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When it comes to flooring for churches, halls, camps, retreats, and other educational facilities, interior design and flooring needs a total solution. A well-planned floor should always contribute to the long-term well-being and health of a building and individuals.'s important to consider factors like safety, maintenance requirements, environmental impact, and aesthetic appeal.
This article will discuss some options available for flooring in these types of spaces, as well as some tips on how to choose the best flooring materials for your needs. Forbo is a global player in flooring manufacturing different types of flooring such as linoleum, vinyl sheet, luxury vinyl tiles, carpet tiles, flocked flooring and more.
All members of the Christian Venues Association through the CSC buying group are given guaranteed pricing across the Forbo range of products and exclusive access to ForbOnline B2B webshop.
Our easy-to-use online platform makes it easy to check products, real-time stock availability and place orders via a dedicated account manager.
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There are many types of flooring materials that can be used in churches, halls, camps, retreats, and other educational facilities. The type of material will depend on the space that requires to meet specific requirements.
Learn more about our product portfolio by clicking on the links below.
The popular all-rounder. Quiet, comfortable, and slip-resistant properties, not to mention excellent cleanability, appearance retention and overall longest lifespan of all textiles. Available in sheet, tile, and plank formats with the option to create your own bespoke floor. Forbo stocks a wide range of colours in all formats.
✔ Built to last – for extreme foot and wheeled traffic areas
✔ Impervious backing – that’s fast-drying
✔ Allergy approved textile floor covering
✔ Green Tag GreenRate Level A and Best Practice PVC certified
✔ R12/P5 slip rating when dry and when wet
✔ Sound control – up to 22 dB impact sound reduction
Discover Flotex floor coverings
Align perfectly with Flotex. Allura LVT is warm underfoot with excellent acoustic properties for multi-level locations.
Don’t forget to protect your internal flooring investment with Coral entrance matting. We’re confident Coral entrance matting will help pro-long your floor coverings and comes with a 15-year system warranty.
✔ Realistic wood and concrete designs, with selected popular colours stocked locally
✔ PUR Pearl for easy floor care
✔ Phthalate free with low VOC indoor emissions
✔ Excellent acoustic and comfort properties
✔ Good resistance to chemicals
✔ Green Tag GreenRate level A and Best Practice PVC certified
Discover Allura LVT floor coverings
Marmoleum is our linoleum brand, also referred to as 'lino'. Made from natural raw materials and is produced CO₂ neutral from cradle to gate, it is the ultimate flooring solution in many ways.
✔ CO2 neutral (cradle to gate), without offsetting
✔ Endless possibilities in colours & designs
✔ New Topshield PRO finish for long-term performance
✔ Allergy and asthma friendly – certified by Allergy UK
✔ Easy to clean & maintain
✔ Low cost of ownership
✔ GECA certified
Discover Marmoleum floor coverings
Vinyl floors are very popular because of their durability, low maintenance and versatility. Homogeneous vinyl is made of one single layer that offers vibrancy and depth of colour. It is incredibly durable and stain-resistant, which makes it a great flooring choice for heavy traffic areas.
✔ High resistance to chemicals, scratches, and stains
✔ Low in VOC and phthalate free
✔ Easy to clean externally tested
✔ Premium homogeneous vinyl with Type 1 binder
✔ Green Tag GreenRate Level A and Best Practice PVC certified
We care about you and the environment
● We maintain EPD's and numerous global certifications across our products and our production facilities.
● All of our manufacturing sites are ISO certified and run on renewable electricity where possible. Raw materials are used efficiently, production waste is recycled.
● We are committed to social responsibility with Forbo production sites and supply chains certified according to SA8000.
● Local commitment - Forbo Flooring Systems Australia has partnered with Carbon Neutral Charitable Fund (not for profit organisation) to plant *native Australian trees and shrubs*. Every square metre of Marmoleum installed now contributes to restoring Australian native forests.
● Forbo is a founding member of the World Green Building Council and benchmark against the UN's Sustainable Development goals.
creating better environments
We offer you:
● A single supplier and system warranty for all of your flooring requirements
● local advice, support and project management
● efficiencies of scale, the certainty of supply, delivery and after installation backup.
Above all one single contract and one single point of contact to save you time and money.
Forbo Flooring Systems is part of the Swiss Forbo Group
A worldwide presence:
● 15 manufacturing plants in Europe
● 38 Flooring sales offices worldwide
● 90 additional markets served via strategic partnerships
● over 70 key account managers across 30 countries
Can't find what you are looking for despite our wide product range?
No worries, we have more. Within our Bespoke Design flooring you can design your own unique floor with our digital print techniques in:
- Flotex
- Eternal/ Surestep project vinyl
- Coral entrance flooring
- Aquajet cutting technique for Marmoleum flooring
STEM studies will develop within our younger generations the capability skills needed for the future; in critical thinking & problem solving, organised process, analysis & assessment.
Yet, to prepare them for a wonderful & purposeful life where they are confident and motivated to make a difference, and to solve problems we may not even be aware of yet, they also need to develop their imagination and ideation skills, collaboration, agility & adaptability, and communication skills.
The Australian government is supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) learning at all ages with an investment of $5.1 million in STEM focused initiatives. Source
With one of their main focus being classroom design to support in STEM learning, a bad design can have a negative effect on student engagement, while good design can assist to inspire and motivate students.
To deliver high quality learning space design that will support inspirational STEM experiences and deeper learning, several essential ingredients are needed ;
● Functional design: It must work for all users, teachers & students!
● Beautiful design: The aesthetic should reflect the activity and the culture
● Purposeful design: The floor becomes the teacher’s aide
Using Augmented Reality accessed through web-based or device based Apps, the story of the artwork can be told to all who visit; this could be done in the local indigenous language or any other language, so that everyone can understand and share the story.
Educators and students can continue with deeper learning activities combining the stories of old with new technologies; using the floor as an additional ‘third teacher’.
Augmented reality can be ‘triggered’ or turned-on within an established device (smartphone or tablet) using a well-defined image.
The artwork can activate animation, a short video, a slide deck or PDF, and can be coupled with music, a voiceover or a soundbite – it is up to the imagination of the people setting up and managing the experience.
Learning spaces can be established with numerous triggers (images) with which an educator can assign puzzle pieces, clues, animations, etc. To further engage students in a current lesson; then changing it again for the next lesson. Each teacher can create their own content for their own lessons or have students create the content.
We understand the importance of employee & student health and wellbeing. Our product portfolio is designed with these two factors in mind. A high standard of employee + students' comfort and wellbeing means optimised productivity.
How our floor coverings contribute to a healthy learning environment:
● All our floorcoverings are very low in VOC
● Made with 100% renewable electricity
● Marmoleum is CO2 neutral for the cradle to gate life cycle stages of the product.
● All our products are phthalate-free
In the future of Australian education - Sustainable places for learning 2013 report from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) shows that students in day-lit school environments demonstrated:
● 20% faster progression in mathematics
● 26% faster progression in reading
● 5-10% increase in performance when students had window views.
Floors can influence significantly the performance of the lighting in a classroom, so choosing the right floor is really important.
The interior layout of a classroom can have a significant impact on learning and is often overlooked. A poor layout can cause disorientation and confusion, which can have a negative impact on staff and students.
- Design of walkways, differentiation of different zones and signage affects the staff and student’s ability to navigate or orient themselves within the facility, especially in large universities.
The use of different flooring types, or even signs embedded into the floorcovering for walkways, classrooms, different zones etc… within the facility, can make navigation throughout much easier for the building user.
The “look and feel” of learning environments will affect how students will affect students' engagement and overall academic outcomes.
A report from 2013 GBCA Green Schools shows a study from the University of Salford and Nightingale Architects in the UK linked the overall impact of school building design to learning outcomes.
In fact, they discovered that classroom interior can affect a student academic progress over a year by much as 25%.
Noise pollution is known to cause a wide array of physical and behavioural symptoms that can negatively impact staff and students. A Study showed students have difficulty understanding nearly 30 percent of classroom speech due to excessive noise and sound reverberation.
Metrics and design considerations commonly used to assess acoustic conditions include:
● Background noise
● Privacy and speech interference
Designers can create improved acoustic conditions for retail environments by using building materials that are designed to create acoustic barriers.
Choosing the type of floor carefully will help to create the right level of acoustic you want to reach.
Biophilia is an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world. It has been demonstrated that exposure to the natural world (through any of the five senses) has a positive effect on an individual’s wellbeing by reducing stress levels.
Because students spend several hours a day in the classroom, people are spending up to 90% of our time in an unnatural environment, this results in a negative impact on our emotional well-being, cognitive function, and physical health. Biophilic designs enable people to reconnect nature in the built environment.
In studies of learning environments, the biophilic design was shown:
● Increased attendance
● Higher test scores
● Improved behaviour
● Reduced stress
● Increased engagement and focus
CSRIO estimates the cost of poor indoor air quality in Australia may be as high as 12 billion per year. Science Advisory Board has consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health.
Numerous experiments carried out demonstrates that learning environments with lower air quality can have a negative effect on children's health and academic performance.
What is indoor air quality? IAQ is defined by the concentrations of various pollutants such as:
● Pollutant concentration
● CO2 concentration
● Mould
● Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
● Dust
Better indoor air quality can be achieved through low or zero VOC furnishing materials such as floors, adhesives used and cleaning products.
When you are refurbishing your building and you have a short time period to finish during school holidays. With Forbo products, you can complete the installation fast and efficiently. Talk to us to learn about what preparation is required and how to complete installations as smoothly as possible.
Room renovation
● Possibility to install on top of existing floor
● Subfloor preparation
● Adhesives
Technical people need to talk to technical people. They understand each other and know how to help best in certain situations. In each market we have dedicated technical teams on hand to assist with questions relating to:
● Evaluating subfloor conditions
● Choosing the efficient installation method
● Questions on installation and/or maintenance