When Darland High School in North Wales required an interior update, Wrexham Council had to find flooring products that provide pleasing aesthetics, can cope with the heavy footfall and traffic, and deliver a healthy and safe interior environment for the pupils.
Taking advantage of Forbo Flooring’s extensive portfolio, that boasts outstanding performance characteristics across a variety of floor finishes, Darland High School and Wrexham Council specified its Flotex and Marmoleum products.
Phase one of the multi million pound remodelling of the school has recently been completed. This included the new building: Griffin Centre, which houses state of the art science laboratories, ICT suites, a new library and a modified foyer for its 670 pupils aged 11 to 16.
Donna Adcock PR and Marketing Officer at Darland High School, who helped specify Forbo’s Marmoleum Dual and Flotex Vector, said: “Over the summer of 2012, we decided to undertake an internal alteration to certain areas of the School, as they had started to look outdated.
“When looking for suitable flooring for the interior refurbishment, we had a number of standards that had to be met; the floor had to look modern and bring a unique stamp to the school, as well as being easy to clean and incorporate green credentials.”
Throughout the school’s corridors, 240m2 of Forbo’s Marmoleum Dual tiles were installed in the smokey grey colourway, Eiger. In addition to this, 25m2 across a selection of brightly coloured and black Marmoleum Dual tiles were installed in clusters, at random intervals, to inject a fun feel. The groups of tiles included the colourways Marigold - a rich gold, Emerald – a meadow green, Charteuse – a lime green, and Bleeckerstreet – a ruby red.
Donna commented on the colourways chosen: “The dynamic coloured and black tiles installed throughout the corridors where chosen to reflect the school’s five housing groups, which helped to bring an identity to the school interior.”
Forbo Flooring’s Marmoleum is an exceptionally durable material that is widely recognised as one of the most sustainable flooring products available, with more independent Eco-labels than any other floor covering. Linoleum is a natural product and Forbo’s Marmoleum contains 97% natural raw materials, 72% of which are rapidly renewable, and has a 43% recycled content.
Additionally, Marmoleum’s unique water-based finish, Topshield2, provides inherent protection and maintains the overall performance of the flooring system – ensuring it can withstand heavy footfall and be cleaned easily.
Furthermore, 180m2 of Forbo Flooring’s Flotex Vector in the colourway Concrete – which features a combination of a grey linear design on a black background – was installed in the library in the newly remodelled Griffin Centre.
Donna continues: “After looking through Forbo’s portfolio of products, with Nick at Wrexham Council, I was drawn to the design of Flotex Vector as it looked particularly similar to spines of books on shelves – making it ideal for the library.”
Combining the practical elements of a resilient flooring with the slip resistant, soft finish and acoustic properties usually associated with textiles, Flotex provides a comfortable and hygienic floor covering.
In addition, the unique composition of Flotex, which has over 70 million electrostatically flocked nylon fibres per square metre, offers hard-wearing and washable characteristics. Being completely waterproof, Flotex is the only truly washable textile floor covering, whilst its highly effective anti-microbial treatment, Sanitized®, offers constant protection against bacteria, including MRSA and E-coli.
Marmoleum and Flotex are the only floor coverings to have been awarded the ‘Seal of Approval’ from Allergy UK thanks to the fact that they do not harbour allergens or dust mites - an important consideration for keeping the indoor environment clean and safe for the pupils of Darland High School.
Nigel Watts, Director of Brian J Watts Flooring, who installed Forbo Flooring’s products commented: “Thanks to the flexibility of Forbo’s modular Marmoleum tiles, it was very easy to cut on site and fit around the school’s corridors, which ultimately resulted in an easy installation. We were able to complete the job whilst the pupils were on an annual school holiday, meaning we did not have to disrupt the school’s working days.”
Donna concludes: “Darland High School was very pleased with the end result and we have just completed another phase of the school, which incorporated more products from Forbo’s portfolio – thanks to the outstanding performance from the products installed in the corridors and library.”
