Education Today Education Today Magazine
When it comes to choosing flooring, comparing products by cost is second nature, but in the last few years, an emphasis on a building’s environmental impact has become paramount, not least in terms of securing funding from the Department for Education. As well as choosing the right floor to start with, the environmental impact of maintaining and repairing the floor during its lifespan, and its eventual disposal or recycling is an increasingly important consideration.
There can be no doubt that an effective maintenance programme will extend the life of a floor. It will also reduce waste and landfill, reduce consumption of raw materials, the need for recycling, carbon offsetting and pollution. Less frequent replacement also means operational carbon levels will be reduced in the long term because the use of vehicles and energy needed for manufacturing will be reduced.
How many times can the floor be refurbished?
A solid wood floor from Junckers can be sanded and sealed up to ten times and with 12-year intervals between sandings, a typical lifespan of 60 years will comfortably be exceeded, a claim that probably no other type of sports floor can match. Compared with a typical 15-year life of a synthetic or “engineered” floor there really is no comparison in terms of life cycle cost.
Is it easy to repair if the floor gets worn or damaged?
Floors made from large elements, typically plywood or chipboard sheets on to which vinyl, polyurethane orlinoleum is laid, can be difficult to repair because of the large sheet size, and repairs will often result in large amounts of waste. The sheets will be glued together and often glued down as well. Floors made from smaller elements that are not fixed together, such as solid hardwood boards are easier to repair on a localisedbasis with far less waste.
Can the floor be recycled?
With the concept of the circular economy becoming more and more important, keeping raw materials in use for as long as possible reduces the impact on the environment. A Junckers solid wood floor can often be repurposed – we often see decades old floors lifted from sports halls reused in commercial and even residential settings – a sand and seal make them good as new. At the end of its long life, a Junckers floor will degrade naturally, unlike flooring surfaces made from crude oil derived materials.
A trusted maintenance contractor Regular professional maintenance will keep your floor in optimum condition and extend its lifespan. Junckers is offering all schools and education facilities a free health check for their floors, to assess it condition and performance level. Run through Junckers’ Approved Contractors Scheme, a local flooring professional will inspect the floor and recommend a maintenance regime, no matter what flooring surface you have.
Junckers
45-49 Leather Lane, London EC1N 7TJ
01376 534 700
sales@junckers.co.uk
www.junckers.co.uk/healthcheck
@junckersfloors
