What are the Qualities Retail Flooring Should Have?

Imagine having a well-furnished store with stylish products placed neatly across the shelves. Their display is immaculate, and they look good from the window. A customer from across the road looks at it and enters your shop. But the moment they step inside, they hear it — a creaking noise. They become alert, snapping out of that ecstatic feeling when looking at your products. They then start to inspect the retail flooring area closely.

The products are still stylish, but the flooring they are on has gone bad. Seeing all of this, their excitement vanes. Their smiling faces turn into disgust, and they leave your store without saying anything.

It is not a fictional scenario. It might have happened in your store. But since retail flooring is the last thing on your mind, you’d have ignored it. But here is the reality.

Retail flooring matters more than you can think. The vibe of your store must match your customers, for it decides if your customers will buy from you.

But talking about the importance of retail flooring is one thing – giving practical tips is another. With so few online, it is no wonder you feel so lost. Not anymore. Let us start by telling you about all the qualities your retail flooring should have.

But first, let us start with what you should consider.

Things to consider when choosing the right retail flooring

You can’t go on searching for retail flooring online and end up with the right one. There are multiple things you should consider:

What are you using the retail floor for

Do you want a retail floor for short-term, seasonal play or something that sticks with your stores forever? What products are you going to display there? Where is the room located?

Suppose you are looking for a seasonal floor that you’ll remove later; pick one with more form than function. It will increase the brand appeal of your shop. But don’t ignore function completely. Modular floors are here. You can place them for a seasonal display and store them for the next.

For sturdy products, you need sturdy floors. But don’t think that you can go soft when displaying plush toys. The thing to consider here is the location of the floor. If it is going to be outside where there is a lot of foot traffic, you need something even harder.

Climate factors

Always be mindful of the type of climate in your area. If the region is humid, getting wood flooring might not be the best idea since it can warp and buckle. Wood is also a big no in places where it rains often. Hardwood flooring with lamination could be a better option in such regions.

Your brand

You’d think having a floor attuned to your brand is a novelty. Well, you are both right and wrong. While the colour palette you choose for your retail flooring has more to do with your image and less with the store’s function, it still has a function – marketing. Even the right flooring can make your store and your brand memorable.

Maintenance frequency

You don’t expect yourself to maintain your retail flooring year after year – week after week. Therefore, another thing to consider is the maintenance frequency. Pick one that lets you relax and focus on real matters – running your business.

Cost consideration

Of course, there is always cost consideration. But the costs of your retail flooring continue beyond the one-time purchase. Installation, underlayment, and delivery are also contribution factors. Additional raw materials you require based on the floor should also be considered.

Based on these factors, what should the quality of the floor be?

Qualities that retail flooring should have

Here are the key qualities a retail flooring should always have:

Ability to withstand wear and tear

Don’t expect every customer to walk according to you. Some will come to your shop with spikes on their soles, and some will drag their feet around.

Therefore, choose a floor that is wear-and-tear-proof. You can always make your floors scratch-resistant by laminating them. Choose the lamination layers that you wish. If you choose tiles as your retail floors, have anti-resistant furnishing over them.

However, good-quality laminates require good surfaces. Therefore, sturdy hardwood floors should always be considered when picking retail flooring.

The floor should be silent

A creaking floor symbolised badly fitted blanks. They show that the floor-maker has done a haphazard job.

However, it is also one of the most tricky qualities. The floor may look pristine, but what lies inside the subfloor may have some issues. Good floor makers take correct steps during the prepping phase to ensure this.

They oversee their professionals as these individuals bring the hardwood planks together so there is no unevenness.

However, if the floor is not creaking today, it doesn’t mean it won’t do it tomorrow. When humidity seeps in, the adhesive holding the planks together can weaken, and the nails might rust. Therefore, to keep the floor silent, consider the adhesive’s quality and the longevity of the nails. If it is steel, you won’t need to worry much. However, a thin iron nail can and will create issues down the line.

The best-recommended floor, in this case, is often carpet tiles. It won’t only make your floor silent but will also make it last longer.

Evenness of the floor

You don’t want your customers falling as soon as they step into your store. Even though you can put uneven floors for novelty purposes, that would only satisfy your desire for surface-level aesthetics. An uneven floor could be an undoing for your business.

Therefore, pick even floors where every tile is aligned with another in a parallel fashion. Any ups and downs can and will cause someone’s shoe to get hit – another lawsuit waiting to happen.

To ensure the evenness of the floors, everything from the overlay and underlay has to be pristine. Their development must be homogenous. The professionals undertaking this task must keep a record of the underlayer so that the overlay stacks snuggly over it.

The flooring should be waterproof

If your retail store is in a moisture-rich area, invest in waterproof flooring. Otherwise, moisture will seep in, changing the integrity of the floors. And if you have opted for sub-quality hardwood flooring, decay will set in, prompting you to look for new floors as soon as the rainy season is over.

That said, most will go to tiles when waterproofing is concerned. While their adhesive needs top quality, tiles won’t decay when exposed to water. Hardwood flooring, however, will only be able to maintain its integrity when covered with waterproof laminates.

Floor laminates are of multiple types and serve purposes other than merely preventing water-related issues. Pick one that suits your needs. Industrial laminates are good for all-around protection; they are fire-proof, chemical-proof, and germproof. But if you’re looking for a laminate that strengthens your floor, a compact laminate’s thickness will be good for you.

Elegant floors

This type of floor is subject to the place your retail floor is in. They are placed in a world where high-end luxuries flow freely, and the contemporary style reigns supreme. In such places, the type of floor you need needs both form and function at the highest degree.

Therefore, upscale areas focus on elegant floors. Most things on such floors are cranked up to 11 – aesthetic-wise. They look shinier, their matte finish has a subliminal colour palette, and they are often designed to complement the store itself.

Hitting the sweet spot of form and function requires a lot of consideration. For one, the traffic in such places is often low. Secondly, maintenance has to be done regularly.

A high-quality floor would be one that can withstand constant scrubs while still maintaining its integrity for a long time. Therefore, a vinyl plank floor is a good choice for retail flooring in an elegant store.

The floor should be properly measured

Now that we have discussed some of the most nuanced qualities a retail flooring should have, it is time to consider the obvious ones.

The first is a floor that is properly measured. This quality is less about the floor and more about the conduct of professionals.

Professionals should properly get the size of your office space before even considering installation. An unfit floor that requires last-minute adjustments doesn’t have the same value as the floor that got it right the first time. While many say this attribute is of little import – it is one of the most important.

Floors must have low maintenance requirements

Another big factor is maintenance. No floor should be required to be maintained regularly. While it goes against whatever we said for elegant floors, most retail floorings aren’t designed with supreme elegance in mind. Retail stores with heavy foot traffic throughout the day should be sturdy and require little maintenance. A bi-annual finish should be enough for them.

Get the retail flooring right with NJL Flooring

The right floor should consider the weather, the foot traffic, the maintenance frequency, cost, and purpose. It should not go overboard (because costs can rise), but it should not compromise quality.

That is why NLP floors have hit the sweet spot for retail flooring. Their designs are amazing, and their maintenance requirement is low. You won’t have to worry too much about which one to pick. Contact NJL flooring today for your retail flooring.