What questions should you ask when buying flooring for your business?

There is more than one reason why a business might need new flooring. It could be to replace floors damaged due to flooding, or it might just be part of an overall refurbishment of an office or commercial premises.

However, as with home flooring, there are lots of different materials available, so it makes sense to ask yourself these questions to ensure you get the floor type that you need.

How often will it be walked on?

The amount of traffic passing over a floor will be one of the biggest factors determining what type of material is required. If the room in which the floor is being fitted will have lots of people walking on it every day in boots or shoes, then it needs to be a hardwearing and durable material.

A good example of that would be the floor of a shop or supermarket. This will experience large volumes of traffic and will also have heavy equipment moved over it. In that situation, luxury vinyl tile (LVT) floors will be a good choice.

Where traffic is a little lower, such as in office spaces, carpet tiles will look good and offer the option of replacing individual tiles rather than the entire floor should damage occur.

How easy will it be to clean?

The floors of a business have to be cleaned even more frequently than those of a home – usually every day – so choosing ones that are quick and simple to maintain will reduce costs and save time.

This is another reason why LVT floors are great choices for commercial premises, as maintaining them is a very simple task. Both the North West of England and North Wales get a lot of rain, which means that customers bring water and mud with them, and LVT is highly resistant to water damage.

The need for low-maintenance floors is greatest for hospitality businesses. Commercial kitchens will see regular spills and tile flooring can be wiped free of grease and other stains.

What will the floors look like?

Although practicality has to be the first consideration, the floors of a business still need to fit in with the overall design scheme. Many businesses favour LTV flooring because a range of different styles, textures and shades are available.

That makes finding a floor that blends with the rest of the decor much easier.

When you are getting new floors for your business, look to a company with over 50 years of experience in fitting commercial flooring.

Report says carpets and neutral colours making comeback

According to a report by Livingetc, neutral colours and carpets are making a comeback in the bedroom.

Whilst wood and laminate flooring may be more practical in high-traffic areas, many residents of Cheshire and North Wales prefer the soft, luxury feel of a carpet, especially in the bedroom.

Interior design expert Jodie Hatton loves rooms with neutral colours such as light grey, beige or cream. She says that the texture of a carpet stops the neutral colours from appearing flat:

“Where an alternative flooring like wood or tiles might make a room feel stark and bare, a soft woven wool carpet, layered with accessories in cashmere, mohair, and linen will all work to soften a look to create an inviting space.”

There is a trend for more natural materials, which is why there is increasing demand for natural fibre carpets made from plant-based sisal or jute. These are not as soft as deep-pile carpets for bedrooms, but adding a soft or sheepskin rug adds a comforting texture to the room. Alternately, people can purchase a decent-quality wool carpet for a natural floor covering that is also exceptionally soft and comfortable.

Hard-surface floors may be easier to clean and maintain compared to carpets, but the Digital Editor of Livingetc, Hebe Hatton, said in the report that the feel of a carpet in a bedroom cannot be beaten.

A superior-quality carpet in a Chester or North Wales home, if it’s regularly vacuumed and deep cleaned at least once a year, will last a very long time.

Underwear company finds novel way to make carpets

The Nudea underwear brand has launched its “bra-cycle” scheme to recycle underwear, where material from bras is used to make carpet backing.

Every year, approximately 19 million bras are thrown away at landfill sites. Unlike most garments, there is no market for second hand underwear and charity shops rarely accept it. Over time, a bra that has been worn and washed frequently loses functionality and is thrown away.

To limit waste, Nudea is working with a recycling company to extract textiles and wire to recycle bras. Fibres are made into a pelletised material that is used in the production of many products, including carpet backing. The wire from the bras is shredded and makes washers, bolts, and nuts.

The CEO of Nudea, Priya Downes, said:

“There’s no denying the fact that underwear is one of the most polluting categories in the fashion industry, so we wanted to address this by offering a recycling scheme.”

Nudea is promoting its recycling scheme through humorous social media posts. The company is encouraging customers to think “one in, one out.” If they recycle their old bra, they receive a 20% discount on a new one.

Carpets in North Wales and Chester homes often contain recycled materials, but few will realise that they may be walking on what had once been underwear. Like Nudea, carpet manufacturers are committed to more sustainable business practices. There are recycling schemes in Cheshire and North Wales that extract materials from worn carpets to make raw materials for other products.

What are the best rooms for carpet in your home?

When it comes to picking floor surfaces for a home, people often think that the easiest solution is to have the same material in every room. In the short term that is true, but in the longer run, issues of cleaning and damage could make it an irritation.

Carpeting is a popular type of home flooring, but it is not one always suitable for every room. These are the areas where carpet tends to work best:

Bedrooms

Carpeting is an ideal floor choice for bedrooms, because it is by far the softest underfoot. This is important in a part of the home where you will often be walking about barefoot.

Carpets are also one of the most effective types of flooring for retaining heat, which again makes them a good option for bedrooms, particularly in northern areas of the UK like Chester that are prone to colder weather.

One of the biggest problems that carpets present is that they can become worn and frayed by people constantly walking on them in shoes or boots. However this is unlikely to be a major issue in a bedroom.

The living room

The living room is the home’s central hub of activity, as the name suggests. Therefore you may think that all of that footfall would make carpets a bad choice of flooring, but it isn’t quite that simple.

Many people do avoid carpets in their living rooms, because of worries about wear and tear and dirt as well as damage by pets’ claws, but this can be mitigated by choosing a high quality, dark-coloured carpet.

Carpeting offers real benefits to a living room space. As mentioned above it helps to keep the warm in, creating a cosy feel for this important room.

The landing and stairs

Carpeting tends not to the best choice for the downstairs hallway, because visitors and family members walking in and out will cause it to wear and pick up grime. It will work well for the upstairs landing between bedrooms though, where again it will provide a gentle and warm surface to walk on without shoes.

Carpet can also be a good flooring option for stairs, because it is less likely to lead to slips and falls than polished wood or vinyl.

In conclusion, these are the rooms where carpeting will work well, whereas it should be avoided when flooring kitchens and bathrooms. Speak to an experienced and reputable professional for more information.

Carpets left to fade in Turkey sun

Every summer in Döşemealtı, a Mediterranean coastal province in Antalya, Turkey, second-hand carpets are laid in fields so that the colours will fade to pastel colours under the sweltering summer sun. The carpets are usually left out in July, but due to unusually hot weather, carpet laying started in May this year.

Speaking to Hurriyet Daily News, carpet maker Can Börekçi said:

“We keep carpets in the sun for days to get rid of everything except organic root dye and wool.”

After the colours have faded, Börekçi repairs them ready for sale. The carpets are collected from a wide area, and thousands of them are laid in a large area of land known by locals as the “carpet fields”. Faded Turkish carpets are highly sort after and can cost £2,000 or more.

The Covid-19 pandemic affected carpet sales due to travel restrictions on buyers coming to Turkey. In the 2000s, about 50,000 carpets were put in the fields, but this has reduced to around 15,000.

Most people with carpets in Chester and North Wales homes prefer unfaded ones. A quality carpet will last a long time, and modern dyes are fade resistant so that colours remain vibrant.

Anyone that wants faded carpets is advised not to leave their carpets out in the garden, as the UK’s sunlight is not hot enough to fade colours, and the high rainfall the country experiences will damage the carpet. Pastel shade carpets are available for those who don’t want deeper coloured carpets.