The Growth in the Raised Floor Market
In the 1960s, the raised access floor was developed to cope with large data centres housing a high volume of computers. Not only did the raised floor provide a space for extensive cabling but also it was also possible to meet cooling requirements this way. Today, the Access Flooring Association (AFA) – the UK trade association for the access flooring industry of which Fieldmans Access Floors is a member, estimate that around £100m of raised flooring products is installed every year. AFA members also supply a significant amount of products to the international market, appreciative of the quality of British-engineered products.
Click here for more on the Raised Floor!
Decades on from the first examples of what a raised floor could do for a company, the growth of personal computers throughout business in the 80s and 90s brought fresh challenges in office design and build.
It was also around this time that under floor air-conditioning became another benefit offered by having an access floor.
The scope for access flooring has certainly broadened since the early days of finding a solution to cope with the high level of computing and telecoms equipment for data processing centres. Today, as technology is readily available outside of the workplace, the benefits of having an access floor translate into other areas such as retail, schools and colleges and airports.
Sectors Benefiting from the Raised Floor
- Offices
- Call Centres
- Telecoms/IT Centres
- School & colleges including their libraries and archive centres
- Retail outlets
- Airports
- Leisure outlets
One of the major growth areas for the raised floor is retail. Major retailers are keen to future-proof their outlets by installing a raised floor. This gives them flexibility to move not only with the rapid changes in technology, but to cope efficiently with the frequent changes retailers go through, such as store layout, for example. The availability of specialist finishes ensures the look of the flooring meets the high aesthetic demands imposed by retailers, whose outlets need to attract and appeal to its customers.
Fieldmans Access Floors Ltd offers a consultancy, design and installation service. As an independent company with over twenty years’ experience in the business, their access floor recommendations are unbiased and based purely on meeting the clients’ needs. For more information, please call 0208 462 7100 or write to Enquiries@Fieldmans.com.