Deco mag Spring '17 issue

io-resin flooring
Deco mag 26
Pour me a floor!
Sphere8 poured resin floors are bio-based
and have none of the toxicity of epoxy resin
A Sphere8 poured resin floor
is seamless, which gives a
lovely smooth surface that
flows from room to room.
The castor oil-based resin
can be colour matched to
pretty much any shade.
Deciding on flooring for
your home can be surprisingly
difficult. There’s carpet, wood,
stone, ceramic tile, vinyl and
resilient flooring...but for those
who want an easy maintence
smooth floor that doesn’t have
joins, and which has good
eco credentials, enter the
bio resin poured floor.
This material - which can
also be used on walls - is
poured to a depth of just
4mm and offers a seamless
floor that can flow from room
to room. Sweep it and wash
it regularly with soapy water
and it’ll reward you with many
years’ service.
Sphere8 is a London-based
company offer bio-based
poured resin flooring and it
explains the environmental
and health benefits:
*firstly, the material has castor
oil as its core ingredient, so
it’s bio-based rather than
derived from petro-chemicals;
*it doesn’t off-gas so is a
good choice if good indoor
air quality is a priority.
Castor oil bean-based
resins
Industry is looking to use
biodegradable materials,
non-polluting and biomass
products, and castor oilbased
polyurethane resin
is a good alternative to
formaldehyde-based resins.
Castor is a sustainable
plant (and one that must be
handled very carefully as
castor beans are the source
of the deadly poison ricin) that
thrives in Asia and tropical
regions and as such castor
oil is increasingly seen as a
bio-product that can help the
vinyl flooring industry move
away from petrochemicals
as the core ingredient. The
use of renewable raw
materials reduces fossil-fuel
dependency and can help
mitigate climate change.
Q&A with Isobel Stewart at
Sphere8
What are the advantages of a
poured resin floor over, say, a
vinyl floor?
Obviously there are the eco
benefits of using a
sustainably-derived product.
But when it comes to vinyl or
rubber flooring, these floors
tend to come in sheets or tile
form, so you don’t have the
wastage associated with them
Our floors are poured and are
built-up in layers so they are
completely seamless in any
interior. We can work within
any space and over several
floors. We have expert
installers who carry out our
projects – so you don’t need
to source or pay for
a third-party installer.
We also offer complete
flexibility in colour and
design – unlike vinyl flooring
that comes in set ranges.
A poured floor - it sounds
like it could be very messy
to install!
It’s definitely an expert
process, but it’s not that
messy! Essentially our floors
are made up of several layers
that are each poured and
then allowed to cure – they