There are a multitude of considerations for choosing the best commercial carpet tile solution. Time spent looking at your criteria will provide a much better suited outcome.

Listed below are the primary criteria Rawson Carpet Solutions recommends considering before selecting the best commercial carpet tile for your organization:

• Budget
• Desired look / Colour
• Level of durability needed for the amount of traffic
• Design that incorporates the look and feel of the building
• Comfort and wellbeing of the people visiting and using the space

Budget

If budget is your primary consideration, then floor preparation for commercial carpet tiles will be a strong consideration as these costs can be considerably more than the flooring solution. Once a clean smooth substrate is achieved, then the choice of two generics of commercial carpet tile are available, Polypropylene or low-level Nylon tiles. A Propylene solution is typically a more budget-friendly choice.

Fibre bonded contract carpet tiles are renowned for durability and competitiveness. Fibre bonded carpets have been the choice for commercial installations for many years with durability and price being the two defining reasons. Additionally, raw fibre colour offerings have improved and now allow for a more pleasing pallet of colour options for your commercial space.

Rawson Carpet Solutions has been manufacturing fibre bonded tiles in many differing surface designs for over 55 years. Still today the fibre bonded commercial carpet tile and sheet products from Rawson such as ‘Eurocord’, ‘Freeway’ & ‘Felkirk’ are used throughout schools and offices worldwide. The tiles are proven to be long lasting, offer good cleaning characteristics and are competitive in the marketplace.

Loop pile commercial carpet tiles in Polypropylene offer a good budget aesthetic for general circulation and breakout spaces, however, rarely is this form of carpet providing castor chair suitability.

A 10 or 12 Gauge machined Nylon loop tile can prove competitive in the market place, maybe not to the level of a fibre bonded product but still competitive. Rawson offers a broad range of designer solutions to complement their strategy of having a solution to meet every client criteria. Some, such as jazz nylon carpet tile provides a competitive solution with a great bank of colours for your commercial carpet tile needs.

Colour

Floor covering is approximately less than 5% of the building cost but offers potentially 50% of the aesthetic. So, the desired colour or choice of colour for commercial carpet tile provides great branding for your facility. It can speak volumes as to the nature of the business, so, if brand enhancement is a factor, time should be taken to consider a colour scheme.

The choice for colour should be considered in line with potential soiling. A floor that has high foot traffic, with shoes bringing in soil from outside would lead to the choice of a commercial carpet tile that has brown or charcoal colours to conceal dirt until suitable cleaning occurs.

Colour can also have an impact on the feeling and collaboration of your colleagues. The company may have a dynamic personality and so a dynamic floor design may be more appropriate than a single pain tone. Colour mood boards can assist in choosing a colour scheme for your carpeted floor. Once selected, the choice of colours can be used throughput the scheme but with marginally differing designs running through the building.

Rawson Carpet Solutions offers designer carpet tiles with endless commercial carpet tile design possibilities. Their strategy is to continually provide new solutions to complement existing ones. A chosen two or three colours for your scheme can be met with a few differing designed or plain carpet tiles that work in harmony together and provide different layout options but with the familiarity of colour throughout the building.

One may argue that biophilic colours provide a more pleasing and calming space in line with nature. This colour strategy makes the space more relaxing, bringing the occupants back to nature with the feeling of space and wellbeing that come with this aesthetically-promoted feeling through your commercial carpet tiles.

Durability

Most commercial carpet tiles will meet a class rating of 31 light contract, 32 medium contract, or 33 heavy contract. Heavy contract carpet tiles will offer castor chair suitability. Therefore, a check of the potential amount of footfall and the number of chairs within each location is an important consideration in every commercial carpet tile choice.

Rawson offers designer nylon tiles and fibre bonded carpet tiles with a contract rating of class 33 with a minimum 10-year warranty. However, of recent years, they have replaced commercial carpet tiles in schools that have lasted for up to 20 years.

If the floor has heavy usage, and the optimal colour has been decided, then a dense fibre bonded carpet tile may be the best solution. Alternatively, if the desired carpet tile look leans more towards a creative design aesthetic with structure then the Luxury rating may prove to be a good standard to consider offering a higher yarn weight above 650g.

Rawson has carpet tile solutions for commercial premises in a hardback version and also solutions with ‘quietback’ applied to the back of the tile. Quietback is a cushion-backed commercial carpet tile proven to contribute to lifespan and durability.

Hardback carpet tiles put all of the pressure of foot traffic onto the carpet fibres, whereas Cushion-backed carpet tiles allow the cushion to compress under foot traffic which protects the carpet’s fibres from wear and tear.

If the building has low foot-traffic then any class 33 carpet will meet the durability requirements. However, if the space is large, busy and carries a fair budget, then an investment in cushion backing can reduce maintenance costs and ensure a longer lifespan. This choice of office or school carpet tile will also add to the sound reduction in the floor and the subsequent effect on the ambience within the building.

Comfort

The luxury rating for a contract carpet tile, introduced above, can allow for a floor that is softer underfoot and support offices or schools in areas where standing for periods of time occurs. The comfort underfoot can help with leg and feet muscles and reduce fatigue. A heavier weight carpet tile will provide this added comfort.

Comfort can be in the form of underfoot also supported with a commercial carpet tile backing such as quietback, produced by Rawson.

Rawson offers quietback across most commercial carpet tile solutions. It is a needled felt surface that adheres to the back of the bitumen carpet tile. The solution is sold as a quietback tile and can improve sound reduction from 19db to 25dB. The solution also complements the above comments about additional comfort and ergonomic support.

Sound reduction is also a form of environmental comfort and greatly assists with employee or student attention span. Calmer environments have proved to provide better learning and working effectiveness.

Design

To truly make a great commercial space, floor design should be considered, as it can have a massive impact. If walls are busy and artistic, then the choice of a neutral colour is popular, however a tone-in-tone, lightly-structured tile or plank carpet tile can greatly complement the space without taking away the planned visual impact of the walls.

Other options in more neutral wall colours allow for a great expression floor.

Commercial Contract carpet tiles offer various options as well, including:

• Bordering
• Inputting colour panels to offer a great design
• To propose a separation of space
• For usage in open spaces where walls are minimal

Commercial carpet tiles offer many designs, whether supporting a corporate design or the desire of an individual. Once the pattern has provided the desired influence, the mixing of those colours with familiar yarns that run through the differing patterns, provides an additional colour influence white still maintaining the beauty and desired effect of the design throughout the space.

Graduated blending of colour across a tile can support the transfer of colour in an open space, providing a great carpet tile floor design.

Environmental Consideration

For those that wish to choose a commercial carpet tile that is sustainable, there are many factors to consider.

Low impact in manufacturing. The impact on the environment can only be truly assessed through the likes of an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration), where CO2e output calculated per sqm is compared for differing products. The EPD provides clients with openness as to what is used in the product and what impact it has in its production. Obviously, transport is a large factor in the environmental credential of a commercial carpet tile, so UK manufactured carpet tiles will greatly support this footprint.

Once carbon output for the carpet tile has been calculated, the determination of it being low impact is vital, and then the choice is available to offset this carbon usage by planting trees, or renewing energy through one of the known offset means. Carbon Neutral Carpet tile offerings are a good responsible purchasing method under this consideration and as such all of Rawson’s Nylon Range of designer carpet tiles are offered Carbon Neutral.

Certain environmental credentials, such as the BREEAM assessment supports environmental schemes and allows clients to achieve an environmentally accredited building. One example of this is the BREEAM excellent standard, a common requirement over the years in the UK. In this instance BRE accreditations through product individual assessment provides point contribution for buildings accreditation.

Recycled Content is another important consideration when purchasing contract carpet tiles for your space. Rawson’s highest recycled content carpet tile offering is ‘Recover’ produced from up to 80% GRS accredited recycled materials.

‘Recover’ is a single polymer carpet tile solution with no additives or adhesives, and as such is offered as fully recyclable which is a very important complement to a commercial carpet tile offering. The Carpet Industry as a whole is working very hard in the background with active bodies such as Carpet Recycling UK, to reduce the impact the industry has on landfill. A Carpet solution which is completely recyclable is surely the ultimate environmental accolade along with the above factors to ensure we leave our planet as unaffected as possible from industrial manufacturing. For over 55 years, Rawson Carpet Solutions has supplied the commercial industry carpet solutions to meet every criteria and need. Rawson’s sales team is always keen to ask the correct question and tailor the offering to provide a choice of solutions to best suit your particular commercial carpet tile project, design aspiration and budget.