Commercial flooring, specified for downtime and maintenance

Traffic and use survey

The specification starts with how the space is actually used — footfall, wheeled traffic, point loads, chemical exposure, wet areas, and whether the floor sees grit from an entrance. Different zones in one building often need different products.

Watch for: One product specified across an entire building. An entrance matting zone, a back-of-house kitchen and an open-plan office have genuinely different requirements, and treating them as one space is how the entrance fails first.

Slip resistance and compliance review

Wet areas, entrances, ramps and kitchens are assessed for slip performance, and accessibility requirements around thresholds, transitions and level changes are checked before a product is chosen.

Watch for: Slip performance treated as a marketing claim rather than a tested property. Ask for the manufacturer's published test data for the specific product, and ask how the surface performs once it has been cleaned with the chemicals your contractor actually uses.

Slab moisture and substrate testing

Commercial work is overwhelmingly over concrete, much of it on grade. Moisture emission and surface pH are tested, and where readings are high a moisture mitigation coating is specified before any adhesive goes down.

Watch for: Testing skipped because the slab is old. Age reduces the risk but does not remove it, particularly where the original vapour barrier is unknown or the site drainage has changed. Adhesive failure across a whole floor is the most expensive avoidable outcome in this trade.

Phasing and access planning

The programme is built around when the space can be released — zone by zone, overnight, or during a shutdown. Materials with fast return-to-service are often chosen specifically to compress this.

Watch for: A programme that assumes empty rooms. Furniture moving, IT disconnection and reinstatement are real line items and real hours, and they are commonly assumed rather than priced.

Preparation and removal

Existing covering and adhesive are removed and the slab is ground and, where needed, levelled. On occupied sites this is the dustiest and noisiest stage and drives most of the containment planning.

Watch for: Grinding scheduled during occupied hours. Silica dust containment on an occupied commercial site is a planning matter, not something to improvise around a live business.

Installation and welding

Sheet goods are seamed and often heat-welded for a continuous, cleanable surface; tile and plank products are laid to a set-out that puts cuts out of sightlines. Coving is fitted where a cleanable wall junction is required.

Watch for: Unwelded seams in a food-preparation or healthcare area. Where the specification calls for a hygienic continuous surface, an unwelded seam defeats the point of choosing the material.

Handover, maintenance regime and documentation

Handover should include the initial maintenance requirement, the cleaning chemicals the warranty permits, and the moisture and installation records. Some floors need an initial period before wet cleaning.

Watch for: No maintenance specification handed over. Cleaning contractors will use what they always use, and the wrong chemical or pad on a new floor can void the warranty inside the first month.