How to save money on
commercial flooring
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HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON
COMMERCIAL FLOORING:
value engineering, better
materials and smarter solutions
Commercial flooring is no small investment. As a core
element that ties together your interior design, your floor
says a lot about your business to customers, employees,
partners and the community. You want one that looks good,
lasts and makes a positive statement as a cohesive part of
your overarching design. But between the cost of materials
and the separate cost of flooring installation, flooring projects
can total several hundred thousand or even millions of
dollars.
At Spectra Contract Flooring, we’ve completed more than
350,000 commercial flooring installations. In the process,
we’ve developed proven strategies to help owners save
money on flooring materials and capture maximum value
from their flooring. In this guide, we reveal some of the most
effective strategies used by many of the nation’s leading and
most forward-thinking companies to get the best bang for the
buck on flooring.
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Build value engineering into your
project from the start
Whether you’re simply upgrading your flooring or you’re
procuring flooring as part of a larger construction project,
the best opportunity to capture savings and value is at the
beginning, during planning and design. The reason? Design
decisions made early in a project dictate the selection
of building materials, including flooring, which greatly
impacts both your up-front material costs and the way your
contractor can install the materials, another determinant of
cost.
You can find savings early in your project by incorporating the
process of value engineering, a coordinated and purposeful
method of identifying the best-value solutions to fit your
budget, design and facility environment. Value engineering
can apply to all aspects of a construction project. In the case
of flooring, you have an expert from your flooring installation
contractor work with you and your design team to determine
the best-value flooring solutions. This flooring expert provides
specialty knowledge of materials that architects and interior
design teams often lack — in today’s complex projects, design
teams have hundreds of other project elements to consider
and typically don’t employ true flooring experts. By contrast,
flooring contractors have individuals who learn about flooring
materials each day and regularly evaluate new materials in
floorings mills.
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To bring value engineering into the designs and material
specifications, your commercial flooring contractor will follow
a set process of gathering key information about your project,
researching solutions and specifying flooring materials. They’ll
typically ask you and your design team some key questions,
including:
• What are the different functions the space must support?
• What kind of wear and tear will the space see?
• How long do you plan to use your facility?
• What look do you want to achieve?
• What kind of message do you want to convey?
• And other questions specific to your aesthetic and project
Once your flooring contractor has a good understanding
of your design vision, how the space will be used and how
long you’ll be there, they’ll use their expertise to create
performance specifications that flooring materials must meet.
Next, they’ll leverage their understanding of the products in
the market and partnerships with suppliers to identify specific
flooring options. Based on your desired aesthetic, the pricing
available and manufacturers’ capabilities to produce the
required materials reliably and on schedule, your contractor
then specifies best-value flooring solutions. By working
with a contractor that has partnerships with a wide range
of suppliers, you’ll receive unbiased recommendations that
match your aesthetic.
In many cases, you can achieve a desired appearance with
cost-effective materials. For example, we recently completed
a project in which we recommended and used porcelain
where the architect had originally specified stone tile.
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Our alternative material met all performance requirements
and saved the owner $200,000.
In some cases, confusion can arise when flooring
manufacturers make unclear unit price bids that turn out to
be higher than originally expected. By incorporating value
engineering from an experienced flooring contractor into
your project from the start, you can ensure you get accurate
pricing on materials.
Source materials through your
flooring contractor for better pricing
Through the process of value engineering, you can be
assured of getting the best-value flooring solutions and
the most cost-effective products. To get the best price on
those materials, you’ll be best served to have them sourced
and ordered directly by your flooring contractor for several
reasons.
One, flooring contractors buy materials in bulk on a regular
basis and can leverage partnerships with manufacturers to
attain favorable pricing. Two, flooring contractors know the
value of different flooring materials and can negotiate with
manufacturers. Three, you get unbiased recommendations
on which manufacturer offers the most favorable pricing
— especially when you use bigger flooring contractors that
have partnerships with many suppliers. In addition, you can
avoid pitfalls, since flooring contractors have a good feel for
which manufacturers stand behind their products with quality
warranties.
The biggest flooring contractors will also provide you
value-added benefits when they source materials for you.
Typically, the longer a project lasts, the more it costs. So,
keeping your project on track with smart planning can save
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you both time and money. Quality flooring contractors will
coordinate material procurement on the appropriate lead
times to ensure all materials arrive on the job site at the right
time. In addition, they’ll stage materials and provide logistics
management to help keep the job site clear and organized.
This helps contractors complete the overall project on time
and on budget.
At Spectra Contract Flooring, we take the additional step
of helping you preserve your cash flow during a project.
We allow you to finance the purchase of flooring materials
through us — paying us back as we complete your project. 6
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Incorporate life cycle costing in your
decision-making
When you purchase commercial flooring, there are hidden
costs above and beyond the up-front price of materials
and installation. Depending on the flooring you select and
the length of time you expect to use your facility, long-term
flooring maintenance costs can exceed up-front material
costs. Certain products need only minimum maintenance and
are cost-effective long term, while others wear down quickly
and require regular waxing, stripping, polishing, refinishing or
replacement. For that reason, your material selection should
incorporate the use of life cycle costing.
Life cycle costing is a formal report that compares the longterm costs of flooring options, accounting for up-front costs,
long-term maintenance costs, replacement costs and the
time value of money. While the vast majority of general
contractors don’t offer this analysis, your flooring contractor
should be able to use life cycle costing to put hard numbers
behind your decision-making. It’s particularly useful in
comparing sustainable flooring options and is often used for
flooring decisions in healthcare and school settings.
Invest in testing and surface
preparation or alternative materials
At Spectra Contract Flooring, we test flooring underlayment
as part of every project. The reason? If a floor is installed
over an underlayment that has excessive moisture or high
alkalinity, your flooring adhesive or the floor itself could be
destroyed. Excessive moisture can also cause a foul smell
when it gets into the backing and adhesive of carpeting.
Testing allows us to determine if the underlayment presents
any moisture or alkalinity risks ahead of time.
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In addition, manufacturers put warranties on their products,
but most warranties are void if the underlayment isn’t tested.
They’ll also be void if the underlayment is tested and shown
to present risks but those risks aren’t mitigated. To protect
your floor, preserve its warranties and reduce significant
repair and maintenance costs, you’ll need to invest in
testing. If issues are found, you’ll typically need your flooring
contractor to provide surface preparation to mitigate the
risks present in your underlayment.
In some cases, your flooring contractor may be able to save
you money both long term and short term by identifying the
risks and specifying alternative materials or adhesive systems
that will last and not have voided warranties.
Have your flooring contractor use
value engineering to limit cost
overruns on the back end
Flooring installation is typically one of the last elements of a
larger construction or renovation project. As such, it’s often
subject to the development and execution of the rest of
the project. If other trades put the project behind schedule,
your flooring contractor will have to make accommodations
to install flooring more quickly. If cost overruns pinch your
budget in other areas of a project, you may need to save on
flooring materials later. Sometimes, architectural drawings
leave ambiguities in the way flooring (and other job-site
elements) should be executed.
A quality, experienced flooring contractor can solve these
challenges.
In cases of design ambiguities, your flooring contractor will
examine the architectural specifications and find solutions
later in the process. This can range from working with a
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fabricator to create custom solutions that fit a challenging
design to specifying material alternatives.
In other instances, your flooring contractor may work with
your flooring manufacturers to reduce the cost of materials
late in the project. In these instances, manufacturers often
don’t know they’re over budget until they get a call from the
flooring contractor. By simply having your contractor get in
contact with manufacturers and inform them the project is
over budget, the manufacturers can often do better on the
pricing. Sometimes, they can reduce the price on a flooring
product because they didn’t price it aggressively up front.
Other times, they can use value engineering to find a more
cost-effective alternative material. This is also a time where
your flooring contractor and manufacturers can clear up
anything the manufacturers may not have fully represented
in earlier price estimates.
If you simply can’t find cost savings with the previously
selected manufacturers, you can have your flooring
contractor open bidding to alternative manufacturers.
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MORE ABOUT SPECTRA
CONTRACT FLOORING
With more than 30 locations nationwide, Spectra Contract
Flooring is the largest specialty, commercial flooring
contractor in the U.S. We partner with a wide range of
flooring manufacturers to provide an extensive library of
flooring solutions at the best possible prices. From material
identification and risk assessment to project management
and rapid, cost-effective installation, our experienced flooring
specialists manage the entire flooring process. We provide
design-fresh, budget-conscious solutions. And we help you
achieve the greatest value for your flooring investment.
If you’re looking for a flooring solution, speak with some of
our seasoned flooring professionals. Click here to request a
flooring consultation. Or, learn more about Spectra Contract
Flooring here.
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