Public spaces, schools, and preschools

Environments where many people gather at the same time during certain parts of the day place particularly high demands on hygiene and ventilation. Air circulation that is perfectly adequate in a home is not nearly enough in a classroom with perhaps thirty students—and the younger the children, the more time they spend on the floor, where moisture-related problems first become apparent. 

Many of these buildings were constructed during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It was a time when conditions were different in many ways. Allergies were significantly rarer than they are today. Preschools were daycare centers, with low educational standards. They were viewed more as places to keep children, where low costs took precedence over optimal functionality. Even though there were good solutions available even back then, they were often overlooked, which over time often manifests as problems with mold and unpleasant odors.

These types of spaces are also often quite bare, with hard surfaces designed to be easy to clean and maintain. Combined with large floor areas and, in many cases, extra ceiling height, this can easily result in high and stressful noise levels. Today, we value a cozy environment more highly, not only for its comfort but also for long-term health reasons.

It is important to have safe floors and a clean, safe indoor environment for both children and adults.

There are, therefore, many reasons to choose our raised, ventilated floors and/or acoustic floors for renovations, even if the renovation is being carried out due to wear and tear rather than existing moisture damage. SubFloor’s products for standard residential homes work exceptionally well in these environments as well, regardless of the type of flooring desired. It’s simply a matter of adjusting the center-to-center (c/c) spacing between the joists to the specific load-bearing requirements—which, of course, are usually higher in public spaces. We can also tailor the design to the intended surface layer, since different flooring materials have different levels of resilience, which in turn affect impact sound reduction.

With installation heights starting at just 15 mm, a ventilated and/or sound-absorbing SubFloor floor can be installed virtually anywhere without raising the finished floor surface higher than before. The floor ventilation complements the rest of the ventilation system, and as an added benefit, it creates a convenient installation space in the air gap between the foundation and the floor. The result is dry, safe floors and a fresh, healthy indoor environment for both children and adults.