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Kingspan warns against reusing flooring

13 Jan 15 The growing trend of recycling access flooring carries a significant risk of failure, a leading manufacturer has warned.

Kingspan Access Floors, the UK’s leading supplier of access flooring, has warned about the dangers of contractors taking up raised floors from buildings being renovated or demolished and then reusing them elsewhere.

The flooring panels are structural components and there is no way of knowing what stresses have been imposed upon them in their previous use or if they have already been overloaded, the company said.

Any Kingspan warranty is made void by reuse of a floor unless it is inspected by Kingspan before, the company said.

Kingspan Access Floors managing director Terry Newman said: “There is a relatively new but growing trend of contractors attempting to recycle complete second hand flooring systems. This is causing some concern because it is impossible to determine what wear or damage has been inflicted on the system during its life or whilst it is being dismantled and removed, particularly as it is a structural product.

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“Raised floors must generally perform safely under conditions of excess load in the order of 9kN. The raised floor is normally subjected to its greatest levels of abuse during the initial construction period, but during its life heavy equipment may often be pulled across it as plant and machinery is replaced or updated.

“The primary performance specification in the UK, the PSA Specification, recommends that a raised floor should have a life of at least 25 years so the floor will see numerous changes over its life, some of which might have a detrimental effect on its structural performance, especially if it has been overloaded.

“We have seen examples where a raised floor has been used for 20 years and has been offered for reuse with a performance warranty of 5 years; i.e. the PSA Specification recommended 25 year life cycle, less the period of time it has been in use. Although that may sound logical, you would not know whether the floor has been subjected to abuse, overloading etc. that may have had a detrimental effect on its ongoing performance.”

Mr Newman concluded: “Reusing a flooring system would be admirable from a recycling point of view if the practice was not open to so many risks. Kingspan is committed to the environment and recycling, and we offer a service where we will take back our old raised flooring systems and recycle the steel and chipboard cores for reuse.”

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