There is no such thing as a maintenance free floor. Flooring is designed for foot traffic and is expected to carry many years of stress from people, animals, wheeled traffic, furniture, ageing. Carpet needs contant vacuuming and vinyl needs constant polishing.

On this page, we'd like to show the problems with using flooring other than rubber such as  timber, lino, vinyl, carpet, and ceramic tiles.

TIMBER PROBLEMS

Timber flooring installed in a Telecommunications store in the CBD of Melbourne. Photo taken Jan 2012. This floor has only been down 4 years and already ruined with marks from stiletto heels. it's hard to see the grain of the timber now with all the dark holes pockmarked all over it. How long will the flooring last until it has to be replaced? Where will the flooring end up? Landfill? Recycled? What floor will they use to replace it?

Hardwood timber floor with scratches. If chairs are not protected with rubber stoppers, then even tough hardwood timber can be scratched. This means the floor would have to be sanded and revarnished. If the gouges are too deep then the floor is not going to look good at all.

LINO PROBLEMS

This lino has been down for 4 years in an office in Melbourne. The colour was yellow but you can see the floor has been polished but not cleaned properly. We went to see what this floor was like as the designer had chosen the lino over Dalsouple. Three months after it had been installed the secretary had created huge pock marks everywhere. Now after 4 years the flooring is quite damaged. This is the main entrance to their office as people step out of the lifts. Not a good look! This floor will not last 10 years!

This lino is in a huge area of main city library and is only about 6 years old. As you can see, the floor is no longer brown, but now has black stripes! The facility manager is talking about replacing it which will be very costly as it's 100m2's.

CARPET PROBLEMS

This carpet is outside an architects' office in the CBD of Melbourne. I am not sure if they have had rain damage, but the stains have ruined the carpet. Coffee is the worst thing for carpet. We have a lot of feedback from designers that use it in their own office and it only lasts a few years. See study done by Suzanne Barnes, Rubber Flooring Value and Beauty for the long term.

Most carpets are problems with allergy sufferers. If carpeting is a must, the option is low-pile carpeting, which is less likely to attract dust, mites and other allergens.Carpet can be a problem if you have animals and is hard to keep free of animal hair.

CERAMIC TILES

Dalsouple was specified in Gris Anthracite (charcoal) for a railway station in a suburb in Melbourne. The architect had chosen Dalsouple as it's been used in many railway stations and airports in Europe and the UK. But the builder wanted to save money and chose Ceramic tiles as this photo shows. What you can't see very well in this photo is the poor installation of the tiles, with grout missing in some of the joins. This can cause moisture to get in between the tiles, the tiles to crack under human weight and other pressures. The tiles will not last ore than a few years. Then they will probably end up as landfill and another flooring will need to be found.

We get a lot of calls from domestic customers who do not want to use tiles in their ktichen or bathroom as they hate grout because of the problem with cleaning. We don't recommend rubber tiles in the shower but are perfect in kitchens or bathrooms.