Fit for purpose flooring solutions – Fundamentals to getting it right

Selection of a suitable flooring solution is far more complex than just looking at aesthetics – and this is where so many mistakes are made in construction or renovation sites regularly. The floor is and always will be the part of any structure that is always under continuous, fluctuating demands yet it doesn’t get given the attention or thought it needs – often resulting in failures or lifespan issues and in turn, unwanted additional costs.

“The floor is fundamentally the “operational” space of all buildings and needs to be able to deal with the requirements placed on it. It doesn’t help if your floor looks fantastic and adds to the aesthetic appeal of a space – but doesn’t cope with the rigours and demands of that space” argues Louis Visser, Product Manager for Mapei South Africa. “Selecting a suitable flooring solution requires extensive investigation and consideration, especially within an industrial flooring space” he adds.

Many variables need to be considered when considering flooring solutions and neglecting to do so could compromise all efforts leading to unhappy customers or building owners and applicators carrying the costs. In order to make sure that the selected option is suitable, its vital to work through a basic requirement criterion which includes:

• UV Stability – The South African environment is harsh, especially UV light and its impact on flooring cannot be underestimated especially with colour fade leading to inconsistencies on the applied floor.
• Chemical Resistance – how the floor will hold up against exposure to chemicals which will be used in that environment.
• Abrasion resistance – One needs to consider what machinery/ equipment is going to be operating on the floor, and how it will stand up to consistent pressure through movement on its surface.
• Impact resistance – How would the floor hold up to sudden impacts on it from people or machinery operating in the space.
• Lifespan – Flooring is costly, especially industrial flooring in large spaces – whichever solution is selected needs to have a suitable lifespan to suit the customer’s needs.
• Budget – This is imperative as any project has a budget and whichever solution is chosen needs to work within the budget of the owner/ developer.
• Maintenance – It is often forgotten that a floors costs doesn’t end once its applied. A well-kept floor always needs maintenance and this needs to be factored in.

“The above points are vital for consideration and agreement from both the applicator and the end user or homeowner. Often, we get to sites where problems occur to find a disgruntled end user arguing that the applicator never informed them or advised them about the various considerations” adds Jacobus Pretorius, Technical Services Manager for Mapei South Africa. “Decisions are made based on budget or aesthetics alone leading to unfortunate situations which can be avoided if the proper time and care is taken before any decisions or solutions are committed to in the flooring process to consider all alternatives and technical requirements which should be a standard practice in the industry, but unfortunately aren’t.”

“As a leading flooring solutions provider in the market MAPEI places great emphasis on ensuring the applicators who use our products are properly trained in applying our products, but also in making sure that the solutions selected is fit for use in any space. We further back this up by providing full technical support in assisting with solutions selection and making sure the job is done right, the first time” claims Jacobus.