Ellen Reith discusses how office refurbishments can be completed swiftly and sustainably, thanks to new adhesive-free solutions.
As businesses continue to adapt to the everchanging needs of a modern workspace, office refurbishments or even changes to the actual layout can be frequent. As such, choosing flooring solutions that can be adapted and be reused, all while keeping waste to a minimum, is vital – especially as sustainability is at the forefront of many businesses now.
An often-overlooked part of flooring installations, the uplift of existing glued or even tackified floor-coverings and subsequent subfloor preparation can be time-consuming and importantly, can often cause a lot of waste. Indeed, with sustainability at the forefront of many customers’ minds, it’s important to decrease this waste where possible – and this is where adhesive-free flooring comes into play.
In fact, using adhesive-free flooring can be beneficial as not only can it be installed quickly, but it’s reusable. This is because there’ll be no damage to the subfloor and the flooring product itself, making it suitable for reuse. Encouragingly, studies indicate flooring reuse is already happening, with carpet tile reuse more than doubling since 2019 and carpet tile waste decreasing over 10% in the same year.
Of course, adhesive-free flooring isn’t a new invention by any means, but it’s come along in leaps and bounds over recent years. Providing the same durability and performance as traditionally glued down flooring solutions but cutting down installation time by up to 50%, it’s a modern and effective solution.
Using a product such as IOBAC’s MagTabs on metal raised access floor panels can provide the same strength and solidity as traditional tackifier adhesives. Suitable for use with Forbo’s Tessera carpet tiles and planks, Flotex planks and tiles and Allura Flex LVT ranges, the MagTabs can reduce the cost of waste and installation. Utilising a dry tack on one side and magnetism on the other, it provides a two-dimensional grip, locking the flooring in place.
By using this method, these modular flooring solutions can be simply laid onto a metal raised access floor and then magnetically attached to the subfloor. This makes for a much faster installation process than using adhesives and has many benefits for contractors and building owners.
In conclusion, adhesive-free flooring has many benefits to consider, namely the lowering of installation time. Not only this, using products like IOBAC’s MagTabs can help with the circularity of the flooring industry, by increasing the reuse of products, therefore making the industry more sustainable.
www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/tessera
www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/allura
Ellen Reith is office segment marketing manager at Forbo Flooring Systems
