Bob Taylor’s Carpet One Floor and Home had good cause to celebrate last week as the Opp staple marked 50 years in the floor covering business this month.

The now strictly floor covering business, located on Cummings Avenue in the city of opportunity, didn’t start out as a flooring store at all. In fact, Bob Taylor’s Home Services sold paint, chain link fences, screened awnings, shower doors and torginol chip floors at schools.

Bob Taylor’s Vice President Deuce Taylor — son of original owner Bob Taylor — said he credits the store’s success to his father.

“Naturally, it’s my dad,” Taylor said. “He’s always just been fair and honest. He never tried to get rich quick. If there was a problem, it was his fault. He always took care of it.

“That’s the same way we still try to approach it now,” he said.

Bob started out in the flooring business when he came home from serving in the U.S. Navy, working for Bob Schafer. After working one year for Liberty National as an insurance salesman, the elder Taylor bought Schafer out and soon Bob Taylor’s Home Services was born on April 7, 1965.

Taylor said the business grew significantly, and by the early 1970s, its identity changed to a floor covering business. In fact, it became Bob Taylor’s Carpet One in 1996 when it joined a co-op, called CCA America, which gives the business access to several different types of floor.

Because Bob did a lot of work away from the store, many of his employees stole from him, nearly causing the business to go broke.

“He got rid of the fence crews, doing awnings and paint, and went strictly to floor covering,” Taylor said. “He started over, basically.”

Over the years, as the business did well, the store grew in size. Bob Taylor’s now takes up six of the original downtown buildings.

Taylor said Zeb’s Bakery, a Bible and music store, Daughtry’s and a comfort heat and cooling store were located there.

Taylor said he has fond memories growing up around and in his dad’s store. He recalled getting stitches on his head after falling on a paint can and getting freshly made doughnuts from Zeb’s.

“Ever since I was 7 or 8, he’d sent me out with crews,” Taylor said. “I’d cut my finger. I’d always have to help around the store.”

Taylor’s father and mother (Alice) have owned Bob Taylor’s Carpet One for the past 50 years.

Taylor said in addition to his mom and dad — who deserve the credit for the business’s longevity — his employees have helped the store stay open because each have given many years of service.

“Dad’s been fortunate enough to have some good people working for him,” he said. “Lavaughn (Taylor, Bob’s cousin) has been here since the beginning. Hinton Hall been here since 1967 and 1968. Mike Carnley has been here since 1982.

“There’s a lot of loyalty,” he said. Even the girls here, knowing that they haven’t been here that long, would try to treat you like family,” he said.

Taylor said it’s a great “milestone” for his business to reach 50 years.

“There are not a whole lot of places that can say that, especially in the floor covering business,” he said. “So many people open up, close up and open up again. Dad’s never done that.”