Every day, thousands of travellers pass through your airport, wheeling luggage and pushing trolleys. With such extreme levels of foot traffic moving all through the building, you need to be certain your flooring can withstand the demanding environment. But when it’s time for a refit, replacing the flooring throughout your airport is a huge – and expensive – job.
Today I’m looking at the biggest expenses in your flooring renovation project, and how you can save money on your airport flooring.
Up-front, the biggest cost for your flooring project will be the purchase of new carpet. You’ve got a huge floor plan to cover and a demanding set of requirements, which means your new flooring won’t come cheap.
An often-overlooked cost to factor in to your budget is the removal of your existing flooring. Who’s going to remove it and how much will it cost for it to be taken off-site afterwards?
Some flooring manufacturers offer a takeback programme, where old flooring is removed and repurposed – for example, donated to charities or education facilities.
Preparing the sub-floor by removing traces of old adhesives, and priming and sealing the sub-floor, is often thought of as an essential part of the flooring installation process.
Labour and materials make up the bulk of your installation costs. Any savings in time or materials will add up to substantial savings across the whole of your project.
Maintenance costs will hit your budgets year after year, so when looking for new flooring you should bear maintenance requirements in mind so that you don’t end up with a huge bill every year.
The lifetime of your carpet is another cost factor to consider. Would you be better off buying a cheaper carpet that will last 5 years, or a more expensive one that will last 10 years?
Priming and sealing the sub-floor is done to protect against floor compatibility problems, particularly plasticiser migration: where PVC found in some carpet tiles reacts with adhesive left over from previous installations, causing flooring tiles to loosen and slide over time.
However, some types of cushion backing (like open cell cushion backing) don’t contain any PVC and are non-reactive, so won’t react with residual traces of adhesives. This means you don’t need to worry about priming and sealing the sub-floor. And while the cost per square metre doesn’t seem like much, this will add up to savings of thousands across your whole floor plan.
Calculating the total cost of ownership over the projected lifetime of your flooring will help you compare costs for different options. The biggest way to bump up the cost of your flooring is to choose carpet that wears out quickly, needing to be replaced more regularly compared to a more durable option. Two factors that affect carpet durability are:
The wear rating of your carpet will give an indication of its expected durability. Within Europe, the test to look for is BSEN1307 with a result of Class 33 Heavy Commercial Use. Within the US, The Texture Appearance Retention Rating (or TARR) is an independent, third-party wear assessment, designed to give buyers an indication of how well a specific carpet tile will perform in a specific end-use situation under expected levels of foot traffic. For airports you will need flooring that achieves (or exceeds) a Severe TARR rating (US) or EN1307 Class 33 Heavy Commercial Use (Europe).
Carpet tile backing is the most important factor that affects the durability of your flooring. In hardback tiles, the carpet fibres directly absorb the impact of foot traffic. In carpet tiles with closed-cell cushion backing, this impact is reduced in the short term, but over time the cushioning breaks down and can no longer absorb foot pressure.
The best option to protect your carpet tiles from high levels of foot traffic is open cell cushion backing, which ‘re-inflates’ after compression, protecting the carpet fibres more effectively and for longer.
Never make a flooring specification mistake, download our free guide now!