labor, and collaborating with general contractors’ project managers at larger work sites. In addition, five in-house employees handle functions such as bookkeeping and estimating, Posimato says.

Coastal Flooring employees who work in the field all possess safety certifications from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Manufacturers then offer various certifications and seminars, Posimato says, especially as technology evolves, allowing them to update their training in skills such as heat welding, a process used to create smooth seams in sheet vinyl flooring.

Together, Coastal Flooring’s employees—all with specific duties—help the operation succeed. “Every facet of a project is key and every member of the team helps Coastal move forward, from estimators helping us get awarded projects to installers making sure the job is done right. From the ground up, everyone must work together and have open lines of communication,” Posimato says.

She notes it is the combination of her knowledge from the family business, what she has gotten from the certification program and her strong team that has led to company success.

Learning all the While

Though Coastal Flooring is on an upward trajectory, continuous improvement is a constant company focus. In fact, Posimato says, any downtime experienced during the pandemic was spent evaluating company practices to see how improvements could be made.

“I opted to put a positive twist on that time and use any slowdown to reflect on our processes, to see where we could streamline and be more efficient,” she says. “We looked at what we’re good at and how we could maximize our strengths, charted out projects that we’re due to start and planned goals for the year ahead.”

Though she already has a master’s degree, Posimato loves to learn.

When it became clear she would be starting her own business, she completed the Entrepreneurial Training Program at the Women’s Enterprise Development Center (WEDC Westchester) in White Plains and the StarPower Leadership Development Program at the Business Council of Westchester, with these groups offering her opportunities to network with her peers and share advice, tips and insight.

Seeing more women in leadership roles specifically in the construction and flooring fields, she says, motivates her to do more and help them in any way she can.

“They help inspire me,” she says, fueling a cycle of support and company success.