Commercial Specialty Flooring - 7 Secrets For Selecting Perfect Flooring

When choosing commercial specialty flooring in your workplace there are several important functional and design considerations to get it right. Whether you are considering natural hardwood floors, bamboo, or even laminate flooring - pay close attention to these 7 tips.

DESIGN STYLES

Commercial specialty flooring provides thousands of colors and styles to choose from. So much so that it can seem like a daunting task to make the right flooring choice. To narrow the field down it is recommended that you select a flooring style that complements your overall interior design style. Nothing will look worse that a glaring clash of styles, so make sure that any commercial specialty flooring compliments your existing (of planned) interior design.

SITUATIONAL FACTORS

Almost every commercial specialty flooring install will have physical or functional requirements that will further narrow down the scope and selection of an appropriate hardwood or laminate flooring system. Here is a brief summary of factors to consider:

FLOOR TRAFFIC EXPECTATIONS

The quantity and type of traffic you expect on your floors will impact the flooring material you can choose. Commercial specialty flooring is especially useful in high traffic areas. Laminates offer high durability, as well as wood species that have high "hardness rankings" on the Janka scale. Softer woods are generally not a good selection for high traffic areas.

SUB FLOORING

The quality of any new commercial specialty flooring installation can only be as good as the subfloor underneath. For the best outcomes, the subfloor should be dry, stable, and level. Concrete subfloors generally are only acceptable for laminate and engineered hardwood installations, but you should be mindful of installing a quality underlayment the provides an appropriate moisture barrier as well as good sound installation. Poor laminate installations will sound very hollow when walking on it.

HUMIDITY AND TEMPERATURE To prevent warping and cupping of floors (especially with wide planked hardwood flooring) make sure there is adequate ventilation and regulated temperatures thoughout the year. Laminates work best in areas that experience higher humidity levels followed by engineered hardwood boards.

The time and cost of installion is an often overlooked factor in floor selection decisions. Glueless click-style floating laminate floor systems can be a weekend project for experienced do-it-yourselfers, and can save a lot of installation labor. Other flooring installation methods are generally more complex and will require professional installation, especially when installing a high cost product, such as Maple hardwood flooring.

WARRANTY

Making a successful claim under a flooring warranty often requires that you can demonstrate that the commercial specialty flooring in question was installed exactly as per the manufactures recommendations and that the damage is not a product of wear and tear or poor workmanship. Hiring a professional installer and dealing with a large brand name product that has an established track record is your best protection. Especially when installing commercial specialty flooring over large areas of a workplace.