Page 16 - School Planning & Management, March 2019

FACILITIES “BOTH/AND”
Milford High School, Michigan
impacts of flooring on the learning envi- ronment.” Researchers are looking at fac- tors such as “acoustics, indoor air quality (IAQ), and safety,” Stanley reports, as well as “performance of materials and life-cycle costing.” It matters, because as he says, “Most schools simply do not have money to maintain poor-quality flooring.”
Another Option
Choices are not only about carpeting or hard surfaces, and some decision makers are selecting other options, including rubber flooring. That’s what administrators did for the front hallway space, some corridors, and offices at Milford High School in Michigan. The
choice there was informed by cleaning, maintenance, aesthetics, and great numbers of daily visitors, reports nora systems, Inc. Expanses of flooring show
a neat surface bearing the school’s
three colors, crisply arranged and corresponding to walls, lockers, and other interior features.
In another example, rubber flooring was selected again when Orwell, Ohio’s Grand Valley School District created
a K-12 facility some years ago, reports Tasha Hughes, marketing specialist
for nora. The flooring was installed in classrooms, corridors, locker, and weight rooms, stairwells, cafeterias, and a band room across the 244,000-square-foot building, which consolidated a high school with a middle school and three elementary schools.
Such an arrangement immediately conjures varying flooring needs, such as sound attenuation, resilience, cleaning, maintenance, and slip control.
Additionally, the flooring in
what Hughes calls “one particularly challenging area,” the band room,
which inherently brings with it acoustic concerns, illustrates responses to an additional need there. The band room “also serves as a multipurpose space for after-school activities,” Hughes explains, and “outdoor debris was continuously being brought into the room.” That means spills and stains. But cleaning has proven to be easy, according to Hughes.
Hughes also pointed out sound attenu- ation, explaining that the rubber flooring also “reduced acoustic levels in high-traffic areas such as the cafeteria and hallways.” In terms of maintenance and cleaning, she says that the flooring’s “no-wax protocol” reduced material and labor costs as well
as flooring downtime, while the product’s simple cleaning—basically water and a mop, precluding chemicals—also contrib- uted to better IAQ.
Such factors are unfolding at a
{ CONT. ON PAGE 20 } WEBSPM.COM
Grand Valley High School, Ohio
16 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / MARCH 2019
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NORA SYSTEMS, INC.