A Leap in Business Thanks to New Sprung Flooring

The Farley Wood Centre in Bracknell has upgraded all its community areas with Le Mark Woodland™ sprung flooring and a Cadenza™ anti-bacterial vinyl surface.

The Farley Wood Centre provides premises for organisations to run regular activities for the local community. Additionally, it offers residents an affordable hall that can be hired for one-off events, such as parties. The two halls are regularly filled with a variety of organisations. These include a pre-school nursery, a successful dance school offering a wide range of child and adult classes, line dancing, and several fitness groups.

Paul Sibley, Farley Wood Community Association Chairman, spoke about their need for new sprung dance floors.

Selecting a Safe, Sprung Dance Floor

“In common with many similar halls, the Centre was built with a concrete floor covered by hard-wearing vinyl tiles,” explained Paul. “We realised this posed a possible injury risk. As a result, the Association decided to invest in a floor that was better suited to some of the higher impact dance and fitness styles that wished to use the halls.

“Initially, we invited several companies to discuss our requirements and suggest appropriate solutions. Le Mark’s team were a pleasure to deal with and made several site visits to discuss our options.  They also left samples for us to mull over with the various user groups. Therefore, we felt very confident in selecting Le Mark.

“Their recommendation was the Woodland sprung dance floor and the hard-wearing Cadenza vinyl surface. Cadenza offered the added benefit to the nursery of being antibacterial.

“The ordering process was very straightforward. Le Mark’s own fitters were able to install the new sprung flooring quickly and painlessly, with minimal impact to our users – a vital consideration for us.”

A Decision to Expand

The new floor was so successful in increasing the usability and attractiveness of the main hall, that it was subsequently installed in the second hall. The Association also chose to continue the Cadenza vinyl surface throughout the reception and corridor areas. This provided a consistent wood-look floor throughout the centre.

Increased Bookings

“The result was universally welcomed by all groups and hall users,” said Paul. “We’ve had many, many positive comments on how it improved the look and ambience of the hall.

“The existing dance and fitness groups reported that it offered a wonderful feel underfoot with just the right level of non-slip surface. Visitors who view the Centre for the first time when hiring it for private functions are very pleasantly surprised at how smart and welcoming the flooring is.

“The number of enquiries we received from groups wishing to offer physical activities also increased. The hall is now at almost 100% utilisation six days a week, from 8.30 am through to 9.30 or 10.00 pm.”

Rapid Customer Service Response

“Unfortunately, about two months after installation, some damage to the floor occurred. Le Mark immediately came out to inspect this. After a lot of investigation, a single pair of tap shoes with a protruding screw-head was identified as the culprit!

“Even though it wasn’t a fault with the floor itself, we were extremely grateful to Le Mark who repaired the damage without charge. And the work was done to a level that, five years later, the repairs remain almost undetectable.”

Council Grant Funding

“The Farley Wood Community Association is a non-profit organisation and registered charity,” explained Paul, “We applied for a Section 106 grant from the local authority to help with costs of phase two, but this can only be used if improvements can be shown to increase the hiring revenue. For the small hall this was an easy task, thanks to the success of the first installation, and our application was successful.

“Unfortunately, it was not the case for the reception flooring which was purely cosmetic. However, as this would improve the look of the Centre so significantly, the Association decided to fund it directly. In this instance, Le Mark simply provided the Cadenza vinyl floor, and then a local fitter, under Le Mark’s guidance, installed it. Thus, the cost was minimised to an affordable amount.

“Overall we are very impressed with the new floors and would definitely recommend Le Mark and their flooring to other community spaces.”