The Strand Palace Hotel in London was the venue for the Stone Federation's Members only Seminar on the Design and Installation of Natural Stone Floors. Delegates from various 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 stone 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 Past President of the Stone Federation, explained that this was the definitive guide to flooring.
Tristan Meears-White, from Watson Burton Law Firm gave a regulatory update. Tristan talked about environmental, health and safety and competition law issues. He highlighted the importance of being aware of competition law, giving examples of previous cases concerning price fixing.
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.
Alex Stables, Director of Stone Productions Ltd and 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 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 be aware 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 Ltd 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 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.
Alex Stables reminded 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.
The speakers then held a session of questions and answers at the end of the day. The event was a great success judging from the course appraisal forms received afterwards.
Another course is planned for members on 23 September 2009 in Nottingham. If you would like to book a place on this please email sandra@stonefed.org.uk.