Commercial Flooring

2023 Author: Douglas Hoggarth | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 20:16

Suppose you have finally grown to your own business and acquired the coveted space for your employees and office equipment. Congratulations! Most of the worries are over.

Spectacular collections of rubber flooring

Norament allows you to make your office comfortable and fun

But you feel that you can breathe calmly only when the interiors of the newly-made office take on a "human" look. The ceiling, walls and floor will no longer remind of the hard everyday life of the past owner, and the plumbing will no longer remind of his merry holidays. You are especially annoyed by the antediluvian linoleum with clearly distinguishable worn-out "paths" to the toilet and smoking room, which you want to immediately cover with something. Or destroy. And replace the floor with a new one.

And here the problem of choosing a floor covering inevitably arises. Which is better - ceramic tiles or commercial linoleum, parquet or carpet? The choice of flooring depends on many factors: the nature of the room, its size, the type of illumination and the loads that will fall on the floor play an important role. In addition, you always want to find the best price-quality ratio.

Status coatings as insignia

If you need to emphasize the status of the organization and there are funds for this, the floor can be decorated with exquisite lacquered parquet or use the now fashionable massive board soaked in oil. Deciding to take such a step, one must understand that this pleasure will require additional costs in the future.

Oil has less wear resistance than varnish, but it makes it possible to restore frayed places locally and do without scraping. But do not expect to “varnish” the damage on the varnish parquet - the new varnish will always differ in color from the old one. Therefore, to renew the surface, you will have to cycle the entire floor. In most public interiors, the presentation area is concentrated in the reception area and the director's office. It is just appropriate to cover it with "iconic" materials. And for the decoration of large rooms, the cost of parquet is unlikely to be justified.

Democratic doesn't mean bad

Using POLYFLOR English tiles in the office, you can give the room a very presentable look

A more democratic option is a commercial laminate. It, as a rule, imitates a wood pattern, is cheaper than parquet, has good wear resistance and, thanks to a sound-absorbing substrate, dampens footsteps. But the laminate does not like wet cleaning and is picky about the preparation of the base. If the concrete screed is not dry enough, over time, instead of a smooth floor, you will contemplate a creaking hilly surface.

On the floor you can put linoleum (PVC coating), and not simple, but specially designed for commercial premises. But it also needs to be protected - periodically covered with special emulsions that close the pores and prevent dirt from penetrating into the structure.

Those who do not want to burden themselves with special cares for the care of office coverings choose the new English vinyl tiles Polyflor LVT with additional polyurethane protection against pollution. Due to the special production technology, this flooring has a unique wear resistance and stands out among others with a wide palette of patterns and textures.

Imagine vinyl tile designs that imitate wood, stone, and even metal with convincing faith! Using only Polyflor LVT, you can easily zone your office area by combining wood and marble without the use of molding (a lining covering the joint).

So plump … "Flotex"

Have you decided to put furniture on wheels in your office and want all movements to be silent and the coating intact? Then it makes sense to pay attention to the novelty, which combines the best properties of carpets and commercial PVC. This fundamentally new material is called "Flotex".

To make it, polyamide threads with a length of only 2.2 mm are fused into a PVC base and a material is obtained whose density is ten times higher than that of any carpet! Due to the fact that the fibers are located strictly vertically and the villi fit tightly to each other, "Flotex" does not collect or retain dirt, it is easy to clean. If necessary, the wear-resistant "Flotex" can be cleaned even with rotary machines, which a regular carpet categorically does not tolerate.

By the way, "Flotex" is irreplaceable where frequent use of carts is required (in hotels, supermarkets, train stations).

Rubber, functional and unpretentious

Rubber flooring does not lose its elasticity over time, so no jointing is required

Recently, coatings have appeared on our market that do not require any specific maintenance, are moisture resistant, environmentally friendly and can withstand gigantic loads. We are talking about the rubber coatings of the German company Freudenberg.

Rubber coatings have high wear resistance - they practically do not wear off during use - and elasticity (comfortable springy surface). They remain unharmed by short-term exposure to solvents, dilute acids and alkalis, as well as if an un-extinguished cigarette spills on the floor.

In Europe, this "novelty" was appreciated already thirty years ago: thousands of tourists who land in Frankfurt walk on the black rubber floor every day, it is used in hotels, shops and hospitals.

So if you become the owner of an office with a large area and traffic, you should take a closer look at rubber coatings. What are they made of? Rubber coatings are made from a mixture of natural or synthetic rubber, mineral fillers, dyes. They do not contain substances hazardous to health: chlorine, formaldehyde, asbestos, cadmium and halogens. They do not have plasticizers (unlike PVC flooring), so over time, rubber floors do not lose their elasticity, so that no jointing is required.

Rubber coatings are divided into two groups: Noraplan (produced in rolls) and Norament (in the form of tiles). Norament tiles are manufactured using a high-pressure rubber vulcanization process, which makes it possible to obtain fragments of strictly consistent geometric dimensions with a thickness of 2.5–22 mm. Such tiles are superior in density to natural linoleum and PVC coating. Rolls of Noraplan are about one and a half times cheaper than tiles. They are more plastic than Norament, as they are produced by continuous rubber vulcanization.

Rubber flooring can be applied even where oil and grease is regularly spilled onto the floor. The coatings meet the most stringent fire protection requirements and are suitable for rooms where only non-combustible materials are required.

The surface of rubber coatings can be different: smooth, with a texture in the form of a round button (diameter 2.7 cm), such as corrugation, rice grain, etc. You can choose a color for every taste - from velvet black to bright light green. The standard set of coatings includes about 200 color options. Technologically, the most difficult thing is to get "acidic" shades, so the cost of bright coatings is slightly higher than calm, muted colors.

The characteristic design of rubber coatings is large and small specks, "marbled" stains. When decorating the interior, you can combine colors, designs and textures, which, of course, is convenient for delimiting individual zones in large rooms. You can depict a company logo, designate routes, and perform geometric compositions.

For specific needs

Solid steps Norament, consisting of a "nose", rise and platform, greatly facilitate and reduce the cost of updating stairs

Noraplan collections solve the problem of flooring in various specific premises.

Where special requirements are imposed on room acoustics, Noraplan Mega Elastic is used with a high sound absorption rate (up to 20 dB).

Electrically conductive collections of Noraplan Duo El and Noraplan Duo El Plus are being laid in laboratories with electrostatic sensitive electronic equipment.

There are special 9mm covers designed for high-end stables and special collections for shooting ranges with a thickness of 22mm with a ribbed bottom surface to prevent ricochet. As a rule, the Ecoplan and Ecomment series are used for this purpose. According to their properties, they are no worse than Noraplan and Norament, but they have a less bright color scheme.

There are rubber coatings for ice rinks that can withstand skate blade surfaces without damaging them.

Special non-fading collections have been developed that can be laid in passages exposed to sunlight.

Choosing rubber flooring for your office, you do not have to think about the design of flights of stairs. Freudenberg is one of the few suppliers of a complete range of stair accessories. Material for steps 1 m, 1.30 m, 1.60 and 2 m wide is attached with glue or special double-sided adhesive tape over the entire surface. With scotch tape, professionals can complete a staircase in 30-40 minutes.

Rubber floor coverings on the Russian market are also represented by Polyflor. Three new tile collections of the Elementa series have been developed, one of which imitates natural stone, the other - slate, and the third is made with a special relief that enhances anti-slip properties. Microscopic beveled corners at the edges of the tiles give the floor the impression of a “monolithic” screed!

Polyflor Elementa tiles are highly durable, 3.5mm thick helps to hide imperfections in the subfloor. Polyflor has also developed special rubber collections for staircases and stair noses.

What is hi-tech without stainless steel?

And finally, if you are a lover of the latest developments, keep up with fashion in everything and want to have an extremely durable flooring in your office, choose materials that create a high-tech atmosphere.

The floor (and walls!) In your office can be decorated with super-technological ceramic tiles with a thin steel plate as a top layer (the Spin collection by Hoba Steel). The geometric designs of this collection are very refined and laconic: you can choose a perfectly smooth surface or textured one, with a pattern in a small square, a rare speck or with small oval protrusions.

Such tiles will not wear out forever, and the sun glare playing on the surface will create a radiant atmosphere of cleanliness and order, so necessary for fruitful work.