School Flooring Project: Florida Southern College

Located in the town of Lakeland, Florida, you’ll find Florida Southern College, a private university offering students graduate programs in areas such as nursing, business, and education. Crowned the oldest four-year private college in the state, FSC was founded toward the end of the nineteenth century and has called Lakeland home for the last 80 plus years. Over that time, the campus has gone through many changes in order to promote student success and keep the college fresh and up to date. As part of this process, the campus recently wanted to modernize its Admissions center for its ever-growing university and Spectra Contract Flooring was selected to bring their flooring design visions to life!

Matching School Flooring Design with School Flooring Performance

With construction beginning in October of 2017, Andy Evans, Senior Account Manager for Spectra, worked closely with architecture firm, Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker and Rodda Construction, Construction Manager for the project. The team spent nearly one year selecting products and providing budget assistance. These products consisted of  Mannington Yeats II, Lyric, Arizona Tile Regis 16×24 and 24×24, Diamond Tech 1×2 Glass Mosaic, Schluter Dilex and Quadec, Johnsonite Roundel Rubber Tile, Base and Transitions, and Armstrong VCT.

“We chose a bold tile design for the Lobby and Restrooms with an ornate glass mosaic pattern for the walls in each bathroom,” said Evans. “The offices were finished with a beautiful organic patterned carpet tile from Mannington. We also helped design the striking mosaic on the exterior wall that greets you as you enter the facility.  Overall, we installed more than 1,000sy of carpet tile and over 8,000sf of tile.”

Real School Flooring Demands Met with Real School Flooring Solutions

As the largest flooring contractor in the United States, we’ve completed more than 350,000 flooring installations nationwide. With this, we’ve learned that each project is different from the last and that each project is unique in its own special way.

When it comes to the Florida Southern Admissions Building, one of our biggest challenges faced was installing the mosaic pattern inside the bathrooms. Here, the mosaic tile was thinner than the wall tile, so Hardiboard was used to build-out the walls.  The design was also tricky due to the sharp angles and layout of the walls.

In order to keep the project on track and on schedule, we continually held onsite meetings with the architect, project manager, and installers to discuss layout and talk through potential problems.  Once we started, the installer was completely prepared and had buy-in from all parties.

Why Should You Choose A Specialty Commercial Flooring Contractor For Your Next Project?

A specialty flooring contractor adds value in a variety of ways — from knowledgeable, experienced teams and tested processes to the latest technology, industry partnerships and more. There’s no reason to settle for anything less than professional delivery that provides you the greatest flooring value.

From project planning to material specification, sourcing, and installation, we manage your flooring installation project from beginning to end. We make it our mission to help you get the most from your flooring investment.