IF you want to stay ahead in today’s flooring industry you have to champion sustainability, innovation, and environmentally-friendly solutions. InstaFloor says it’s already leading the way, leaving behind old-fashioned methods to offer architects and specifiers what it describes as exciting new possibilities, with beautiful flooring that’s fit for an eco-conscious future.
New InstaFloor products launched
The recently launched website www.instafloor.co.uk is dedicated to showing how InstaFloor products focus on using recycled materials, while reducing floor waste and eliminating contaminating glues. The results, says the company, are flooring systems that deliver pioneering thinking along with superior resilience.
Future-proof flooring
The company says: ‘Key new products launched to the market this year include Ezy-Install, InstaFloor’s award-winning acoustic underlay that incorporates an innovative magnetic system.’ Shaun Smith, business development director at InstaFloor, explains: ‘We worked in collaboration with IOBAC, a forward-thinking technologies company, to develop a unique installation system for magnetic floorcoverings. By combining magnetic force with dry tack adhesion we can now deliver a more powerful magnetic installation. The ‘Dual Bond’ technology of Ezy-Install makes it suitable for high footfall areas in commercial, hospitality, and residential applications.’
The company continues: ‘Ezy-Install acoustic underlay also makes recycling floorcoverings much easier, and minimises future material use. When magnetic floorcoverings need to be replaced, they can simply be uplifted, without any contamination from traditional wet adhesives or floor preparation compounds. As the Ezy-Install system itself remains in place, InstaFloor has brought a truly ground-breaking, re-usable product to the market.’
Environmentally-friendly designs
InstaFloor has also launched Innov8Floors, a range of what it describes as eco-friendly floorcoverings available in magnetically-backed, standard dry-back, and click tiles. The products reportedly use sustainable raw materials in manufacture, and have a low impact on the environment.
‘Several attractive options and designs are available, including PVC-free vinyl tiles, linoleum tiles, engineered wood flooring in herringbone or chevron and even an eco-friendly leather floorcovering. The range represents a great opportunity for architects and interior designers, who want to be able to specify beautiful floorcoverings for various living, commercial and working spaces while also staying in step with environmental responsibility.’
A pioneering approach
The company continues: ‘InstaFloor is set to help the market understand the adverse impact of using traditional adhesives to bond floorcoverings to the subfloor.’
As Shaun says, ‘You can use the most environmentally-friendly floorcovering in the world, but the moment you add traditional adhesives you are directly opposing your intention to be good to the planet. Using adhesives with floor coverings means the product can no longer be easily recycled – it will end up as landfill. Our aim is to make flooring systems eco-friendly from start to finish, from installation to final floorcovering. That way we can transform flooring solutions to offer full lifecycle value.’
InstaFloor says it makes a good point: Why do we throw away floorcoverings that may be perfectly good enough to reuse elsewhere? If it’s because they’re contaminated with adhesive and cannot be recycled, then surely the future must lie in using adhesive-free installation systems. Floorcoverings could be swapped out, changed, and re-used with ease. This would have a dramatic effect on reducing the flooring industry’s use of raw materials, as well as lessening its environmental impact.
Transforming installation
Says InstaFloor: ‘The future of flooring will be in systems that offer flexibility and longevity, giving the user the ability to refresh or change areas without the upheaval of major remedial works and costs. Businesses can create working zones with different personalities and character, retail can change the ambience of areas to maximise the customer experience, and home environments can be designed to match individual lives.’
Reducing flooring waste
The company continues: ‘InstaFloor is particularly aware of the need to reduce waste in the industry. We all know that temporary floors are installed in retail, museums, hospitality, and exhibition spaces. These are often only in place for a few months, or even a matter of weeks. Once the event is over, the flooring system is disposed of.
‘But with an adhesive-free system the floorcovering could be easily uplifted and re-used again elsewhere, saving a lot of wasted flooring in the future.’
As Shaun says, ‘We feel that taking care of the environment isn’t just about using recycled materials, it’s about making sure we use raw materials in a responsible and sustainable way. We need to maximise their useful life and reduce overall consumption.’
Going far beyond recycling
The company concludes: ‘The InstaFloor website also demonstrates how environmentally-friendly products and clean installation systems are just part of the company’s sincere commitment to sustainability. Their dedication starts from the ground up, as they’re actively supporting other countries to recycle and protect their environments. You can find out more about the work they do with their partners in South Africa.’
www.instafloor.co.uk
www.instafloor.co.uk/sustainability-recycling/
