Buying Wood Flooring for Your Business
There are a handful of attributes which commercial flooring simply has to have, For a start, it has to be hard wearing, as it receives a lot of foot traffic and needs to be able to stand up to the almost constant wear. Whilst there are some business environments which are much more hectic than others – offices and shop floors spring to mind – most businesses do have a need for strong and durable commercial flooring.
It also has to be attractive. If you are running a business, you need to make sure that it is always visually appealing, for both employees and prospective clients and customers. This is why hard wood flooring is such a popular choice for commercial environments. It is extremely tough and long lasting, but it also looks very elegant and sophisticated. The question is, how should you shop for commercial flooring to ensure that you get the best deal?
These handy tips and tricks will help you get to grips with the basics and find great hard wood flooring for your business.
Know What You Need
First things first; if you are unsure about what it is that you need or you have never tried to buy a hard wood floor before, it is probably best to speak to the experts at Carpet Connection – they can offer you helpful advice and a huge range of commercial flooring options. They can also make sure that wastage is kept to an absolute minimum; with plank floor coverings there is very little room for waste anyway, so it is a very economical choice.
Measure the Floor Space
You can get a rough approximation of how much flooring you will need by measuring the dimensions of the space an rounding the figure up to the nearest square metre – this is because most wood flooring comes in 2sq metre packs. With this number, you can then make a rough guess as to how many packs you will need to pick up. If a sales assistant tries to convince you that you need a lot more, you know to take a closer look before you buy.
Tongue or Click Lock
In most cases, you will have a choice between tongue and groove and click lock wood flooring. They both come with unique advantages, so think about which choice is best for your commercial space. Whilst tongue and groove flooring fits together in a ‘jigsaw’ fashion, with the ends of matching planks snapping together, click lock flooring has edges which require a specific action to fit them together – once they are joined, they cannot be separated easily.
Think About a Foundation
If you are planning to fit commercial flooring over a sand, cement, or concrete surface, you will need to invest in a very thick underlay. If you do not do this, you risk damp rising up through the floor and rotting the wood underneath. It will also be extremely cold on the feet and offer no insulation to the workplace. The best thing to do is ask a manufacturer or a sales representative which underlay is most suitable for the type of flooring that you have chosen.
Choosing the Right Finish
The type of finish which you choose will depend entirely on personal taste, because it does not have any impact on how strong or reliable the flooring is – this is an aesthetic decision, so you can afford to be creative and show some flair. You can ask for samples from the shop to take back with you and check out under the lighting conditions in your workspace. This is a great way to make sure that your preferred choice – oiled, lacquered, or unfinished – does actually fit with the look and feel of the environment.
To find out more about shopping for and fitting commercial flooring or to browse a fantastic range of commercial flooring options why not give us a call on 01787 311 223 or come down and visit Carpet Connection in store?
