The Regus London Lombard Street training centre in London was the venue for the Stone Federation's Members only Seminar on the Design and Installation of Natural Stone Floors. Delegates from as far afield as the Channel Islands and North Yorkshire, from all parts of the industry, gathered to hear the six speakers.  It provided a unique opportunity to learn from experts at first hand how to design and install natural floors.

As part of their course pack, members received a free copy of the Federation's Code of Practice for the Design and Installation of Internal Flooring. David Richardson, Chairman for the day and President of the Stone Federation, explained that this was the definitive guide to flooring.

Peter Harrison, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Technical Committee and Director of Harrison Goldman Design Consultants gave details on the new BS EN Harmonised Product Standards.

Peter gave an overview of all the various codes and their relevance, covering such topics as manufacturing tolerances, tiles, slabs and testing requirements. He reminded members that any stone to be exported to Europe will require CE marking as well as additional testing as specified in the relevant BS EN product standards. He also told members about the importance of using the correct names of stones under BS EN 12440 Natural Stone Denomination criteria.

Peter finished by reminding members to use the Federation's Code of Practice for the Design and Installation of Internal Flooring or the Technical Helpline if they had a problem or needed some guidance.

Alex Stables, Director of Stone Productions and Senior Vice President of Stone Federation, talked about the contractor's experience of laying stone and considered the latest guidance on stone on adhesive and timber floors.

Alex also illustrated the sort of site conditions that contractors are faced with and that everything in the "real world" was not ideal. He also pointed out the importance of ensuring that the substrate that the stone is to be laid on is correct and how it was not always easy to get the client to see this!

Alex stated that it was important to keep up to date with product knowledge, especially in the adhesives market and that specifications written by clients and architects did not always match commercial reality.

The two manufacturers, Cyril Potter, Chief Chemist of Ardex UK Ltd and Ian Knifton, Technical Manager of Schlüter-Systems Ltd, brought members up to date with their products and stressed the importance they placed in working with contractors.

After lunch Peter Harrison then gave guidance on design and installation based on failure investigations. He also gave the latest guidance on the use of underfloor heating. Together with the delegates, a list was compiled of the most common problems arising to do with flooring often caused by bad design, including traffic wear, access floors for computer cabling, movement joints and staining.

David Richardson from BRE and Chairman of the Stone Federation Technical Committee gave guidance on the latest requirements for slip and the CIRIA publication and its influence on design and selection.

He showed delegates test results on how floors should perform and reminded them that as contractors that they have an obligation as to how the stone performs in situ. David also gave tips about how cleaning the stone will affect it and that care should be taken to use the right products to avoid the build up of residue. He also stressed the duty on contractors who have an obligation as to how the stone performed when used.

The speakers then formed a Technical Panel and there was a session of lively questions and answers. The event was a great success judging from the course appraisal forms received afterwards.

More regional courses are planned for members in 2009.