Mistakes to Avoid with Commercial and Public Space Carpeting

Flooring is something that most public space managers find themselves dealing with mainly when there are problems involving maintenance and safety issues or cleaning problems. As a matter of fact, the real costs of flooring are a lot higher than most people realize. Unsafe flooring can be a public liability issue, and even basic maintenance can cost a fortune in time, as well as money. There are some fundamental mistakes to avoid when selecting and installing flooring, and they’re mainly to do with selection of types of flooring and quality issues.


Photo: Shandi-lee

Flooring basics- The big mistakes
The wrong choice of carpet means trouble for building managers, by definition. Commercial and public space flooring takes a real battering. These surfaces naturally degrade over time, and can deteriorate into real eyesores if they become damaged. Damaged surfaces can also become serious risk management issues in public areas.

These are the typical high cost factors in carpeting mistakes:

• Quality- Some common types of flooring, notably cheap old style commercial carpets, are virtual black holes in terms of cost. If they’re used in large areas, the problems expand, particularly in high traffic areas. Low quality does mean low standards of performance.

• Maintenance- Some types of flooring, particularly if they’ve deteriorated, are real horror stories in terms of costs for maintenance. With some types of flooring, particularly broadloom carpeting, the repair work can involve expensive, time consuming work which may make the area unusable during maintenance.

• Cleaning- It’s inevitable that stains appear on floor surfaces, particularly carpets. This isn’t the cleaners’ fault. Quite the opposite, commercial cleaners are extremely conscious of the quality of their work, and will make every effort to ensure cleaning is done thoroughly. The real problem is the flooring material, which if low grade simply soaks up stains and can’t really be cleaned in these cases.

• Health- Following on from the cleaning issues, health issues can arise with low grade flooring. Carpets can absorb a lot of grit, pollen, and other biological materials tramped in from outside. Unless the flooring is of high quality, even full carpet restoration may not deal with these issues effectively.

• Cost- There are a lot of different types of commercial flooring on the market, including name brands of carpet with price tags to match. It’d be nice to think that the price accurately reflected the quality of the carpets, but the truth is that these carpets are obsolete. They have the same problems as inferior grade carpets in that their basic construction is still the same old broadloom with the same old problems. They cost more than the new modular carpets, and can’t perform to the same standards.

The solution to carpet problems- Quick, technologically advanced and cost-efficient
Best practice in commercial flooring is now to replace old carpets with the new modular carpet tile systems. These are true designer long-life products, extremely reliable, hard wearing, and without the problems of the other types of carpeting. They can be literally tailored in terms of design, colour schemes and textures, even for multiple environments. If you’re looking for solutions to carpeting issues, these are the answers.