Navjot Dhillon
Navjot Dhillon is marketing manager for Gerflor

What has been the most rewarding project you have worked on?
The Bravehound charity is the canine wing of the charity Glen Art (which supports former servicemen and women and their families) and was seeking to modernise its training facility in Scotland’s Erskine Hospital. They needed some new safety flooring so we happily agreed to donate some. The Bravehound project needed 200 sq m of our Tarasafe Standard vinyl safety flooring, and we were hugely pleased to be able to help it out. On another occasion, we donated 119 sq m of products (including our Taralay Impression Comfort and Taralay Uni Comfort vinyl flooring ranges) to a local charity in Swansea to rebuild its support centre. That was part of a BBC1 Children In Need episode.

What has been your most challenging project? How did you overcome the challenge to produce something you were proud of?
At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games we were involved in the manufacture, delivery, installation and dismantling of flooring for seven volleyball courts and six handball courts. It was a colossal flooring project totalling more than 15,000 sq m, featuring our Taraflex sports flooring product.

What are your most important considerations when planning a project?
First, it must be the look. We are always on a crusade to manufacture stunning-looking floors. We see these as things of beauty and not just functional products. We also always strive through our R&D to produce flooring products that really deliver on performance. The overall lifecycle costs must always be a consideration as that impacts on the eventual customer’s budgets. The original star in our homogeneous stable was our Mipolam Symbioz flooring, which was the first Mipolam 100 per cent biobased plasticiser made of corn and wheat. With eco considerations in mind, we are one of the foremost global flooring manufacturers, producing ranges with the lowest volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. Gerflor products are regularly assessed in accordance with ISO 16000 standards. Air quality inside buildings is not undermined because there are no formaldehyde or carcinogenic emissions from our products. Awareness of trends in fashion, architecture, culture and industry features heavily in our creative direction. Our design team takes great care to produce forward-thinking designs, colours and textures that are way ahead of their time. In doing so, we can provide our customers with a slight glimpse of the future.

How much freedom do you have on each project? Or does this depend on the client? By offering a bespoke design service in terms of logos and water jet cutting, we can personalise various products to suit each customer. When Falkirk Council required flooring for Carrongrange, an additional support needs [ASN] school in Scotland, it turned to us to supply 4,000 sq m of flooring products that could deliver stunning looks, durability and performance. The flooring would have to meet very high traffic demands and reflect the school’s logos and colours. In fact, the pupils themselves had a hand in designing the badge for the new school, and by using our water jet cutting system were able to incorporate their new logo into our Mipolam Elegance flooring. The products supplied would consist of our award-winning Taralay Impression Control safety flooring, together with our Tarasafe Ultra and Tarasafe Ultra H20. The Carrongrange development would also specify our GTI Max and Mipolam SD products to complete the huge overall flooring requirement.

What are the key factors and trends to take into account when designing floors in the 21st century?
Noise, hygiene and the actual look of the flooring play a huge part in the design of our products. Having identified emerging styles and trends, the gestation period for a new decorative vinyl or LVT range is around 12 to 18 months. The trick is to successfully unite innovations in design, advanced production techniques and the best sustainable materials. We are always pushing the boundaries in the design, colour, texturing, finishes and performance of decorative vinyls and LVTs that are not necessarily possible with other flooring materials.

Our broad design scope enables us to capitalise on trends for global markets. For example, as wood is an everpopular choice, replicas in vinyl have been perfected to look as good as the real thing, but with fashionable colours and grained finishes providing an individual, modern edge. However, the new ‘kid on the block’ is the geometric trend. Stylish geometric shapes take on a new, striking dimension as they are re-formed into unique, powerful designs with clever illusions of relief. Perfect for making bold, interior statements where it matters.

Gerflor’s Tarasafe vinyl safety flooring is a welcome addition to Glen Art’s Erskine Hospital training facility

What is special and different about the Ng Teng Fong hospital project in Singapore? What was most rewarding about this experience?
The most unique part of this high-profile project was the vast variances that were needed for different hospital departments, together with the massive amount of flooring required. The wards and general visitor areas would need 85,000 sq m of our Tarasafe Ultra slip-resistant safety flooring. The project would also see 12,500 sq m of our Taralay Premium flooring specified for the corridors. Our Taralay Impression Comfort Wood product was selected for the facility’s 8,500 sq m VIP rooms, as it provides good levels of sound insulation along with comfort underfoot. Being able to supply such a range of flooring products that would really assist the hospital in its day-to-day operation was immensely rewarding. To see our products in action every day doing the job they were designed to do was fantastic – and on such a large scale, too.

What type of floor would you install if there were no restrictions in terms of budget or anything else? In other words, what is your fantasy floor?

Imagine a Gerflor floor on the Moon – or even Mars! It adds a whole new dimension to slip resistance. Producing this new ‘stellar’ flooring range could capture the imagination of the whole planet, as it would provide the grip and the look for a spaceship or living pod in another world. That would be totally incredible.

Imagine if Gerflor were the first flooring manufacturer to produce flooring that could work in zero gravity, and be the everyday surface for astronauts. Who wants carpet on the Moon when you can have great-looking, maintenancefree, vibrant luxury vinyl tiles?
One small step for man. One large step for Gerflor!