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Residential Home | Colchester

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Case Study: Home Sweet Home

In January 2020, Donnelly Watson completed a large-scale flooring refit at Crouched Friars, a residential care home located in the centre of Colchester.

A Safe Environment

The customer was looking to replace the carpet in the home’s communal areas with a more hygienic product that would be easier to clean and care for. The job would encompass three corridors, two reception areas, and a large dining room.

Upon initial visit to the home, director Daniel Donnelly met Paulina Eagle, the home manager, to discuss her options and provide a number of flooring samples. Having previously laid flooring in Paulina’s home, she was somebody we were familiar working with.

Because safety and durability were the main priorities, we chose Polysafe Wood FX for all areas. This vinyl wood effect flooring has a sustainability guarantee for the life of the product and passes the RRL pendulum test with a 36 plus rating, minimising the risk of slips. It also offers a more homely feel than other safety flooring, which can look quite cold and commercial.

“Donnelly Watson were very professional and communicated well with myself and other staff. They completed their work ahead of time and left rooms tidy. The whole team was very friendly and approachable. We will definitely use them for future jobs.”

- Paulina Eagle, Home Manager

Getting Down to Work

As with all care facilities, the main challenge was working around the staff and residents at the home. As such, we were careful to work in one area at a time – uplifting, cleaning down and making it safe before moving onto another area.

The property is also very old, so a major part of the job was making the sub floor safe to fit on. Before any fitting or screening, we had to 6mm ply over all sub flooring and even mend original floorboards along the way.

To minimise disruption to staff and residents, we opted for fast-setting Stopgap 1200 screed. Our normal screed typically takes three to five hours to dry, but with this product the floors were ready within 90 minutes.

Thanks to the patience and understanding of everyone at Crouched Friars, our team of eight fitters were able to complete the work a day ahead of schedule with little interruption.