A flooring installation doesn’t end once the work is complete. Every raised access floor, screed, carpet or vinyl covering has a second life ahead of it, if it’s installed in a way that allows for one. More developers, architects and occupiers are asking for exactly that.

Circular economy principles have moved from a sustainability strategy to being included in project specifications. That strategy means that disassembly needs to be considered from the outset of a scheme, whilst maintaining the useability of the installed products

At Loughton Contracts, we always endeavour to facilitate a sustainable approach and, therefore wherever possible, we install raised access flooring and floor finishes using reuseable systems. This approach helps our clients meet their own sustainability goals without compromising the floor’s performance.

At Loughton Contracts we understand that raised access floors and floor coverings are valuable, reusable assets. Traditional adhesive fixing puts that asset value at risk. Glue used to bond the covering to the sub-floor can mean that scraping, grinding or even replacing raised panels outright might be required and the flooring products may need to be discarded.

This reuse philosophy is starting to be written into a number of developers’ own sustainability briefs, so rather than gluing floor coverings to the sub-floor they are calling for reversible, mechanical fixings. Fit-out projects account for a large share of a building’s whole-life embodied carbon, largely because fixtures and finishes are very often replaced. Every panel damaged during removal, and every square metre of flooring sent to landfill rather than back into circulation, adds to that carbon cost, as well as the commercial one.

Design for disassembly means the specifying of installation methodologies so products can easily be recycled/reused. This approach is gaining real traction, with reversible, mechanical fixings such as magnetic tabs increasingly specified for the fixing of coverings to raised access floors.

This is the method we, at Loughton Contracts, use where ever practicable so rather than gluing floor coverings directly to the sub-floor, we fix them using IOBAC MagTabs®. This product is a mechanical, reversible fixing that can hold carpet tiles, 4mm LVT and woven vinyl tiles securely in place, whilst having the benefit that coverings can be lifted cleanly whenever the space needs to change. MagTabs, from Circular Building Solutions Ltd, are currently approved and/or used by 16 leading commercial floor covering manufacturers.

Circular Building Solutions Ltd, report that adhesive-free, tab-based installations can cut the embodied carbon associated with flooring projects by up to 80%, compared with adhesive methods, and bring whole-life costs down by as much as 40% once remediation and replacement are factored in.

The same principle can be applied to wood flooring. Circular Building Solutions’ Magnetic Wood System enables engineered wood flooring to be converted into magnetic wood flooring which is installed directly onto raised access flooring. By eliminating adhesives and plywood bases from the installation process, the sub-floor is kept protected and easily accessible and the wood flooring itself can be uplifted cleanly and reused. As with all timber floors the environment, both at point of installation and whilst in use, must be maintained such that the timber doesn’t excessively expand or contract.

For developers, architects and design teams, specifying a non-adhesive fixed flooring can support BREEAM, LEED and SKA credits, and can make the next refurbishment easier, whenever that comes.

Loughton Contracts supplies and installs raised access floors, screeds and floor finishes. Our teams work together to help plan the whole floor build-up, from sub-base to finish and can view disassembly from the outset.

If you’re specifying flooring for a project and want to build-in design for disassembly, talk to us early. It is far easier to plan for a floor’s next life before the first tile goes down. With over 30 years in the installation of flooring, we can work with you to find the best solution for you.