Are there any regulations concerning what flooring I use in a retail shop?

[Three shot latte]

Good morning all, my backer, who is carrying out the refurbishment of my shop is more used to converting farm buildings and new builds. I think this is his first retail refurbishment. Yesterday we sat down and clarified many details. The floor was a bit of an issue. The space is too small for underfloor heating, and it was decided that wood was not suitable for a high traffic area. We have settled on some highly polished granite or similar floor tiles. Does anyone out there have any thoughts?

 

[fairdealworld]

As a retailer I don't know of any specific regulations but obviously on health and safety grounds you need to have non-slip/non-trip high in your thoughts. This includes remembering that you may at times have liquids on the floor - even if you sell no liquids which could be spilled and no matter how much matting you have at the entrance customers will bring in dampness on their shoes on wet days, they will drip their umbrellas over your floor or take off their hat and shake that or brush moisture off their sleeves. One way or another you will end up with water on the floor and that is when some apparently non-slip surfaces suddenly become very slippy indeed. Often this issue can be solved by applying a suitable coating to the floor but you do need to think about it.

Things to think about arising from my own and neighbouring shopkeepers experiences. A floor can look beautiful while sounding awful. We had a wood floor in a previous shop and while it looked great even though it was just the old floor boards scrubbed up and suitably coated, it was a problem because of the noise made by high heeled shoes in particular. In some cases this won't matter, but if you are aiming for example for a peaceful upmarket setting with soft music, it can be destroyed instantly by the tap tap tapping of heels. Would granite or tiles be noisy or slippy?

 

[Three shot latte]

I'm also acutely aware of coffe cups sending scalding hot coffee over the floor and the cup splintering into a thousand shards!

 

[cristinabarkerjones]

Wood flooring is also an option for high traffic areas. There are some special types of lacquer that can preserve the quality of your wooden flooring for years! Of course, you will have to perform floor sanding in some point, but this should not be a big problem.