FLOORING company IFT has launched its integrative floor preparation service, as part of its overall resin offering to clients.

IFT, which was established in 1985, provides a comprehensive range of flooring systems and installation services for industrial and commercial clients across Scotland and northern England.

The flooring preparation service is a key component to IFT’s integrated flooring solutions and IFT is offering this to clients as a standalone preparation job or as part of a larger resin or screeding project.

The company says it’s invested heavily in equipment and training for this new offering, with its workforce increasing by 10% since the start of 2021 in order to keep up with client demand for floor preparation.

Says the company: ‘Correct surface preparation is the vital difference between failure and success of a complete flooring project and IFT use various technologies to ensure the best solution for each job, including shot blasting, scabbling, diamond grinding, and diamond concrete floor polishing – a one-stop-shop from start to finish of a project, making it simple, streamlined, and successful for clients.

‘One such client is Spirit AeroSystems – IFT’s fully integrated flooring service was key to this project for Balfour Beatty and the IFT team delivered on a package which combined floor surface preparation, various resin floor finishes, and raised access flooring at the new state-of-the-art Aerospace Innovation Centre in Prestwick.’

IFT says it’s had an extremely busy year, especially in Glasgow’s city centre and at the Clyde regeneration, working on award-winning and bespoke projects including installing screed and raised access flooring at the 200 Broomielaw refurbishment project in the heart of Glasgow’s IFSD; installing raised access flooring and screed at Atlantic Quay for Graham Construction; installing resin, underfloor heating (UFH) and screed for an FES office development in Bothwell Street; installing screed and resin at Barclay’s new office campus on the Clydeside; as well as installing screed and raised access flooring for Sir Robert McAlpine at Edinburgh Park.

The company says it’s renowned for providing a high quality and pro-active service to its clients and has been exclusively chosen by leading manufacturers to promote their products including being approved as one of a select number of installers of energystore TLA – a superlight EPS bead aggregate that’s mixed with cement, water, and other aggregates to produce a product that can help reduce overall costs for largescale flooring projects.
IFT says it’s also a certified licensee for Isocrete K-Screed – again, described by the company as one of only a select number of companies exclusively approved to install Flowcrete’s award-winning product and the latest technology in liquid screed.

Managing director Greg Love comments: ‘Despite the challenging year for the construction industry owing to Covid-19, the company has continued to flourish, working with leading contractors across Scotland and northern England on milestone projects. Currently we’re very active in Glasgow, heavily involved in the Clydeside regeneration project and we’re delighted to now be able to provide our clients with a fully integrated service from floor preparation to installing flooring systems.

‘We’ve invested heavily in expanding our floor preparation equipment and training which widens the service we can provide for our clients and our new floor preparation service just makes sense. By getting involved at the early stages of a project we can ensure the correct and most appropriate systems are specified.

‘We can then take a hands-on management approach to the screed, resin or raised access flooring installation process to ensure successful completion all round.’

Case study
IFT was appointed by Balfour Beatty to install the resin and raised access flooring at the new state-of-the-art Aerospace Innovation Centre in Prestwick for Spirit AeroSystems who design and build aerostructures for both commercial and defence customers around the world.

IFT’s fully integrated flooring service was key to this project in delivering on a package which combined floor surface preparation, various resin floor finishes, and raised access flooring.

The resin finishes included Flowfast Terrosso to the toilet areas, Flowshield SL to the main production areas and epoxy floor paint to the plant rooms. The raised access flooring was installed to the office areas prior to the application of the floor tiles.

Flowshield SL is described by IFT as a hygienic self-smoothing resin floor finish, suitable for dry process areas where the floor is subjected to medium- to heavy-duty, foot, trolley, pallet truck and rubber wheeled forklift traffic.

Continues the company: ‘Flowshield SL is used to protect concrete given its improved durability to withstand mechanical and chemical stress. The finished surface becomes smooth, impermeable, and easy to clean.

‘Flowfast Terrosso is a seamless, decorative, hardwearing acrylic resin floor finish, developed for high traffic retail environments requiring a new floor finish under a fast turnaround. Flowseal EPW is a coloured, gloss finish, water-based hygienic floor seal for use in food process areas, kitchens, light industrial areas, storerooms, garages, and areas of pedestrian and light traffic. This system exhibits a low odour during application and its easy application provides a seamless finish that’s easy to clean and maintain.’

BGM600 raised access flooring is particularly suitable for general office environments where there are significant levels of building services in the floor void including electrical power, data, telecoms, air conditioning or environmental control, security, fire detection and suppression.

Anthony McKay, project manager at Balfour Beatty says: ‘‘IFT teams, led by Daley Richmond and Iain Eccleston, delivered a quality service in terms of pre-planning of the works, regularly reviewing the work sequence, and ultimately ensuring a quality product was delivered safely, on time and on budget.

‘The teams collaborated with Balfour Beatty to optimise the sequencing of the works, including coordinating around multiple other trades in the office fitout areas and the workshop spaces. This contributed to the overall successful completion of the AIC project.’
www.ift.co.uk