When choosing commercial flooring, there are a lot of factors you’ll need to consider. Discover how to choose the right floor for your business here
Written by: Yarl ChristiePublished on: January 31, 2020
Things to Consider when Choosing a Floor for Your Business
Searching for a high-quality, stylish floor for your business? When choosing commercial flooring, there are a lot of factors you’ll need to consider. The floor you choose for your company will make a huge difference not only to how it looks, but how it performs too.
To help you ensure you choose the best floor for your company, below you’ll discover the top things to consider.
Durability
One of the key features every commercial floor needs to have is exceptional durability. Compared to domestic flooring, it’s going to be exposed to much higher levels of foot traffic. This can pose a lot of problems for standard floors in terms of wear and tear.
You’ll want to make sure you invest in floors which come with a lengthy commercial warranty. The typical warranty period for commercial spaces can vary from 5 through to 30 years. The longer the warranty, the more durable the floor is going to be.
Some of the best types of flooring which offer excellent durability within commercial spaces include luxury vinyl tiles and engineered wood.
Design
The design of the floor is another top thing to consider. There are hundreds of different designs on offer when you’re looking at luxury vinyl, laminate or engineered wood. Therefore, you’ll need to consider the business environment you’ll be installing it into.
The floor should blend in with the rest of your décor. It should also accurately reflect your brand. For example, if your business operates in a more formal setting, it will benefit most from parquet style flooring or engineered wood for a more luxurious finish. If the business has a more casual approach, laminate and luxury vinyl designs could be better suited. Karndean and Amtico flooring is a great option as these floors last for years. A lot of companies opt for the Karndean Opus range.
You may also like to mix and match different designs to create a more unique flooring solution. Many manufacturers allow you to mix and match between their range to produce beautiful yet unusual designs.
Maintenance
You’re also going to want to think about how much time you want to spend maintaining the floor. If you’re looking for something easy to maintain, luxury vinyl or laminate would be the best options. Luxury vinyl in particular is well suited to commercial spaces as it’s the easiest to maintain. You’ll just need to give it a daily vacuum and a weekly mop, or daily if your business deals with a lot of foot traffic.
Engineered wood can be easy to maintain, although it would largely suit individual offices and quieter areas.
Installation
Similarly, you’ll need to take into account how much time and money you have to spend on installation. If you’ll be installing carpets, solid or engineered wood flooring, these are slightly more difficult to install. Luxury vinyl and laminate on the other hand, tends to come with a click system which makes them easier to install.
So, if you’re looking to save the most money, install laminate or luxury vinyl flooring yourself. Or, if you want carpet, solid or engineered wood flooring, it might be better to invest in professional installation.
Noise levels
Pay attention to noise levels when you’re choosing flooring for your business. If it tends to have high levels of foot traffic each day, you’re going to want to invest in a floor with great sound absorption qualities.
Solid and engineered wood tend to absorb sound quite well. However, you’ll also find many luxury vinyl and laminate floors are also constructed with noise reduction in mind. You can further enhance their sound absorption benefits by adequately preparing the subfloor and installing a noise reduction underlay.
Health and safety
In business, health and safety is extremely important. Therefore, the floor that you choose should be designed with safety in mind. Slip resistance is one thing to pay attention to here. Different types of floors offer differing levels of slip resistance. Our floors com with slip resistance ratings varying from R9 through to R11.
Another safety feature to look out for, is emissions. Some floors release toxic emissions into the air. However, you’ll mostly find modern flooring solutions are designed to reduce, if not eliminate these emissions altogether.
Sustainability
Finally, sustainability is becoming a major focus for businesses today. So, when choosing your new commercial floor, it’s worth looking for an eco friendly floor that’s kind on the environment. Most the big brands in the industry use sustainable manufacturing processes to reduce their impact on the environment. You can also look out for floors that are 100% recyclable.
As you can see, there are a lot of things to think about when you’re choosing a new floor for your business. The above are the most important factors to consider. At Stories Flooring, we supply a vast collection of commercial floors, designed to the highest standards. You can also give our friendly team a call to discuss your requirements in order to help you find the most compatible flooring solution.