The flooring in your medical practice is an element that can add or detract from the overall feel you want in the office. Because of that, you don’t want to leave choosing your medical center flooring to the last minute or do so without consulting a flooring installer. There are many considerations that should go into choosing the right flooring. For example, what you do in the practice will influence whether one material is better than another. Safety for your patients and practitioners is another consideration.
In part one of choosing the best medical center flooring, we covered tile, luxury vinyl flooring and commercial laminate. All of which have their own pros and cons. In today’s blog, we’re going to look at the pros and cons of vinyl, carpet and rubber flooring. You’ll notice that as flooring installers we love hardwood, but we’re not addressing that in this blog series because it is almost never the right flooring for a medical center.
Vinyl Flooring
Not to be confused with luxury vinyl flooring, traditional vinyl flooring comes in sheets and tiles. One advantage of sheet vinyl is that it is one of the most waterproof of flooring materials. In most exam rooms and even many operating rooms, it can be installed without seams. This means that there is little chance of water or other fluids getting between seams and damaging the flooring or subfloors. However, when you install something that’s one piece, if it does sustain damage, you have to replace the entire room. That is one reason vinyl tile is so common for medical center flooring. If an area is damaged, the damaged tiles may be removed and replaced.
Carpet Tiles
Carpet is rarely the best medical center flooring. It gets dirty easily and wears faster than most flooring materials. However, carpet tiles are often chosen for assisted living centers, especially in their common areas. This helps patients feel like they’re in a living room rather than a medical facility. It is also common in consultation rooms where you are looking to create a calm and comforting feeling for patients receiving difficult news or learning about an upcoming procedure. Carpet also absorbs sound best out of all the flooring options.
Rubber Flooring
Rubber flooring should not be thought of as something only for a gym. In fact, it’s among the fastest growing of all medical center flooring options. Today’s rubber flooring comes in both sheet and tile formats in many colors and patterns. Rubber flooring is easy to stand on and also absorbs sounds better than many other flooring options. Like vinyl sheet flooring, rubber sheet flooring can reduce the seams which prevents water beneath the tiles. And quality rubber flooring has built in wax that helps release dirt and grime from the floors. Its main downside is the initial cost.
Let Seer Flooring Help You Choose the Right Flooring
As both a residential and commercial flooring company with offices in Sarasota, Palm Harbor, and Clearwater, call us when you need new flooring. Our team understands that medical center flooring is different than residential flooring needs. Call us today at (727) 469-7963 or fill out our contact form to schedule your free consultation. We can work with architects and designers at any phase of your project.