Polyflor SA used the glamorous setting of the Melrose Arch Gallery in Sandton, Johannesburg, as the backdrop to their launch of Palettone PUR – Polyflor’s new range of spectacularly colourful, homogenous flooring collection.

“We were inspired by this range’s beautiful palette of colours and felt that an artistic, colourful environment such as an art gallery would be the ideal setting to introduce this new range of floors to our customers, sales staff and the media,” says Tandy Coleman, CEO of Polyflor SA.

According to Tandy, Polyflor has spent the past 4 years delving into the psychology, philosophy and trends of colour in every aspect of our world. The psychology of colour and the new and different ways in which complimentary and contrasting colours are being used where we live, work and play, have resulted in in-depth studies aimed at determining the effects of colour and how to use them, which colours stimulate thinking and concentration, which are soothing and restful and if colours help inspire thinking or create a feeling of wellbeing.

In choosing colours for Palettone, the Polyflor product design team started with 200 colours. However, taking all their research into account and focussing on the colours that stem from nature, they settled on 7 colour palettes comprising a total of 50 different shades – including classic neutrals, soothing pastels and daring brights.

Each Palettone design is made up of a solid colour base and complementary toned highlights. The collection includes shades designed to inspire commercial project with their aptly named titles such as Lunar Landscape, Festival Field, Faded Denim, Sugar Candy, Cayenne Heat and China Clay.

Explains Tandy: “This floor is truly suitable for use in any area of design - from healthcare to education, retail to commercial. Designed for contemporary interior design schemes in commercial, leisure, retail, education, healthcare and office projects, the durable Palettone sheet vinyl flooring features a non-directional, semi-matt emboss for the even distribution of light reflectance. more 2/…pallettone twoIn some colours, the contrast is more obvious than others, but there is a science to this which relates not only to making up the colour, but also showing less dirt or scratches by this complementary blend of colours. The subtle tone-on-tone designs in the Palettone range mean it is a perfect fit-for-purpose floor covering solution for dementia-friendly environments”.

All 50 Palettone shades have a matte surface with a PUR coating for easy maintenance and are available in 2m x 20m sheet format. 12 of these shades are available in 608 x 608mm tiles and 6 are available in static dissipative (SD) sheet specification for use in areas where static control is required, such as in telecommunications installations, computer rooms, electronic manufacturing and healthcare facilities, such as scanner rooms, X-ray suites and operating theatres.

Combined with a superior closed surface finish, this range offers high quality, cross-linked, UV cured polyurethane reinforcements that protects the floor covering by resisting soiling and scuffing, as well as enhanced PUR protection that creates a polish-free maintenance regime for the lifetime of the flooring. It has low VOCs and carries an unprecedented 15-year warranty.

“The new Palettone collection offers our customers the widest variety of homogeneous vinyl flooring designs to date, with a shade available to complement every interior design scheme imaginable. As with our other commercial vinyl ranges, Palettone performs to a high standard, has excellent durability, is easy to maintain and provides endless design opportunities. When it comes to colour and choice, we want our customers to think Palettone,” Tandy concludes.

For more information, visit www.polyflor.co.za

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Issued on behalf of Polyflor SA by Aim Marketing & Communications Consulants. For media enquiries, please contact Monique Holtzhausen on (021) 531-0313 or (071) 083-5219. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Polyflor SA recently assisted Cape Town-based Noero Architects with an installation of a 624 m² floor at Wynberg Girls’ High School (WGHS) as part of an innovative expansion project at the school. Founded in 1884, this beautiful and historic school is situated in the shadows of Table Mountain has once again proven why it is renowned for offering excellent facilities and its ability to embrace change.

We need to grow… but where to?

According to Uno Pereira of Noero Architects, the school needed to add additional classrooms in order to meet the demands of a growing school.  Previously, they were told that the only way to build eight new classrooms was to add an extra floor onto the two side existing banks of classrooms. This, however, would obliterate the view of the Table Mountain range from the courtyard and paralyze the use of eight classrooms below the new classrooms during construction, creating havoc with the school’s timetable.

Noero Architects suggested an alternative to this option. After much deliberation, they presented a novel solution by creating a “street” between existing classrooms and the new ones on either side of the court that allowed for the adding of two new wings of four classrooms. Each wing was placed to either side of the court at ground level.

Classrooms for the future

“The school’s headmaster, Shirley Harding, wanted us to start imagining what the classroom of the future would be like.  To this end, she allowed us to hold a series of workshops with the teachers and students to understand how the classroom environment and teaching methods have changed and what new possibilities await us as we embrace new technologies and rethink how learning can happen in these new spaces,” Uno explains.

The newly built classrooms were covered with earth for environmental and climatic reasons – resulting in a new inclined planted courtyard and which offers even better views of the mountain range. The increased size of the courtyard and the shape itself allows the school to use the space for a whole new range of uses, such as concerts and performances, or a communal space which can be used by a number of different groups of pupils of varying sizes and ages.

The right floor to do the job

Fortunately, the task of deciding which floor covering to use to not only complement the interiors, but also be able to withstand the rigorous demands of school life in the newly completed classrooms, posed to be less of a challenge.

“We selected Polyflor based on the excellent support they had given us during previous projects that we had worked on together, especially the UWC Sports Centre”, Uno explains.  He adds that the requirements and guidelines set out by the Department of Education specified the use of vinyl tiles as mandatory floor finish of choice for WGHS.

“We had a limited palette of colors to work with due to maintenance requirements from the school.  With the interior walls being painted white and the polycarbonate sheeting used for the skylights diffusing the light and dulling most colors, we needed a warm color on the floors to make the interiors more vibrant. For this reason, we selected Polyflor’s XLPU 2mm in Citrine, which gave us a modern look that was warm, yet practical and worked well with the school’s colours,” he observes.

Understanding the specific flooring demands of educational environments

Commenting on the success of the project, Polyflor SA Chief Executive Officer Tandy Coleman says they were very excited to work on the project.  “Because my father and the Chairman of Polyflor SA, Denver Coleman, is an Old Boy of Wynberg Boys’ High School, we have a strong connection with the WGHS.  We also have in-depth knowledge of the particular demands that the school environment puts on floors and how to best meet these needs with our floors,” Tandy says, explaining that educational establishments, in their very nature, are busy and challenging environments that require a high performing floor.

“The primary function of a floor finish is to provide a durable, safe, clean, attractive and affordable surface.  The specific type of flooring selected is often a complex decision that is influenced by various factors, such as the age of the children, function of the space, activity levels and the intensity of footfall.  Durability and ease of maintenance are general concerns throughout teaching and classroom facilities. However, floors should always enhance the learning environment,” Tandy explains.  She emphasises that the overwhelming advantage of modern day vinyl flooring is that it meets all the performance, design and flexibility requirements and contributes to a superior learning environment.

“Today’s school floors are bright, colourful and cheerful without sacrificing on practicality or ease of maintenance. For this reason, we have seen an unprecedented increase in the amount of vinyl floors that are being installed in schools targeting all age groups over the past decade. The successful installation at WGHS has once again demonstrated the importance of understanding what the needs of the learners and the teachers are, and trying to find a floor that will best fit between those creating the learning environment, those who will use the learning environment and those providing the products for the learning environment,” she concludes.

For more information, visit www.polyflor.co.za or www.noeroarchitects.com

Polyflor has become the only flooring manufacturer to achieve an ‘Excellent’ rating for BES 6001 certification, a standard for the Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products as certified by Britain’s Building Research Establishment (BRE), for products manufactured at its Whitefield and Teesside facilities. 

According to Tandy Coleman, CEO of Polyflor SA, they are immensely proud of this achievement.  “Polyflor was the first flooring manufacturer to obtain BES 6001 certification in 2015 with a ‘Very Good’ rating. However, refusing to rest on their laurels, the company worked hard over the past two  years to further improve their responsible sourcing procedures at manufacturing facilities to successfully achieve the highest possible rating”, Tandy says, highlighting the fact that Polyflor remains the only floorcovering manufacturer to obtain the BES 6001 standard. 

Polyflor has been manufacturing vinyl floors at its Whitefield manufacturing facility for over 65 years. Independent BRE auditors awarded a fantastic score of 51 out of a maximum 52 points, certifying that Polyflor’s products conform to the highest responsible sourcing standards when judged according to Organisational Management, Supply Chain Management and Environmental and Social Responsibility Management. 

Improving Polyflor’s BES 6001 rating has been a massive undertaking that required input from all areas of the business over the past two years.  Apart from making changes to the supplier base, Polyflor also had to make certain improvements to the way things are recorded and the reporting of the company’s environmental performance in the Polyflor Sustainability Report. The hard work and challenges set out by the BES 6001 framework has driven Polyflor to scrutinize their own supply chain more than ever before with even more commitment to using trusted, local suppliers who are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified. 

“Considering that there are over 60 companies being assessed around the world, this is the highest score ever awarded by the BRE for the BES 6001 standard and is a fantastic achievement which benefits all of us. These are the very same floors that we import into South Africa and which are installed around the country in leading hospitals, hotels, offices, schools and sports complexes.  Polyflor customers in South Africa and the rest of the world can be confident in the knowledge that they are using a flooring supplier that has sound environmental credentials,” Tandy concludes. 

For more information, visit www.polyflor.co.za

Note to the editor
BES 6001 certification is one of Polyflor’s many sustainability and corporate social responsibility credentials, sitting alongside ISO 14001, individual BRE A+ ratings, EN 15804 EPDs, Indoor Air Comfort Gold, FloorScore and Recofloor. BES 6001 and BRE certificates are available to view and download at www.polyflor.com/environment or www.greenbooklive.com.

The Border Kei Institute of Architects (BKIA), in partnership with Polyflor SA, recently gave 32 architects a glimpse into what is required to plan and construct a state-of-the-art healthcare facility, by hosting an information day at the nearly completed Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in East London.

This tertiary teaching hospital is located in the Mdantsane township in East London, Eastern Cape – the second largest township in South Africa after Soweto – and was named after the first African woman to become a professional nurse in South Africa.

Construction started in 2011 and it is expected that the facility will officially open its doors in December 2017. It boasts a nursing college, accommodation for nurses and doctors, emergency medical services, general surgery, a TB unit, maternity wards, accident and trauma unit, intensive care unit, orthopaedic surgery, 630 beds (530 specialist beds and 100 mental health), a TB unit with 700 beds and other standard medical divisions to serve a population of 267,000.

According to Carike Gouws, Infrastructure Portfolio Manager for the Sarah Barman District, the aim of the information day was to showcase an example of one of the country’s state-of-the-art health facilities and inspire architects to get involved in health planning.

“The BKIA hosts a number of CPD events for local architects throughout the year.  However, it is not often that we can visit a building of this complexity and in a specialized field of architecture on our doorstep, and it was therefore undoubtedly one of the highlights on the BKIA calendar,” Gouws says.

Highlights of the day included a lecture and guided tour of the facilities by Hylton Schwenk of Sakhiwo Health Solutions and the Health Planner on the project, and an informative session on the importance of screed preparation and building protection by Tandy Coleman of Polyflor, sponsors of the event.

Polyflor provided 29 574 m² of Pearlazzo PUR vinyl sheeting, 2 950 m2 of Astral PUR heavy-duty flexible vinyl sheet safety flooring, 1 200 m² of highly decorative Hydro Evolve safety vinyl flooring and 490 m² of ESD flooring throughout the new facility - thereby combining the assurance of sustainable slip resistance with high durability for years to come.

“The day offered a valuable opportunity for architects and specialists in the field to talk about the complexity of healthcare design and health planning, and also to ask and answer questions they had about how specific challenges were overcome,” Tandy confirms.

“The architects who attended were amazed by the technology and complexity around health planning, and were also very vocal about how beautiful the floors still look two years after they were installed, and with minimal maintenance.  We value the opportunity we were given to engage with them on a personal level and to be able to offer them advice on similar projects in which they might be involved,” she says.

It was clear that the day was a huge success and that everyone also enjoyed the opportunity to see the inner-workings of a high-tech hospital such as the theatres, circulation areas and wards.  “A lot of effort goes into health planning and that it is critical to have a well experienced and educated team who has knowledge of both building and healthcare to arrive at such a well thought out functional and aesthetically pleasing building. Polyflor's involvement and sponsorship made the event possible and for that we are very thankful,” Carike concluded.

For more information, visit www.polyflor.co.za