Offices and Co-working

Four things, in order of how often they cause a complaint.

Absorb the sound of walking. In an open plan office the floor is a large hard surface between people and the slab. Footfall and chair movement are the noise colleagues mention first.

Survive chairs. Five-point castors rolling eight hours a day are harder on a surface than a hundred pairs of shoes.

Hide the walk line. The route from the lift to the kitchen gets the same traffic every day for ten years.

Be cleanable by a contractor who has twenty minutes. Everything else is decided by these four.

Two measurements matter and they are frequently mixed up.

Impact noise, measured as ΔLw, is what the floor does to the sound of walking. Our wall to wall flooring uses a 3.0 mm PVC foam backing and cuts impact noise by 22 dB (ΔLw, BS EN ISO 140-8). This is the number to specify when a meeting room sits above a quiet space.

Airborne absorption, measured as αw, is what the surface does to sound already in the room. Woven vinyl is dense and absorbs little. Our acoustic modular range tests at αw 0.05, not classified to EN ISO 354. Open plan offices are usually treated with acoustic ceilings, screens and soft furniture, and the floor is not the instrument for that job.

Being clear about the second point protects the project. A client who buys a floor expecting it to fix a reverberant room will complain about the floor, not the ceiling.

The usual mistake is to run a hard floor through the whole plate for a consistent look, then add rugs to fix the acoustics. The consistent result costs less to maintain when the zoning is decided at design stage instead.

Refurbishment in occupied offices happens in phases, at weekends, one zone at a time.

Tiles make that practical. One damaged tile is lifted and replaced between Friday evening and Monday morning, and a tenant change that adds a kitchenette to one corner does not require a new floor for the whole plate. Roll goods give fewer seams and a more continuous surface, which reads better in a reception area where the floor is seen as a single plane.

A minimum roll width of 200 cm (±1%, EN 426) covers most office widths without a lengthways seam, and wider or exceptional widths can be discussed on request.

Two properties do most of the work.

Solution-dyed colour runs through the yarn, so cleaning and traffic do not take colour off the surface. Two-tone yarn gives the grain of a natural fibre and hides small marks better than a flat shade, which is what the walk line needs.

One expectation to set at sample stage: woven vinyl is not identical metre to metre. The two-tone yarn produces subtle variation across a roll, and that variation is what makes the surface read as textile rather than as print. Designers usually want it once they see it in a full-size sample.

• CE marking to EN 14041
• Declaration of Performance for the product supplied
• Reaction to fire classification to EN 13501-1, for the product and backing
• REACH statement, plus restricted substances reports where the tenant requires them
• Colour fastness to BS EN ISO 105-B02 and 105-B04
• Impact noise test report where the specification calls for it
• Cleaning and maintenance schedule, and the installation document with substrate requirements

Stock qualities ship in 2 to 3 weeks and carry no minimum order, which suits a phased fit-out. Unique designs made to your own specification start at 1000 m² and take 4 to 6 weeks. Samples are free of charge, with the courier at your cost.