Resin flooring specification - avoiding headaches with marketing awareness

Today’s post continues the series I wrote for my decorative resin flooring brand, Floorchef, which was aimed at helping architects, interior designers and other specifiers avoid common flooring specification headaches. 

If you know what type of resin flooring technology you need (as discussed in this previous post), there are a few points I’d like to tag on about on marketing that can save you some big headaches.

“Oils aint oils” when it comes to resin flooring

Firstly, we might be talking about resin flooring here, but the famous “oils aint oils” line could never be more appropriate. Many are lured by the charms of a cheaper price, but in the world of resin flooring there’s generally good reason why some products cost a fraction of others in the market. Don’t make the mistake of dismissing something that costs 50% more, but lasts four times longer, as “too expensive”.

Test results can be seductive

Secondly, you can be swamped with confusing numbers based on all sorts of test results. While these help paint the picture of what certain products are capable of, don’t let them blind you to what you really need. For example, a resin floor with 95MPa compression strength may sound mighty impressive, but is it really necessary for a department store? In reality it’s a big overkill considering most concrete compression strengths are less than 45MPa anyway. Don’t fall into the trap of making decisions based only on a set of theoretical numbers and always try to balance out the selection process by seeking examples of the product in service.

Bold claims need to be qualified

Finally, spread your research across a number of suppliers for a balanced view. Unfortunately you can run into some big promises and empty marketing ploys every so often. Once again, keeping your needs in mind as a fixed reference point will help avoid being swept away by such tactics. To illustrate my point, I saw one company promoting their resin flooring technology as “10 times stronger” than any other. While this sort of thing sounds fantastic on the surface, I’d recommend asking the suppliers to qualify these claims and having a think about what they actually mean for the success of your project.

Take care and keep smiling,