Wood Flooring For Restaurant Renovation

For anyone seeking to either re-launch an existing restaurant by giving it a new look or to renovate or refurbish a restaurant that’s new to them, one of the most important decisions on your interior decision-making list is likely to be the flooring.

There’s no getting away from the fact that one of your main hopes and desires when creating your new or re-vamped restaurant business is that you’ll have high footfall and may well, from time to time have heavy footfall.  In many ways these factors should be as important in your flooring decision-making process as the look that you’re trying to achieve.  That said, they are sadly often overlooked.

In this article we’ll look at the practical as well as the design elements that you should take into account when planning wood flooring for a restaurant renovation.

Take a practical approach

High footfall refers to the number of people coming into your environment and heavy footfall refers to people who come into your restaurant who may (inadvertently) cause more wear and tear than normal.

Heavy footfall examples might include either people who are significantly above normal weight ranges or are wheelchair or walking aid users.  While your restaurant will of course welcome all of these people with open arms in order to make sure they have an enjoyable experience, will tell their friends and family about it and will come back, the impact of this traffic on your floor shouldn’t be underestimated.  When you’re planning your restaurant renovation project, it’s important to take both of these factors into account.

Another thing that you should take into account is whether or not your dining room in your restaurant has under floor heating.  Any room that has under floor heating should be floored with engineered and not solid wood flooring.  This is because the temperature fluctuations that come about through the direct heat on the floor of under floor heating would cause damage to solid wood floor because it isn’t as stable an option as engineered wood flooring.

When it comes down to maintenance, of course your restaurant floor will need to be spotlessly clean at all times.  It is for this reason that you should think carefully about which finish you choose.  There is a whole range of wood flooring finishes, from highly natural looking brushed and oiled at one end of the spectrum to lacquered at the other.  Which you choose will depend on the look you’re trying to achieve; your anticipated footfall and how prepared you are to invest in ongoing maintenance.

Celebrate design

One of the main factors that helps differentiate a restaurant in the crowded marketplace, apart of course from it’s food, is its look.  Restaurants are jockeying for position by coming up with new and innovative interior designs that appeal to their target market.  No matter whether you are planning a traditional look, a cutting edge designer look or a shabby chic look, there’s no getting away from the fact that a wood floor will provide the perfect backdrop.

Colour is likely to be a major factor in your considerations and this is where wood really comes into its own.  As a completely natural product, wood flooring comes in a simply astounding range of colours that’ll almost leave you spoilt for choice.  No matter whether you opt for a natural palate of beiges, browns and honey tones or if you want to go completely monochrome you can with either solid or engineered wood.  You can even choose an in between option if you’re not sure by choosing a grey tone that would work with either monochrome dressings or more neutral surroundings.  With wood, the choice really is yours.

But there’s more to wood than colour, there’s the grain and the interest in each plank.  Whether you like highly uniform flooring or wood with lots of interest will impact on which grade of wood you choose.  When wood is lumbered, it is graded into one of four grades: prime, select, natural or rustic.  In a nutshell, prime grade wood has very few, very small knots, little sap and is highly consistent in its colour and its look.  It also costs more than the other grades of wood.  Rustic grade wood on the other hand, is at the bottom end of the scale and has lots of character, sporting a significant number of knots, higher sap levels and inconsistency of colour.  Not surprisingly, rustic wood is cheaper than the others.  By choosing different grades of wood, you can create a subtle difference in your interior look.  It’s important not to discount rustic grade wood flooring because it’s cheap; it can be incredibly characterful and attractive in the right setting.

So there you have it, some of the practical and design considerations for wood flooring for restaurant renovation.  We hope this article has helped guide you in your choice, but if you’d like more help, why not get in touch?