Akbar Dehghani and his wife, Farah (both pictured in center) celebrate with other members of the community at the July 2017 FAMM Floor Covering ribbon-cutting ceremony (submitted photos).

by Joseph Haney

Akbar Dehghani has more than 30 years of experience with flooring and carpeting installation to pass on to his customers.

“This is my passion,” he said. “I love doing this.”

FAMM Floor Covering began in 2010 with Dehghani running the business from his northern Virginia home. The name is an acronym for Dehghani’s family: F for his wife Farah, A for Akbar, and the two Ms for their sons Mehdi and Milad.

During a trip to Lake Anna in 2015 with Farah, Dehghani began to think about relocating the business to Louisa County.

“As a carpet installer, clients from Washington, D.C., northern Virginia, and southern Maryland hired me to come down here and put carpet in their homes,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘You know what? There’s [no flooring store] around here. That’s what I want to do. I’m going to bring the business down here.”

Over the next couple of years, he and his wife began coming to Lake Anna and started networking with local real estate offices and meeting with members of the Lake Anna Business Partnership. In June of 2017, Dehghani leased space on Main Street in the town of Louisa and opened his store.

“We started slowly, and to this day a lot of people don’t know about us, but we did get some foot traffic,” he said.

In an effort to help expand the business, Dehghani relocated to Mineral, leasing space at 78 Davis Highway for a new showroom. The business opened in the new space in September.

FAMM Floor Covering offers a variety of flooring options to customers, from carpet to hardwood to laminate to vinyl. Dehghani doesn’t install the flooring himself, using installers from northern Virginia. He offers a lifetime warranty on labor.

“We’re so sure of our workmanship, we know something’s going to go wrong, but we will come out and take care of it,” he said.

In addition to selling and installing flooring, FAMM also offers a variety of services, including carpet reseaming and restretching, in-home consultations, and asbestos removal. Dehghani does the asbestos removal himself and is certified through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“Customer service is number one in our book,” he said. “If [customers] aren’t happy in this town, word of mouth will let people know.”

Dehghani lives in northern Virginia with Farah and commutes to Mineral five days a week to run FAMM. Farah, who works as a teacher in Fairfax County, occasionally comes with him to help.

“My plan is to stay here,” he said. “I don’t plan to go anywhere, because my goal is to settle down here.”

For more information about FAMM Floor Covering, visit their website at www.fammfloors.com.

This article originally appeared in The Central Virginian. Reprinted with permission.