News
Shift From Carpet To Wood In The UK
BRITISH consumer preferences are shifting towards Continental-style décor, which favours wood/laminate and tiling over traditional British floorcoverings, such as carpet. This is claimed in a new market update on carpets & floorcoverings from business intelligence specialist Key Note. Wooden flooring has become increasingly on-trend in recent years, with sales driven by continued popularity and expansion of flat-pack furniture giant, IKEA, according to Key Note. Its report states: ‘Not only does wooden flooring provide a clean and...
read moreHigher Fine For Dodging Minimum Wage
Mark Stevens on new penalties for not paying NMW THE penalty for not paying the National Minimum Wage (NMW) has gone up. As from March 7, 2014, employers who fail to pay their workers the NMW are liable for up to 100% of the unpaid wages as well as a higher maximum penalty of up to £20,000. There is also a proposal to increase the minimum wage from the current level of £6.31 to £7. Background: The NMW was introduced in England and Wales in 1999 and set out the minimum level of pay that a worker is entitled to. There are different...
read moreGetting More Of Your Debtors To Cough Up
Cecil Aigin on credit control Credit control and the collection of debts are time consuming necessities of every business. But, if you don’t allow the time to set up a strict system for collecting current and outstanding debts, your businesses may not survive. It could be said that if we collect all accounts promptly, there won’t be outstanding debts, but that’s a bit utopian. The fact is that the older a debt becomes, the more difficult it is to collect. Giving credit falls into two categories, i.e. that provided to private...
read moreWorkplace Fling Can Hit Your Bottom Line
Jo Eccles on office romances EMPLOYERS may need to take action when workplace romances turn sour! Valentine’s Day this year saw a fair few romances hatched behind an office coffee machine or filing cabinet. It’s a well-known fact that a large number of personal relationships are formed at work. Depending on which survey you look at, the number of people who have been involved in workplace liaisons is anywhere between 30% to 70%, and most employers will admit to coming across it at some point. There is no law against office...
read moreDrivers Can Dent Your Reputation
John McDonald on company cars FOR employers who rely on meetings at clients’ places of business, having a mobile workforce is absolutely essential. However, with the benefits of employees with their own cars, also comes the liability. The Health and Safety Executive states that health & safety law applies to driving in exactly the same way as all other work activities, and statistically, driving is the most dangerous business activity that employees can undertake with some 20 people killed and 220 injured every week as a...
read moreSound & Fury After Creaks & Groans
Jim Coulson on noisy floors LAST month I wrote in CFJ about the annoying creaks and groans that can emanate from floors – especially those laid with T&G chipboard. Here I want to elaborate on the whole issue of sound passing through floors – in party floor constructions, such as are found between flats and apartments. Noise coming from your neighbours above (or sometimes below) can be really irritating: and there are numerous properties which have been converted in the past, from former single-occupancy houses, into separate...
read moreSee The Elephant In Your Business
Leo Aspden on marketing trends When you pursue business development and growth, and faced with the many challenges presented by today’s global and digital marketplace can you and your management team provide real leadership and see the elephant in your business? The Blindmen and the Elephant: I was intrigued by a story recently told to me by my son, who is studying civil engineering. It concerns an ancient Indian fable, later re-told by the American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) entitled ‘The Blindmen and the Elephant’. In...
read moreWood: Advice On Keeping Up Appearances
Terry Guilford on cleaning & maintenance MANY of the articles I have written in CFJ recently have focussed on wood floor sanding and finishing, which is not something that interests all of you who read this magazine. However, there is one way that you can all make money from wooden floors without the major expense of floor sanding equipment or training required to be proficient in cleaning and maintenance. At this point you may be thinking ‘don’t most clients just mop the floors themselves? The answer is yes, but then they can mop...
read moreIndustrial/ Commercial – Spot The Difference
Martin Cummins on resin flooring HAVING the privilege of sitting on the FeRFA technical committee gives me the opportunity to look at flooring from a slightly different perspective when considering installations of vinyls, carpet, timber etc. One of the main focuses of the committee is, as with the CFA, for pooling of knowledge and information to offer guidance to ensure that suitable flooring systems are selected depending on the intended end use and also to guide as to how installations should be carried out. Flooring in the case of...
read moreSmoothing Compounds Move With The Times
Neil Sanders on flexible flooring THIS month I will offer information and advice on flexible smoothing underlayments. Some fibre-reinforced underlayments can ‘flex’ once cured to accommodate the likely movement of some substrates, including plywood and steel. From plywood substrates to raised access steel panels, the flexibility of a new floor needs careful consideration in a whole host of different settings and environments. If a traditional smoothing underlayment were to be installed over either of these subfloors, also known as...
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