Walk This Way to Peace of Mind

I’ve talked a fair bit in this column about those phone calls that we all dread – the ones from dissatisfied customers who need you to sort out their flooring problems immediately if not sooner.

If you’re unlucky enough to receive one of these calls from a customer whose floor you laid previously, in no time at all you can find yourself tied up with time consuming re-visits when you should be moving on to a new installation. Every cloud has a silver lining, however, and not all of these situations may be quite as bad as they first appear. After all, you may be on the receiving end of a call from someone who has been let down by someone else and suddenly you have a new business opportunity on your hands.

In either case, you may find that the customer will be happy with nothing less than you taking up the existing floor and laying a new one. So what went wrong? And, more to the point, what can you do to put it right and make sure that the same mistake isn’t made again?

Unfortunately, many such problems arise from the installation of the wrong floor covering for the job in the first place. It’s easy to err on the side of caution and install flooring which is too abrasive for the area. Or worse, a low performance material may be used to save money.

Of course, the industry has moved on somewhat since Altro first invented safety flooring in the 1950s. From those humble beginnings we’ve gone on to make the largest and most diverse range of PVC safety flooring on the market, launching no fewer than 14 variations on that original theme so far, ranging from ContraX at the cost effective end of the scale to high design, high performance options at the other. In fact, with such a wide variety of floor coverings on the market - and seemingly growing every day - it’s little wonder that specification mistakes sometimes occur

Of course, as well as the new product ranges being launched day in and day out, every contractor has a few tried and tested favourites – floor coverings from trusted manufacturers that they have used successfully time and time again without incurring those nasty phone calls. It’s easy to forget about these ‘old favourites’ which continue to offer high performance and reliability unrivalled by many of the new products claiming to offer slip resistance and other features at what often appear to be very tempting ‘bargain basement’ prices.

Contractor feedback and positive comments received from happy customers suggest that one such firm favourite from our extensive portfolio is Altro Walkway. Manufactured in a wide range of colours, this versatile and cost effective 2mm PVC safety flooring is easy for contractors to work with both on large areas and to create bespoke designs, yet is robust enough to deal with heavy traffic and chemical spillage. With a Slip Resistance Value greater than or equal to 35, it comes with a seven year warranty, giving additional peace of mind.  

While you can’t always account for every customer’s little foibles, at least you can make your life easier by choosing a flooring that you know is easy to work with, has performance that’s guaranteed to last and comes from a manufacturer you can trust.

This article first appeared in the November 2007 edition of the CFJ.