Flooring that requires less maintenance and is easy to clean
August 1st 2004

Sometimes it is worth not just looking at how a floor can be maintained but by getting the right type of floor in the first place cleaning is made easy. Gerflors new products allow such simple maintenance

The flexible flooring market gets a boost from the launch of two new homogeneous PUR-treated products from vinyl flooring specialist, Gerflor. After months of extensive testing at Leicester College, Gerflor is to release Classic Imperial PUR and Ambiance PUR. Classic Imperial and Ambiance were already popular product ranges and now, in direct response to feedback from the market, Gerflor has added a PUR surface treatment, to significantly increase their resilience and eliminate the need for initial seals and polishes. These new products are proven to be extremely hard-wearing and suitable for heavy traffic areas. The PUR has made them easier to maintain, making scuffs and scratches simple to remove and ultimately increasing their longevity. Despite these increases in benefits, however, there will not be an increase in the cost. Gerflor is sticking to early 2004, pre-PUR prices.

Both Classic Imperial and Ambiance score highly on the internationally recognised wear-rating scale, not only meeting the K5 standard but also registering 0.05mm abrasion loss out of the possible 0.20mm. Inherently resistant to bacteria and fungal growth, these flexible vinyl floorcoverings are available in both tile and sheet formats, with a wide range of popular colours.

To ensure we were making promises that our products could keep, we initially conducted a series of stringent tests at various sites throughout Europe, comments Neil Hawkesford, technical manager at Gerflor. The results were extremely successful. We are grateful to the team at Leicester College who enabled us to prove the benefits of PUR beyond any doubt these products are simply easier to install and maintain, making them ideal for demanding high traffic areas. Both the Classic Ambience and the Imperial underwent live testing. They were placed in corridors within the college where the average weekly footfall is about 1000 people. As the flooring was down for 9 months during the testing, it means that it was walked on by approximately 36 000 people during the period.

Safety flooring that can be cleaned easily

In these litigious times, safety is an increasingly important issue within the UK and safety flooring is now the largest growing sector of the commercial vinyl flooring market, and still growing, representing over 53% share. However, the need to install safety flooring is often undermined by concerns about maintaining it. Safety flooring was notoriously difficult to clean, as the carborundum particles that give the floor surface its grip also create dirt traps. To overcome this problem, vinyl flooring specialist, Gerflor increased its range of surface treatments and developed one specifically for safety flooring. SparClean is a new generation of surface treatment, available exclusively from Gerflor. It is proven to not only raise the level of hygiene significantly but also to retain the floorings lifelong colour and performance.

SparClean is a factory-applied surface treatment that offers a micro smooth surface between the impregnated carborundum particles, significantly reducing dirt traps whilst maintaining excellent slip resistance. Gerflor ensures stringent independent testing of all of its products and independent testing by CAMRASO (Cleaning and Maintenance Research and Services Organisation UK) has shown that SparClean improves floor cleanliness by up to 86% when compared against non-treated safety flooring and by up to 69% when compared with other treated safety floorings. A permanent treatment, SparClean gives extreme resistance to soiling, staining and scuffing and offers excellent resistance to chemicals to ensure long term product durability. Ultimately, it enables light-coloured safety flooring to be used in areas previously thought of as unsuitable.

SparClean comes applied to three of Gerflors Tarasafe safety floor ranges: Tarasafe Trend, a patterned safety flooring, available in 10 colourways; Tarasafe Style, a more decorative, high design safety flooring, in 12 colourways; and Tarasafe Ultra, a multi-coloured chip design safety flooring, also available in 12 colourways.

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