You might not know a Costen floor when you see one. But you've probably stood on one somewhere, some time.

Costen Floors has done big jobs (Siegel Center) and small ones (a 4by 4-foot closet). And it has done some prestigious jobs, too, both public (Virginia's Executive Mansion) and private (Dave Matthews' recording studio).

When Costen Lumber Co. began in 1948, it was a small hardwood flooring contractor with 10 employees. Back then, the flooring industry was a mere sliver of what it is now.

"Then, the builder would have their carpenters put the floor in," company president Ralph Costen Jr. said. "Around 1956, Dad changed all that by using our own crews to install floors."

Now named Costen Floors, the company has more than a hundred employees and offers any manner of flooring, from ceramic tile to hardwood to carpet. It also has skilled employees to install the flooring.

The company has become the choice of many contractors and builders.

"We've used others in the past, but we've eliminated them," says David Owen, president of Boone Homes, a Richmond-based residential construction company.

Boone has used Costen Floors "since day one," Owen said.

"They show up when they say they are. They do what they say they're going to do, and they do it for a reasonable price," Owen said. "And they stand behind their product 100 percent."

But don't expect Costen Floors to change much later this year when the family hands off the title of president to the third generation -- Ralph "Tripp" Costen III.

"When I was little, and Dad was running the show, Granddad called the shots," said Tripp Costen, 34, currently the company's vice president.

Ralph Costen Jr. "is my father, and he's my boss, and it will be that way until he dies," Tripp said.

"But Tripp runs the show," his father said.

. . .

Costen Floors is a family business in the strictest sense, with command passing from father to son to grandson. But that isn't all.

Ralph Costen and his son, Ralph II, married strong, smart women who have played significant roles in the company's operations.

"Some say Mom was the backbone of the business," Ralph Jr. said of his mother, Anne. "And there are people who contend that my wife, Marsha, is the backbone of the company now. I might dispute that."

Marsha Costen is the company's treasurer.

Ralph Jr., 60, remembers that his mother, not his father, dispatched crews to install their flooring for customers.

"She was legally blind," Tripp said. "She took a cab to work every day."

She died in 1980. Ralph Sr. died in 1991.

The family spirit has kept the business going through economic downturns in 1974, in 1989 through 1992 and in 2008.

Instead of implementing layoffs, the company pulled together and cut work hours to four days a week. Everyone held onto their jobs.

The measures seem to work for all concerned. For instance, employees stay an average of 17½ years.

The company also has survived to expand, which it did in 2000 when it merged with American Floors, a company affiliate that brought carpet, ceramic tile, vinyl flooring along with wallpaper and window treatments.

The merger increased the company's space needs, spurring a consolidation in 2000 of the company's then location in the Shops at Wellesley and a warehouse on Telegraph Road into a new showroom on Mayland Drive in western Henrico County. The new facility is more than double the combined size of its previous two operations.

. . .

Even though Costen Floors is a homegrown company, the Costens believe that corporate social responsibility is just as important for them as it is for large corporations.

"Instead of doing 85 charities and giving them all a hundred dollars, we chose just a few," Ralph Sr. said. "That way, we make a larger impact."

Perhaps you've heard of Costen Court? That's the colloquial term for the basketball court at Virginia Military Institute's Cameron Hall arena. Costen Floors donated the flooring.

Needle's Eye Ministries and the American Heart Association also are recipients of the company's generosity.

And for the last two years, Costen Floors has been a high level sponsor for the International Hospital for Children's biggest fundraising event.

"They came on board last year for our Treasures in Paradise auction," said President Susan Rickman, noting that Costen's gifts have done much to offset the cost of holding the event.

In good times or bad, the Costens believe that corporate social responsibility is essential to the company's mission.

"Those values are the reasons we're successful today," Ralph Jr. said. "Not because we put in a good floor at a reasonable cost."