FeRFA Guide makes for excellent floor show

FeRFA, the Resin Flooring Association, represents a wide range of leading manufacturers as well as contractors and other associated companies involved in resin flooring systems. For more than 45 years it's been the recognised voice of the resin flooring industry, taking a leading role in developing global standards.

FeRFA is a superb trade association because it is so active. One of its earliest accomplishments was to create a framework that put the various flooring systems on the market into some sort of context. Their classification system, which runs from one to eight and categorises floors according to durability and product type, enables contractors and specifiers to compare products on a like-for-like basis, helping to simplify the specification process.

For instance, if a client has two manufacturers pitching a floor to them, all they'd need to ask is, ‘what FeRFA rating would this floor be'? If one says ‘four' and the other says ‘three', it then becomes clear different systems are being pitched. The chances are one of the systems being pitched will be thinner than the other and have a different build-up, making it inappropriate for the materials that it will have to withstand. The FeRFA classification system answers a number of important questions, such as:

• How do different products compare in terms of cost?
• What's the likely durability of the floor?
• Is the floor appropriate for its intended environment?

Loud and clear

Ultimately, the FeRFA guide demystifies the specification process by cutting-through product marketing. If a contractor recommends a type of floor, you can see for yourself why it's being specified. The whole process makes it easier for an educated contractor to guide an uneducated specifier as to what type of floor is suitable without changing the language because everyone's essentially reading from the same page.

Furthermore, the guidance document enables customers to generate an anticipated flooring life-time by comparing the flooring classifications with expected traffic loads. 

This provides customers with an estimated figure – giving them the reassurance of an educated ‘guarantee' in terms of number of years the system should last for.

And this figure then allows Sika's own flooring guarantees, something I believe is unique to UK manufacturers within the industry and potentially over and above the guidance, to be seen in context.

It's my opinion that FeRFA's success is due to having the right people in the right positons. Its members, who have a wealth of industry knowledge and experience, are actively influencing how flooring standards are devised and how the industry is regulated. Manufacturers are very clear about what a floor will and won't do.

However, a FeRFA rating allows for easy comparison with floors of similar type, making it easier to see where your floor sits in the grand scheme of things, which is a very good thing indeed.

by Simon Clark, Sika Flooring Product Manager