THERE’s been ‘spectacular success’ for Gerflor’s new Taraflex SL sports flooring at Honiton Leisure Centre, says the company.

Honiton Leisure Centre provides the local community with a raft of facilities that bolster health and fitness through sports and exercise.

When its 35-year-old Granwood floor needed replacing with a more sustainable eco-flooring solution, it turned to international flooring specialist Gerflor to supply 700sq m of its new Taraflex Performance SL (sustainable looselay) sports vinyl flooring in ‘Light Cherry’.

‘This innovative and revolutionary solution would substantially reduce the cost of a new replacement floor and was the natural choice for this hardworking space,’ says Gerflor. ‘Taraflex Performance SL is a fast-track indoor vinyl that can be installed in a fraction of time with no need for adhesives.’

Honiton Leisure Centre in East Devon is owned by East Devon District Council and operated by LED Community Leisure.

LED-operated facilities enjoy over one million visitors a year and have around 10,000 members. At Honiton Leisure Centre visitors can take their pick from a 25m pool, a large multi-purpose gym, badminton and squash courts, a dance studio, five-a-side football, and an outdoor tennis court.
East Devon Council and LED (Leisure East Devon) had previously teamed up with Gerflor, for a sports hall refurbishment project using Taraflex in Axminster.

With such a transformation greatly benefitting the local community, East Devon Council wanted to replicate this success at the Honiton site, showing its eagerness to enhance facilities for residents there too.

Rob Walker, Gerflor area sales manager for the southwest, and Channel Islands discussed the project highlighting that, ‘The subfloor at Honiton was an old Granwood sports floor that provided minimal protection for users and was increasingly costly to maintain. East Devon Council and LED (Leisure East Devon) have used our Olympic pedigree Taraflex sports vinyl products before at other sites, this refurbishment gave us the opportunity to build on this history and present our new Taraflex Performance SL as a sustainable and economical alternative for the refurbishment that would significantly reduce the overall cost of the replacement considerably.

‘The client originally had thought the Granwood floor would have to be mechanically removed and then the subfloor would require extensive levelling. However, the new Taraflex Performance SL surface was simply laid on top of the existing floor, which not only delivered a considerable cost saving, but it also ensured the installation was much faster with less downtime for the facility.’

Commenting on the project Simon Allchurch, consultant building surveyor with East Devon District Council said, ‘The existing Granwood floor in the Honiton sports hall was over 35 years old and reaching the end of its useful life. We based our specification decision on previous Taraflex use at our Axminster Leisure Centre sports hall and at our Ottery Leisure Centre’s dance studio.’

Simon added, ‘The Gerflor Taraflex Performance SL sports flooring is exceeding our expectations by a long way on both performance and durability.’

Adding further comment to the project Chris Duchenski, leisure manager at Honiton Leisure Centre said, ‘The previous floor was the original when the centre was built over 35 years ago. Despite regular maintenance, this original floor was looking dated, old, and tired.’

Chris Duchenski further said, ‘Taraflex was specified because the quality and the feedback we have had from other customers who have used this floor or have it in their centres has been nothing short of excellent.’

On performance and customer satisfaction Chris Duchenski further added, ‘We’ve had exceptional feedback from many of our centre users, some of which include the badminton players, five-aside, netball, basketball and pickleball teams. We recently held a gymnastics competition, who informed us of the quality and the huge improvement the new Taraflex sports floor has delivered in terms of safety, comfort, and performance.’

The need to install the specified Taraflex Performance SL flooring to the very highest standards, would be a crucial element in delivering a high-quality final outcome for the centre and would be the responsibility of Exeter-based Unicraft Flooring Contractors.

Established in 1972, and formerly known as Unicraft Furnishing & Joinery Works, this family-run business now in its second generation, carries out all types of floorcovering installation including carpets, carpet tiles, safety flooring for commercial and industrial installations including wet-rooms, linoleum, timber, laminates, antistatic for laboratory and clean rooms.

Simon Yeo, managing director Unicraft Flooring Contractors commented, ‘The tender for the project came via East Devon District Council and was a specification directly decided between Gerflor and East Devon District Council. We had two to four fitters on the installation at any one time, which took a week and a half to complete.

‘Gerflor’s Taraflex Performance SL sports flooring was extremely easy and fast to lay and it’s really delivering on the high expectations set. We were extremely impressed with the reduced downtime on site with 25% reduction in installation time when compared to typical adhered installations.’

Rob Walker concluded, ‘The customer is extremely pleased with the final result, as the world-class finish in the hall is the same as Axminster. In fact, you’d never know the product is looselay. It really is a remarkable product. The client has now repeated the order for Taraflex Performance SL sports flooring for another identical facility in Sidmouth, again to be laid over another existing Granwood floor and we fully anticipate this new project to be completed this summer.

‘We’ve also supplied our revolutionary Bateco sport protection product at Honiton, it will be utilised when the school have exams and also to protect the Taraflex sports floor when trampolines are used.’

Concluded Simon Yeo, ‘We would certainly want to work with Gerflor and its Taraflex Performance SL sports flooring products again and as an installer we’re extremely pleased with the end result. We would definitely, if given the opportunity, select Gerflor’s Taraflex sports floorings for future projects.’
Chris Duchenski ended by saying, ‘We’d definitely specify Gerflor’s Taraflex vinyl floorings again. Everybody who uses the new Gerflor sports floor is incredibly delighted with its performance, both in terms of its cushioning properties for safety and incredible ball bounce for team sports. Also, the contractors who completed and installed the floor in a very short space of time, made it a hassle-free project for us all.’

Says Gerflor: ‘Taraflex SL is a new member to the Taraflex Olympic pedigree sports flooring family, a sustainable choice down to its unique sustainable attributes including its product construction, recycled content, ease with which it can be reused and recycled at end-of-life, as well as reduced cleaning and maintenance requirements for the lifetime of the floor. The Taraflex range of products continues to be a popular choice for community centres, sports, and leisure facilities, as well as education sports halls across the UK, Republic of Ireland and worldwide.
www.gerflor.co.uk