Research Document:
Commercial Flooring Comparison For Supermarkets Do you know how much your supermarket floor costs? This paper compares the two most common supermarket flooring materials: ceramic tiles and vinyl tiles. It explores the costs associated with owning, maintaining and replacing these materials over a 20 year life cycle.
Life Cycle Cost – 2,500m² supermarket flooring over 20 years
Vinyl floor renewed Within
Vinyl floor replaced
3 years vinyl tiles become more expensive due to cleaning requirements.
Source: Expenses provided by a Victorian Commercial Supermarket Cleaning Company, 2013
The popularity of vinyl tiles within Australian supermarkets See below break-down of product, installation, has risen massively over recent years, due to the low initial cleaning, maintenance and removal costs (in relation costs. to graph above). A life-cycle analysis of vinyl however, demonstrates significant ongoing costs in cleaning, maintenance and more frequent replacement requirements. This coupled with the environmental impact of high chemical use and the non-degradable nature of vinyl once disposed warrant a detailed analysis of competitor flooring products, in particular ceramic tiles.
Cost Comparison (after 20 years)
$3,160,000
Vinyl
Ceramics
The chart below shows the life-cycle cost between vinyl and ceramic tiles. Whilst the initial purchase price of vinyl is much cheaper, the inherent cleaning and maintenance cost (based on 2,500m² supermarket floors) is $2.3million dollars more than a ceramic tiled floor within a 20 year period.
TOTAL LIFE-CYCLE COST Product & Installation Product & Installation for 2,500m² CLEANING Daily Alkaline Wash Daily Buffing Strip & Seal Total cleaning per m² Total cleaning based on 2,500 m² per year LIFE-CYCLE COST OVER 20 years Product & Installation Cleaning over 20 years Floor removal & preparation over 20 years (2,500m²) Total life-cycle cost over 20 years
VINYL TILE (AUD : per m²) $31.00 $77,500.00
CERAMIC TILE (AUD : per m²) $115.00 $287,500.00
$12.50 $18.00 $24.00 $54.50 $136,250.00
$12.50 $0.00 $0.00 $12.50 $31,250.00
$232,500.00* $2,725,000 $280,000* $3,237,500
287,500.00 $625,000 $0.00 $912,500
Above: Break-down of product, installation, cleaning, maintenance and removal costs – dated 2013 *Vinyl tiles life-span is no more than 10 years. Over 20 years the floor would be removed and re-installed twice.
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Commercial Flooring For Supermarkets
Environment Manufacture of Vinyl Tiles: In Australia, the manufacture of vinyl tiles utilise a percentage of recycled content. However, chloride chemicals and heavy metals are unavoidably created in the production process. Overtime, these components leach out “gas”, which has been linked with severe health problems, such as cancer, asthma, neurological damage, birth defects, reproductive and immune system damage.
Cleaning & Maintaining Vinyl Tiles:
Disposing/Recycling Vinyl Tiles:
Maintaining commercial vinyl floors requires daily buffing, as well as a strip & seal of the floors on a quarterly basis. It’s this cleaning process that is harmful to the environment, using hazardous petroleum based chemicals and vanishes. Unfortunately the regulation for disposing of cleaning chemicals is not closely monitored and chemicals often end-up being poured down the drain.
Vinyl off-cuts can be recycled, but this only applies to vinyl sections containing no adhesives. Adhesives used on vinyls are toxic; consequently the issue of disposing old vinyl flooring becomes a huge environmental burden.
Source: EcoWaste Coalition
Vinyl tiles are replaced by supermarkets every 7 to 10 years. If a supermarket has 780 stores Australia wide, with an average floor size of 2,500m² this creates an area of 1.9 million sqm of landfill every 10 years, which can’t be recycled. And does not break down.
German Made Ceramic Tiles – The Green Facts German manufacturers of ceramic tiles have long shared a passion for preserving the environment. The German Environmental Product Declaration is in accordance with ISO 14025 and describes the environmental features of the construction of ceramic tiles. The process is entirely free of waste and aligned towards low energy consumption, low emission and recycling of materials. Ceramic tiles are inert and create non toxic fumes in case of fire, or hazardous issues for landfill, and can be crushed and recycled. Benefits of AGROB German made ceramic tiles: Decomposes bacteria without the need for harsh cleaning chemicals Eliminates bad odours Tile resistance to abrasion Low cleaning costs Non-toxic and free of irritating substances Environmentally friendly Decomposes exhaust fumes and releases clean air 100% recyclable
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Fit-For-Purpose Flooring German tile manufacture AGROB BUCHTAL has been manufacturing tiles since the 18th century. AGROB understands that floors in supermarkets need to be attractive, safe, easy-to-care and extremely durable. AGROB’s tile range offers stain and bacterial resistance, in a variety of thicknesses and surface finishes suiting any supermarket application.
Meats & Dairy Sections
Tiled aisle-ways
Easy-to-clean, slip resistance flooring, repels moisture and kills odours caused from dairy spills.
Durable surface, not damaged by trolleys or pallet jacks.
Bakery Variety of R rated slip resistant tiles, able to withstand high temperatures from ovens.
Case Study: European Supermarket Chain Number of outlets in North Germany: 2,400 since 1946 Average age of outlets: 15-20 years AGROB is the preferred supplier for leading European supermarket chain based in North Germany. With sophisticated designs and superior product characteristics, AGROB is proud of their products longevity. This is demonstrated by the oldest supermarket tiled floor being more than 42 years old. Flooring is a key element to the function and performance of their stores. Consequently when purchasing a building, they require flooring materials to have a proposed life-span of the building, being 50+ years. When leasing a building, they require the flooring to have a life-span of more than 15-20 years. AGROB’s ceramic tile product range is one of the very few flooring materials that provides longevity and problem-free, easy to clean surface.
Quality products, timeless designs, non-slip features, reduced maintenance and eco-friendly: These are the reasons why renowned companies have been opting for tiles from AGROB for many decades. Aldi: 9,235 stores
Penny Market: 4,000 stores
Lidl: 8,000 stores
Netto: 1,200 stores
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Product Comparison between Vinyl & Ceramic Tiles COMPARISON Response to moisture
Stain Resistance
Cleaning, alkaline detergent using a vacuum scrubber Buffing Floors Strip & Seal
Surface Dents & Damage
Slip Resistance
VINYL TILE Vinyl tiles are resistant to moisture, but the glue is not. High levels of moisture will break-down the glue and cause vinyl tiles to lift. When sealed & polished floor becomes resistant to stain. If not sealed correctly, will stain. Same
CERAMIC TILE Tiles & grout repels moisture. AGROB tiles contain anti-bacterial properties that prevent the growth of mould, bacteria and germs.
Daily, to ensure scuff free and high shine finish Quarterly strip & seal due to high traffic nature of the business. This process utilises petroleum based products that release toxins which are dangerous to human health and cause harm to the environment. Heavy trolleys and display racks cause gouges and scratches. Even high heel shoes can cause damage to vinyl floors.
Not required
Minimal range of slip-resistant vinyl tiles available. Strip & seal cleaning reduces the slip-rating. Within high debris and wet areas, floor mats are required.
AGROB tile range includes stain resistance.
Same
Not required
Extremely durable. AGROB’s extra thick ceramic tiles mean they can easily withstand the pressure exerted by forklifts. Their breaking resistance is significantly higher than the relevant Australian standard. A variety of durable, slip-resistant surfaces to suit different applications that can easily be cleaned.
Ceramic Solutions (Aust) Pty Ltd ABN 14 066 306 876 5/45 Normanby Road, Notting Hill, Victoria, Australia 3168 Phone: +61 3 9545 5322 Fax: +61 3 9545 5611 Email: mail@ceramicsolutions.com.au Web: www.ceramicsolutions.com.au
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