POCATELLO — Wall 2 Wall Flooring is celebrating 100 years in business. Pocatello Lumber Company was founded in 1923 by Charles H. and Hanna Marie Bohrer in Pocatello. The company became the leading supplier of building materials in Pocatello. Pocatello Lumber also provided coal to the community when almost all furnaces — home and business — were fired by coal.

Charles’ and Hanna’s two sons, Robert S. (Bob) and Edward F. (Ed) Bohrer, joined the company after both served in World War II. Robert left the Company in the mid-1950s to pursue other interests in Omaha, Nebraska and Atlanta, Georgia, but he continued to contribute to the growth of the company. Ed Bohrer assumed the role of president in the early 1960s. Prior to that, Ed established Lumber Dealers Supply Inc., which wholesaled building materials to lumber companies serving the smaller communities in Eastern Idaho. Under Ed’s leadership, in the mid-1960s, Pocatello Lumber Company evolved into the do-it-yourself home improvement business, under the name B-Mart Home Improvement Centers. During the 1960s, additional home centers were built in Idaho Falls and in Ogden, Utah.

B-Mart stores included a carpet department from their inception. Initially, carpet was a do-it-yourself item: The pre-padded carpet was cut from rolls of carpet from the showroom floor. Customers self-installed it in their homes using double-faced carpet tape. By the early 1970s, the carpet department had evolved into a full-service flooring operation and had become the biggest department in the store — even bigger than the lumber department.

In 1989, B-Mart Home Improvement Centers became Wall 2 Wall Flooring with flooring taking over the entire showroom spaces.

During that same year, William (Bill) and Deborra (Deb) Bohrer, representing the third generation, started Wall 2 Wall Commercial Flooring, to serve commercial customers. W2W Commercial has grown steadily and now has offices in Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Boise, Ogden, Salt Lake City, San Diego and St. George.

Bill assumed the role of president of Wall 2 Wall and Wall 2 Wall Commercial in the mid-1990s, and the enterprise continues to grow and succeed.