Pointview Elementary, part of Westerville City Schools, wanted to bring all of their students closer together by doing something new and exciting. They decided to create a unique and fun learning environment that would spark their students' creativity. After gathering input from students through personal interviews and drawing inspiration from a water tower behind the school, they enlisted our help to create an ocean-themed floor that brings sea creatures and other treasures to life.

Over 20 years in the making, a recent floors project of ours has an interesting backstory. The Ohio Statehouse needed new carpet in both the House and Senate chambers. Back in the 90s, we installed a custom woven carpet in both, designed by a historical/architectural consultant to replicate what the carpet had looked like in the Statehouse in the 1800s. As with all flooring investments, the time had come to update the carpet. But this time, instead of bringing it into the 21st century, it had to stay true to the original 19th century design.

Let’s face it… the dirt starts right at your front door. Leaves, rain, snow, salt, asphalt crack filler. It’s easy to think you’ll keep it outside where it belongs, but it’s harder to actually put that into practice, unless maybe you have an air-lock vestibule as an entrance. So how do you protect your floors from the year-round elements? Here are some tips.

Back in the day, most carpet came on a 12 foot roll. We fought with elevators or hauled it up flights of stairs. If you were in an occupied space, everything had to come out. Your files, your desk, your Hello Kitty collection. And the problems didn’t end there. Bad stains became part of the landscape you looked at every day while you waited for the rest of the carpet to wear out. The seams raveled. Yarn snags became ten foot long “zippers” when the sweeper got a good hold of them.

When it comes to commercial flooring, you may come across some unfamiliar terms when researching or beginning a project with professionals. To help, we've compiled a handy list that you can reference whenever you need a refresh on these commonly used terms in the world of floors.

Let’s face it, the floors in our workspaces experience tremendous wear and tear at points of entry. Add unpredictable weather to the mix, and your investment loses value. But you can maximize your flooring investment by protecting it from bad weather, whether it’s the salt and snow from a blustery winter or the moisture from a rainy spring.

Some may think sustainable flooring can't be stylish, affordable, or functional, but that isn't the case today.

Have you ever actually thought about carpet maintenance? Chances are, probably not.

Would you agree that the heart of your workspace starts with flooring?

We're going to guess that your answer is "no."

But, what if we told you it should be? 

Cork; it's a unique material that we often take for granted. For years, we've used it to post messages on boards and to seal wine bottles. And now it's right under our noses, or rather our feet, in the form of cork floors.