Playing as big a part in your office branding and atmosphere as office furniture and wall colours, your office flooring should be put under serious scrutiny. However, with so many options available it can be difficult to choose the one most suited to your working environment, which is why Ive rounded up the pros and cons of two of the most popular options carpet and hardwood flooring.
CARPET
Traditional and timeless, carpeted floors are still as popular as ever and provide a cost-effective, easily accessible solution for all kinds of office environments.
Pros
Carpet is quicker to fit than hardwood options, especially when easily transportable carpet tiles are available.
The range of colours, patterns, fabrics and piles for carpets is vast, meaning you can customise your choice to fit your company branding and the footfall experienced in a certain area of your headquarters to minimise wear and tear.
Excess noise from shoes and chair wheels is next to nothing on carpets.
Carpets actually help insulate a room; essential for chilly winter months.
Cons
Carpeted floors make it much harder to push a wheeled chair away from a desk, which can become an inconvenience for employees who are up and down a lot.
Carpets are liable to fading and are far more difficult to clean than hardwood options.
HARDWOOD
Hardwood flooring is a really popular, on-trend solution for business owners, even Grace Lewis posted earlier this month about how to utilise it as an environmentally friendly building material.
Pros
Available in real wood or a cost-effective alternative, hardwood flooring is versatile and doesnt have to cost the earth.
Its easy to sweep, hoover and mop clean when stained or peppered with crumbs.
Rolling chairs across hardwood flooring is if they incorporate the relevant castors for the floor type effortless, making it easier for staff to get up from their desks.
Cons
Hard floors are notorious for amplifying noises like shoe heels, which could get very distracting for anyone trying to work. However, you can overcome the problem by investing in acoustically backed wood effect flooring.
While easy to free from food stains, its harder to remove things like heel scuffs from hardwood flooring that doesnt incorporate slip resistance or hardness scales.
Hardwood isnt the most insulating solution, and can make a room feel colder on chilly days.
While both flooring options come with their own pros and cons, at the end of the day it all depends on the room theyll be placed in and the activity theyll see. While areas with a larger footfall (like receptions) could benefit from durable hardwood, your main office area may be better suited to the quieter alternative of carpet to stop the reverberation of distracting sounds.
Do you have a preferred floor covering for your office?
This is a guest post by interior designer, Victoria Crawcour of Desk Centre; office refit specialists and suppliers of office furniture via their online shop.