Carpeting An Office – How To Choose The Right Commercial Flooring For You

Office floors are subjected to tremendous wear & tear, even compared to those in the home. Furniture (especially wheeled office chairs) punishes the flooring surface from 9 to 5, and all those spilled coffees, briefcase scuffs and heavy daily footfall doesn’t help either. The damage your office carpet potentially suffers day-to-day makes choosing the best floor covering one of the most important decisions when it comes to moving into a new office building or refurbishing an existing one.
On top of this, you have to balance your need for a durable flooring against the cost to your budget, and both of these against the aesthetic appeal- after all, an ugly office is a less pleasant working environment, unwelcoming to staff, clients and visitors. The importance of maintaining an attractive & professional-appearing workplace is reflected in the evidence for increased productivity and better team cohesion in more welcoming and cheerfully decorated workplaces.
Despite the many criteria sought after in choosing a commercial carpet suitable for offices, there are a wide range of choices available- but understanding your specific requirements can help steer you toward the best choice.

Ease Of Cleaning

We understand an office may not require the same clinical attention to hygiene as a hospitality or catering driven business, yet you need to ensure your workplace is well maintained and clean at all times. Will your carpet be cost effective to clean routinely, or intensively if required? Does pollen and allergens risk collecting on the surface? Does the area include, or is it immediately accessible from, a kitchen? Are staff required to eat at their desks? Does outside landscaping invite the risk of mud being tracked inside?

The Furniture

Wheeled office chairs need a good level of grip to work, but at the same time many companies seek to find a route away from bland office carpeting- the need for a modern appearance invites opportunities to open up interiors and create bright, sleek office spaces with alternative surfaces and innovative furniture. The increased use of digital workspaces, laptops and versatile project management means there has never been a better time to try and fresh approach to office organisation, meaning new furnishings and less dependence on thin fabric carpeting to support a wheeled chair.

The Brand

Warm & welcoming, or clean & crisp? Modern or traditional? Plush or Spartan? Your approach to your interior, and especially your carpeting, reveals a lot to your prospective or existing clients, your visitors and even your staff. That doesn’t necessarily mean decking your entire office in the most luxurious flooring will win you any new business (though it might win you some envious stares) – it means identifying the best areas to target in your office space to maximise impact. Unless your clients are likely to see your office’s kitchen, you may consider adapting your choice of flooring to suit cost, or to upgrade the carpet in a more crucial area- for instance a conference room.

Purpose

Dressing up your reception area in expensive stone flooring might seem like a great idea- after all, why not seek to make an impression from the moment people arrive? Yet while that might work in theory, imagine how attractive would it look with hundreds of muddy footprints, scratches from couriers’ sack barrows and even piled with parcels. And how underwhelming would your office look by comparison? High-traffic areas can benefit from luxury flooring, yet durability needs to be paired with aesthetic considerations in these cases.

The Budget

As mentioned above, budget is a vital factor in any office redecoration decisions. Of course every decision will be influenced, if not heavily then at least partly, by financial implications- so finding the right design at an affordable price is crucial. Like any volume-based order, finding something appropriate and cost-effective for the areas covered is vital.

You can learn more about our range of commercial flooring solutions here– we’ve provided practical, custom solutions to suit businesses all over the region. You can discover more about some of our many happy commercial flooring customers here- why not be the next one?