Biënnale Interieur 2012 [ 6 ] - Decostyle

Round table
Flexible floors
“The individual aspect is becoming ever more important”
The market of flexible floor coverings is on the move. More than in most other areas of interior
decoration, this is a sector in which the technology evolves at lightning speed. But how does
this market deal with other trends, such as the increasing individualization of the interior?
And what about the ecology? We spoke to seven professionals from this sector.
Let us start by giving an overview of the
participants. Tatiana Batache is Sales
& Technical Manager at 4m Europe, a
company specialized in the installation of
epoxy resin and cast floors. Christ Taveirne
is product manager at Moduleo, which imports
modular design floors and tiles and
recently built a plant in Avelgem (Belgium,
West Flanders). Moduleo mainly targets
interior designers and architects for
residential and commercial applications.
mFlor is represented by sales manager
Tom De Rydt. mFlor distributes innovative
design floors, to be used in both
the project and the residential markets.
Next to Tom De Rydt sits Jean-François de
Meester, sales manager at Tarkett Benelux,
which offers vinyl, laminate floors
and parquet floors for the residential market.
Finally, the Balta group is represented
by Geert Vanden Bossche, Philippe Van
Hecke and Christian Ysenbaert. Balta
Broadloom operates in the wider carpet
sector, going from wall-to-wall carpet to
woven rugs and residential tiles.
Flexible floors
First of all, the subject must be clearly
defined. What do our guest speakers
consider to be ‘soft floor coverings’?
“A good question”, reacts Tom De
Rydt. “Not everywhere does this term
refer to the same thing. At mFlor, for
example, we don’t refer to the LVT
floors as soft floor coverings. “With
us it’s different”, says Jean-François
De Meester. “The consumer often
compares vinyl to laminate flooring. In
the DIY shops LVT is to be found in the
decoration department, but we wonder
why this cannot be offered along
with laminate floors?” According to
Tatiane Batache as well there is a very
narrow margin between soft and hard
floor coverings. “You can hardly call
an epoxy carpet soft. It is hard as rock.
Polyurethane on the contrary is a soft
material. The distinction is sometimes
difficult to make.” Philippe Van Hecke
draws a clear line: “Vinyl and textiles
belong in the category of soft floors,
all the rest we refer to as hard.” His
colleague Geert Vanden Bossche differentiates
a little. “Maybe the better
term to use would be ‘flexible floors’.”
Transforming a room
What does our panel consider to
be the advantages of ‘their’ variations
of ‘soft’ floors? Geert Vanden
Bossche: “In the UK, we recently ran
an advertising campaign by Balta
Broadloom under the slogan ‘Carpet
transforms a room’. This is spot-on.
Carpet is a cheap way to create a different
atmosphere inside a room. It
moreover has acoustic advantages, it
is soft and it is comfortable. Despite
the preconceived opinions, carpet is
also easy to maintain.”
“Epoxy resin floors are extremely
handy for renovations in both residential
and commercial environments”,
thinks Christ Taveirne. “This has a lot
to do with the minimal thickness of the
material.” Tatiana Batache agrees with
Christ Taveirne. “The same goes for
polyurethane cast floors. Polyurethane
cast floors weigh very little, as a result
they can also be used in the attic or in
apartments. The aesthetic story also
plays its role: any colour is possible,
we can insert drawings into the floor
and even imitate wood or concrete.”
“The same goes for vinyl”, says Jean-
François de Meester. “These floors are
available in an ever increasing amount
of beautiful colours. The installation
is easy, the maintenance simple, and
unlike laminate floors vinyl provides an
excellent acoustic barrier.”
“Vinyl is a product that is suited for
different kinds of projects”, judges
Tom De Rydt. “The technical side of
the story is right and the floors generally
look very good. But it remains a
fact that every product has its own
characteristics and that an architect
must choose which kind of floor best
meets his requirements. I notice a
certain increasing fluidity in the market
of soft floor coverings. Laminate
flooring, for example, became popular
in a very short period of time.”
Seamless cast floors
Jean-François de Meester already
talked about the installation, a subject
that is of particular importance in a
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