What’s Underfoot Is a Key Part of Your Brand’s Story.
Selecting the right floor covering is a vital part of designing an office. The surface you step onto when you enter a room, whether you think about it or not, can set the tone for your entire experience. Moreover, since flooring encompasses the most significant percentage of any space, it’s a choice that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
The good news is that you really can’t go wrong with carpet tiles. The advantages of carpet tiles are many. Higher flexibility, superior comfort, attractive acoustic qualities, and greater safety compared to hard surface alternatives are just a few practical benefits.
However, good-quality carpet tiles offer more than just practical advantages. How you deploy it in your design can affect a space’s look, feel and sound. Your carpet’s patterns and colours can reflect your unique style as well.
What’s underfoot is a crucial part of expressing your brand’s story, and carpet tiles are the most versatile way of telling it.
Just have a look at some real-world examples of carpet tiles below and see for yourself the effect carpets can have on office spaces:
Carpet tiles can encourage flexibility in a workspace – In this photo, you’ll notice how carpet tiles function as a visual cue in large, open-plan spaces. The subdued, neutral colours have been used to denote quieter areas and bold, bright colours to indicate a creative space.
Carpet tiles can reinforce a brand image – Take this photo of Google’s headquarters in Dublin; incorporating the company colours in their carpet tiles not only promises a great first impression but also helps them be consistent with their overall brand identity.
Before we dig any further into the benefits and key features of modular carpeting, let’s start at the beginning and learn what exactly carpet tiles are.
What are Carpet Tiles?
Carpet tiles or modular carpet is often found in commercial spaces or high-traffic areas. They are small pieces of carpet cut into squares or rectangles and are installed together to create a larger carpeted room.
Carpet tiles are woven the same as standard carpeting. However, they are made into smaller pieces. These smaller tiles all have individual backings on each tile. This eliminates the need for any additional materials when installing, such as carpet padding or a carpet knife.
The sizes of carpet tiles depend on the space, but most are either 2×2-foot square tiles or 1×2-foot rectangle tiles. Depending on the manufacturer, unique-shaped tiles may be adapted for any room. Hexagons, pentagons or even triangle carpet tiles can be found on the market today.
Each carpet tile has a backing to create a smooth surface for installation and gives some structure to each tile. This means the carpet isn’t flimsy or too thin for the flooring. Carpet tile backings are not quite as soft or plushy as standard wall-to-wall carpeting, often found in residential homes. This is why carpet tiles are much more durable than residential-grade carpets.
How Can Carpet Tiles Benefit Your Office Space?
For most projects, carpet tiles are a superior choice both practically and in terms of design. These are the reasons why we recommend you consider carpet tiles for your office space:
1. Promotes Flexibility
One of the most effective strategies to maximize the value of an investment in an office space is to build the space with a focus on long-term flexibility. In addition to choosing the right modular furniture, moveable walls, and raised access flooring, modular carpeting is also crucial in designing a flexible space.
Due to its easy installation and removal process, the tile feels like a sticker that can be easily pasted or peeled off from the floor. It’s a workspace design element that can quickly adapt to changing needs, reducing reorganization costs, and allowing for greater flexibility.
Furthermore, carpet tiles offer an easy solution for creating zones within an area – spaces within spaces – that move with people and their work. For example, you can create a quiet collaboration area within an open workspace through successful zoning with flooring.
2. Ease of Installation and Maintenance
Installing carpet tiles is much faster than installing a traditional carpet because of their pre-attached carpet backing, which is usually installed directly on the subfloor. This saves you a great deal of time, energy, and money.
Click here for an in-depth guide on what to expect when installing carpet tiles.
If your carpet tile gets overly dirty or damaged, individual tiles can be easily replaced, unlike traditional carpets. The small and modular nature of the tiles make them easy to store without occupying much space. It’s a good idea to have extra tiles on hand so you can change them out when needed.
These tiles work particularly well in conjunction with raised access flooring. Since each carpet segment will fit with a single segment of raised access flooring, the piece can be lifted away when you need to access wiring under the flooring.
3. Cost-Effective
Modular carpeting is a cost-effective way to ensure that you can repair or rearrange your flooring at the lowest possible cost. If a section of carpeting becomes stained or damaged, replace that segment with a new piece of the same design and avoid the labour-intensive process of pulling up and laying an entire carpet.
Additionally, it is not entirely impossible to lay carpet tiles in an office while the furniture is in place. For example – you can replace the tiles in high-traffic areas such as hallways while keeping the furniture in place in the rest of the office. Since it’s not one long-running piece of carpet, you can tackle specific areas within your office without overhauling the entire space.
4. Sound Absorption
Aside from having a sound masking system, carpet tiles are a great tool to improve sound quality in an office space.
As a result of hard surfaces reflecting sound, open office layouts generally tend to be noisy and bothersome. However, the fabric on modular carpets can reduce noise by absorbing sound – creating a workspace with fewer distractions and boosting productivity levels.
The acoustical absorption capability of your carpet tiles solely depends on your selection of carpet backing. From our experience, we’ve learnt that wool fibres are exceptional in absorbing sound due to their high mass.
5. Reduces Waste
The individual patches’ modularity and small size also mean much less cutting than with large wall-to-wall rolls. This means that much less surplus carpet is needed, as waste from installation is usually only 1-3% of the total quantity of carpeting purchased. Carpet tiles are much more versatile in areas or rooms with many turns and complex layouts than traditional carpets.
What are Some Factors to Consider When Choosing Carpet Tiles for Your Office Space?
Now that we’re clear on what carpet tiles are and their benefits let’s look at some questions you should ask yourself before deciding on the right type of carpet tiles for your office space.
1. How long does the modular carpet need to last?
First things first – Determine how long you need the modular office carpet to last. A basic rule of thumb: the longer the lease, the higher quality of carpet required. High-quality carpet tiles last between 10 and 20 years when properly cared for.
2. How will the different areas in the office be utilized?
As a next step, determine how much foot traffic and furniture movement will occur in each office area. Private offices and meeting rooms generally have less foot traffic and require less carpet resilience. On the other hand, common areas and corridors are heavily used and need more durable carpet tiles.
3. What will this carpet look like in your actual office space?
Lighting can impact your office carpets in more ways than one. It could change the look and feel of your modular carpet design entirely. We recommend bringing carpet samples from your furniture provider – this will allow you to see the fabric under your office lighting and bring your vision to life in your very own space.
4. How will this carpet perform in my workspace?
Cushion backing improves carpet performance as it absorbs the impact of foot traffic, making it far more durable in a commercial setting.
We suggest opting for cushion-backed carpet tiles if you expect a lot of movement in your office. Having a more comfortable surface to stand or walk on helps reduce fatigue which, in turn, encourages employee wellbeing.
We’ve put together a detailed article highlighting a few more design elements you should keep top of mind when choosing the right carpet tiles here.
Looking for More Advice on Modular Carpets?
Our team has been designing flexible and productive work environments equipped with modular carpeting for decades. Take advantage of our experience and contact our experts today. Let us help you get the most out of your space.
Check out this white paper by our leading supplier, Haworth: Movable Walls and Raised Floors: Optimizing Adaptable Workplaces to Meet Changing Business Needs to learn how to build flexibility into your space and maximize the long-term value of your investment.