Commercial Flooring: Our 5 Most Demanding Projects

Since 1996, Spectra Contract Flooring has been fortunate enough to take part in over 400,000 flooring projects coast to coast. And.. if there is one thing that we have learned over this time — it is that each and every project is unique and presents its own distinctive challenges and demands. From quick completion dates to custom flooring designs, we have faced it all. Here, we will take a look at five of our most demanding projects and examine what it takes to deliver fantastic results!

Bowden Event Center

As the former president and member of the Keller Women’s Club, a social club designed for community support, Linda Bowden had a dream of someday introducing the city of Keller, Texas to a facility designed to host local charity, school, and other group type functions, as well as a venue for close-to-home weddings. With a generous donation that she and her husband made to the Keller Women’s Club Foundation, the scarcity of finding a place to hold special events in the city of Keller would soon be a thing of the past. According to Star-Telegram, “The Bowdens purchased 11 acres at 1747 Keller Parkway where they built a 37,000-square-foot facility gifted to the foundation. The total cost of the project, including land and buildings, was around $20 million.”

As construction for the event center got underway, Spectra Contract Flooring was brought on board in May of 2017 to provide over 30,000-square-feet of corporate flooring. The main showcase, providing eye-catching, premium-quality commercial ceramic tile that could meet the demands and design vision of the owners and architect.

Challenges?

• Sourcing flooring material that would guarantee long-term value.
• An intricate design pattern consisting of rose medallions in honor of the owners’ late daughter whose name was Rose.
• A completion date that required an accelerated work schedule.

Results!

To ensure that the beautiful installation will endure the test of time, we incorporated single component grout by Custom Building Products to guarantee long-term value and life cycle costing. Unlike traditional cement grout, this single component grout combines the performance benefits of both cement grout and epoxy grout. Extremely durable, moisture resistant, and almost completely stain-proof, single component grout will help keep the Bowden Event Center flooring attractive and protected for years to come.

For the intricate design pattern of the flooring, we worked closely with ENSO Fabrication who specializes in waterjet cutting, supporting both architectural and industrial industries. They provided the medallion which turned out beautifully.

Our dedicated team completed the three and a half month project in August of 2017 with virtually no punch items stemming from craftsmanship issues. Even after we had promised the best of the best, the quality of installation still exceeded owner and architect expectations.

Phoenix Symphony Hall

The Phoenix Symphony is Arizona’s largest performing arts organization, putting on some of the Southwest’s finest concerts and events. They proudly call the renowned Phoenix Symphony Hall their home. Built in 1972 as part of the Phoenix Civic Plaza, the Symphony Hall is a major government landmark in the city. When the people of Phoenix wanted to make it even better and give it a one-of-a-kind atmosphere, they came to Spectra Contract Flooring for a project centering around unique carpet.

Challenges?

• The Symphony wanted to transform their old carpeting into a mosaic as part of their drive to create an impressive facility atmosphere. The catch? The project covered a large, 40,000-square-foot area and the carpet was unlike any other in the world.
• The project had to be completed in a 30-day window before the concert hall reopened for the season — or the Symphony would lose performances and attendance.

Results!

Unlike most carpeting projects, in which many rolls of carpet all share the same color or pattern, this unique carpet used a free-flowing mosaic design for the whole area — every single section of carpet was different. That meant our crews had to carefully coordinate every single piece of carpet with intentional planning and unique installation practices. To ensure proper installation and rapid project delivery, we did what any good team does — practice. Our crews laid out the carpet to perfectly match up each piece in our warehouse, training for rapid, on-site installation. The results paid off. Once it came time to tackle the installation, we worked nights, weekends and even on the July 4th holiday to get the job done. We led the project from start to finish, coordinating directly with the Symphony and later with a general contractor that delivered other aspects of the project.

UCF Library

The University of Central Florida, located in Orlando, serves more than 30,000 students during the semester. Throughout the school year, their library carpet sees heavy use. Over the course of 40 years, the carpet had begun to come loose from its backing and become wrinkled. In some areas, safety was becoming a concern, so the University decided to upgrade the carpet during spring break 2016 — five years ahead of a planned library renovation.

Challenges?

• Install 5,300 yards of specialty carpet in a span of ONE WEEK. The campus wanted to complete this project during the students’ spring break.
• The library was still an active environment that was full of furniture and bookshelves. 

Results!

At Spectra Contract Flooring, we have the experienced installation crews and innovative equipment to rapidly mobilize for any project. We worked around the clock, moving furniture and working around bookshelves in the process to meet the $200,000 project’s aggressive, one-week timeframe. Our team operated in complete coordination with the carpet manufacturer, installing their unique carpet tile solution and greatly enhancing the library study environment.

Columbus Airport

In 2013, Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio needed to upgrade their flooring and create a better environment. The airport’s leadership and design team decided to use terrazzo concrete throughout the facility, a tremendously versatile material that provides great durability and premium aesthetic quality. After their first flooring contractor couldn’t complete the challenging project to satisfactory standards, they searched for one that could. In the process, they asked the leadership of Cincinnati’s airport for a recommendation. As we had recently completed terrazzo flooring installation for them, they graciously recommended us!

Challenges?

• Terrazzo is a tremendously challenging material to work with, demanding the utmost attention to detail and leaving little room for error. It requires the precise use of many divider strips, intricate finishes and challenging processes.
• This project, in particular, required thorough demolition and removal of old flooring, testing of the underlying concrete slab, which hadn’t been refinished in many years.
• We had to complete elements of the work around massive seismic joint assemblies, which sometimes had to be torn out and built back in.
• On top of the range of challenges, the airport was occupied and constantly in use over the three-year stretch, requiring us to carefully phase every single section of floor.

Results!

When we came in, not only were we up against the many challenges of the job, we had to refinish the poor quality work that was delivered by the previous flooring contractor. We quickly demonstrated the quality of our work, improving the previously completed areas and delivering to exceptional quality standards. The owner and general contractor then sought us out for value-added solutions, and throughout the project, we found the owner savings on materials and time. Our crews provided premium quality finishes for the unique artwork on the flooring to deliver the designer’s vision. Over a three-year period, we installed more than $5 million worth of premium terrazzo concrete over a 115,000-square-foot area to create a one-of-a-kind floor. We completed the project under budget and on time, sometimes working nights, weekends and holidays.

Bicycle Casino Hotel

RD Olsen Construction selected Spectra Contract Flooring to meet the hospitality flooring needs desired by the new Bicycle Casino Hotel in Los Angeles, California across from the casino. We were hand-selected for the project by the general contractor and owner’s representative, serving not only as the flooring contractor but also as the owner’s trusted advisor.

The $45 million Bicycle Casino Hotel project called for the new construction of a 7-story hotel with $2.5 million of flooring installed in less than five months — an extremely fast-tracked schedule. With a wide range of facility areas and flooring materials, one-of-a-kind design concepts and logistics challenges, it was one of the most demanding commercial flooring projects we’ve delivered.

Challenges?

• The job required some careful planning and coordination, as the designer was located in Canada with another architect in Orange County. Sourcing and shipping many custom materials often presented a challenge to the project.
• a high number of change orders.
• Uncommon design concepts that required job-site adjustments.
• Unique flooring materials that required custom installation technology.

Results!

Throughout the project, we went above and beyond the role of a typical flooring contractor. We continuously provided value engineering of all flooring products, identifying and implementing solutions that kept the project on track and reduced costs. Due to the logistics challenges in sourcing materials, we leveraged our partnerships in the LA market to procure quality flooring materials at more competitive price points. At each step in the process, we took pride in proactively developing strong project communication with the owner, architect and general contractor. As challenges arose on the project, we worked with all project parties to provide solutions.

One example is that the original design called for guestroom bathrooms that used a combination of stone and tile materials in an expensive and impractical manner. We worked with our on-staff fabricator and developed a solution that achieved the designer’s desired mosaic design and brought it under budget. As the design called for many finishes to seamlessly come together, we carefully supervised the implementation of polished concrete outside leading to stone in the lobby and eventually to hardwood throughout the interior. Our team used innovative installation techniques, such as our proprietary vertical installation technology (V.I.T.), throughout the project, and we delivered all finishes on time and on budget — despite great challenges. We took a hands-on, proactive approach to quality assurance (QA) and even provided fabrication for some counter and wall finishes to complement the design.