While it’s probably not something you’re super aware of, carpeting is an industry with changing trends just like any other. In the world of carpet, trends usually last a bit longer than in fashion, but it’s important to keep an eye on commercial carpet trends if you want to create spaces that are fashionable and functional.  Read on if you’re looking to renovate student accommodation, classrooms, or your own shop floor.  

Heckmondwike FB is one of the UK’s leading commercial carpet manufacturers with 50 years’ experience in the education sector. To learn more, or request a free carpet sample, please contact 01924 406 161 or email sales@heckmondwike-fb.co.uk.   

As a popular classroom material, paint is found in schools across the country and helps children get creative. Trying to get it out of the carpet, however, is a real challenge. Our blog will help you remove pesky paint stains from your classroom carpets before they cause a real mess.

Heckmondwike FB is one of the UK’s leading commercial carpet manufacturers with 50 years’ experience in the education sector. To learn more, or request a free carpet sample, please contact 01924 406 161 or email sales@heckmondwike-fb.co.uk.   

When it comes to selecting the ideal carpet for your school or commercial space, one area that often requires careful consideration is the stairs. Staircases are high-traffic areas that endure significant wear and tear, so choosing a carpet that combines durability, style, and safety is crucial. In this blog post, we will explore various factors to consider when selecting the best carpet for stairs.

Durability

Since stairs are frequently used, it’s essential to choose a carpet that can withstand heavy foot traffic and resist wear and tear. Consider opting for a carpet with fibre-bonded properties, as they have exceptional resilience and are easy to maintain. Our Fibre-bonded Supacord range has anti-ravel and fray properties, and has been trusted in schools for over 50 years. Browse our bestselling Supacord range: Supacord Collection Heckmondwike.

Safety

Safety should be the primary concern when selecting a carpet for stairs in commercial settings. To prevent slips, trips, and falls, prioritise carpets with excellent traction properties. Look for carpets that have a low pile height, preferably between ¼ to ½ inch, as they provide a stable surface for walking. You can also choose carpets with a textured or patterned surface as they can enhance grip and reduce the risk of slipping.

Easy Maintenance 

Stairs are prone to spills, dirt, and stains, making it essential to choose a carpet that is easy to clean and maintain. Consider a carpet colour or pattern that can effectively camouflage any potential stains or wear marks to minimise their visibility. All of our commercial carpets are easy to maintain, but we recommend a deep clean of your stairs every week to keep your carpets looking fresh. To learn more about how to clean your commercial carpet, read our blog: How to clean your commercial carpet.

Aesthetics 

While functionality and durability are essential, the appearance of your staircase carpet should be noticed by students and employees. Choose a colour, pattern, or texture that complements your overall branding and reflects your school or business. Neutral tones or darker shades tend to be more forgiving in terms of hiding dirt and stains but don’t hesitate to explore bolder options if they align with the rest of your look and feel.

All of our commercial carpets come in a multitude of colourways, making them ideal for matching logo or brand colours. Discover our full product range by visiting our homepage: Heckmondwike.

We hope that our blog has helped to give you food for thought on the key things to consider when choosing a commercial carpet. If you’d like to arrange a bespoke consultation with our sales team to discuss your next project, you can get in touch with us by clicking here: Heckmondwike – Contact Us.

Heckmondwike FB is one of the UK’s leading commercial carpet manufacturers with 50 years’ experience in the education sector. To learn more, or request a free carpet sample, please contact 01924 406 161 or email sales@heckmondwike-fb.co.uk.   

Is your classroom looking dull and outdated? Sometimes all you need to create the perfect learning environment is a little inspiration. Keep reading for our classroom decoration ideas to get your student’s creative juices flowing. 

Why is classroom decoration important?

The classroom is where students spent the majority of their day, therefore it’s important that the classroom decoration motivates and inspires them. According to a study by The University of Salford, classroom design can impact pupils’ learning by 25%, so it’s vital that the below factors are considered in your new classroom. Our classroom decoration ideas below are sure to get your creative juices flowing!

Use colour to create a calm environment 

Colour is a huge part of classroom decoration, and can even be used to help change or encourage mood and behaviours.  Most teachers want their classroom to be a place of calm for their students – something that’s particularly important for primary school students. Blue and green are colours that have often been associated with a feeling of calm, along with having the abilities to reduce stress or anxiety. 

You can read more about colour psychology over on the Verywell Mind website.

Create break-out zones 

Using the same theory as the above, colour can also be used to create break-out zones.  For younger children, having carpeted areas in different colours for dedicated reading and activities can be a good way to help them focus on the task at hand. Pink is often associated with fun, while orange can be used to help motivate and encourage positivity.

Consider the classroom acoustics 

Lots of children in one classroom can soon become extremely noisy! This can soon become a problem if children are unable to hear the teacher properly. This is particularly important for students with special needs, who may become stressed by a lot of noise.  Therefore, ensuring that your acoustics are sound is a crucial thing to consider in your classroom decoration.

Commercial carpet is an effective way to reduce noise reverberation in the classroom. Many of our fibre-bonded collections also have the option to add additional acoustic backing, which will further reduce noise at school. 

Create wall displays 

Wall displays can act as a very important teaching aid to assist in visual learning. The displays can often be centred around a specific topic or theme for the month, which helps to embed information. Displaying their work on the walls can also help to motivate pupils and make them feel good about their work. 

Incorporate plants and biophilic design

Biophilic Design is a concept that brings a touch of the outside into an indoor space and is something that can easily be utilised into your classroom design. Studies have shown that introducing plants into the classroom can boost air quality and improve mood – who wouldn’t want this in the classroom! So why not pop some plants on window sills or in reading areas? You’ll be able to watch your students grow and flourish. 

Sensory furnishings

For primary school children and children with special needs, sensory furnishings can help them to focus amongst the chaos of the classroom. Consider adding things like cushions, mats and beanbags to help relieve stress and create a relaxing haven away from the learning environment.

Interactive designs 

Interaction with the surroundings in the classroom is an important aspect of cognitive development, and can help to fine tune motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Providing lots of opportunities like sand boxes and patterns on your flooring is a brilliant way to boost this type of learning.

Choose a suitable flooring

Comfort in the classroom is key, and flooring is the main factor in this. Our fibre-bonded commercial carpet provides a soft yet robust surface for learning and play, while being easy to maintain.

Heckmondwike FB is one of the UK’s leading commercial carpet manufacturers with 50 years’ experience in the education sector. To learn more, or request a free carpet sample, please contact 01924 406 161 or email sales@heckmondwike-fb.co.uk.   

Cleaning your carpets has endless benefits. From extending the life of your carpets to maintaining a healthy environment, there are an array of reasons to keep your carpet tiles spotless. In this blog, we’ll be sharing how to clean your commercial carpet.

Clean up carpet spills 

Forget the 5-second rule! If you spill something, you need to clean it up as fast as you can. If you spill anything on your carpet, make sure that you clean it up immediately. You should blot any liquid-based stains with absorbent towels or tissues. If you get something trickier stuck in your carpet like blu tack, read our blog.

CLAYGO initiatives

Although this sounds similar to playdough (which can also get stuck in your carpet), CLAYGO couldn’t be more different. CLAYGO is a ‘Clean As You Go’ initiative, which can be used to encourage space users to make sure their area is left clean. This way, everyone has a collective responsibility to make sure that the carpet is always in good shape.

Get the hoover out

How often do you clean your carpet tiles? Matthew Lee, a senior research scientist at Dyson says, “Vacuuming high-traffic areas twice a week and the rest of your carpeted spaces once a week is enough to keep dust and dirt at bay.” Commercial carpets should therefore be hoovered regularly. For help on how to choose your vacuum cleaner, visit this guide.

Deep clean

Sometimes, vacuuming just isn’t enough! Especially in high-traffic areas. Therefore, you should have a deep-cleaning schedule in place for your commercial carpet. Professional carpet cleaners can get into the places where hoovers can’t, and leave your carpet tiles feeling fresh. Read our blog for our deep cleaning recommendations.

Install entrance matting

Always keep the outside, out. Put specialist entrance matting in your doorways to prevent dirt from trailing into your building or space. Aside from carpets, there are also health and safety benefits because, according to the Health & Safety Executive, 90% of slip accidents in public buildings occur on wet floors. Online carpets in our Entrance and Transition Area Range are a great solution.

We hope that this blog has helped you to learn how to clean your commercial carpet. 

Our commercial carpet designs are perfect for giving a fresh new look to your flooring. For more information about how we can help, get in touch today.

Blu Tack is an essential product throughout schools, with classrooms all over the UK using it to put up wall displays and showcase work. But, it can be a nightmare if it gets stuck in your commercial carpet – especially if it’s been trodden in by the children’s feet! Our blog will help explain what you can do if the dreaded event happens and you get Blu Tack stuck in your classroom carpet.

Does anything dissolve Blu Tack?

There are quite a few different things which have the ability to dissolve Blu Tack. However, it’s important to know that these things won’t dissolve it completely, but will instead soften it enough to aid removal. Here is a list of the different liquids which can dissolve Blu Tack:

• White vinegar
• Citrus cleaner
• Acetone
• Laundry detergent
• Olive, vegetable or eucalyptus oil

4 ways to remove Blu Tack from carpet

Now you know what dissolves Blu Tack, let’s talk about some of the tried and tested ways you can remove it from your carpet.

Use heat

Applying heat is often one of the best methods for removing Blu Tack that’s dried into the carpet and hardened over time. Using heat will soften it and bring the elasticity back, making it much easier to get rid of.

Hold a hairdryer to the blob in 15-second bursts. Take care not to hold it too close to your carpet as you don’t want to damage the fibres. When you see that the Blu Tack is starting to peel away, try collecting as much of it as you can. You’ll need to repeat the process as many times as you can until it’s nearly all been removed.

If you don’t have a hairdryer handy, then an iron will work the same way. You just need to pop a cloth or tea towel over the Blu Tack, then hold the iron over it in short bursts.

The last step in this method is to mix a mild detergent, like washing up liquid, together with some water and give the patch some good, old-fashioned, elbow grease! Once you’re satisfied that you’ve removed all remnants of Blu Tack, you can leave it to dry.

Vegetable oil

As mentioned previously, oils such as vegetable, olive or eucalyptus can be used to help soften the Blu Tack, and reduce any stickiness. For this method, you just need to apply your oil to the Blu Tack using a cloth and let it soak in for a couple of minutes. Then, using a blunt knife, you can try to scrape as much of it off as you can.

Once the Blue Tack has been removed, it’s important to thoroughly clean the carpet area where the oil has been. This is because oil can leave a residue which can easily stain the carpet fibres if not thoroughly removed. For this, you can just use a mild soap or detergent.

White vinegar

Another common method for removing Blu Tack is white vinegar. This is one of the things which will dissolve it, and therefore make it easier to remove. The first thing to do is to gently heat the vinegar, if you can, by popping it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. Then, apply the vinegar to a damp cloth and let it soak into the Blu Tack for approximately 15 minutes, or until you see the blob starting to peel away. Using a blunt knife, you can then scrape it off the carpet.

Don’t worry about washing the vinegar with soap once you’re done, simply some warm water and a cloth will rinse away any remaining vinegar.

More Blu Tack

This method may seem counterproductive, but we assure you it’s not. Using a blob of spare Blu Tack, you can attempt to stick it to the Blu Tack which is in the carpet to pull it off. Keep repeating this process until it’s all been lifted out.

Does Blu Tack leave a stain?

It’s likely that Blu Tack will stain if you have lighter-coloured carpets. But, how easily the stain will come out all depends on how long it has been there. The best way to remove stains from your carpet is to use a detergent or carpet cleaner and blot the stain rather than rub. When you rub a carpet stain, the colour can easily seep into the fibres making it difficult to remove completely.

How can you prevent it from happening again?

Although you can remove Blu Tack using the methods above, ensuring that it doesn’t get stuck to your carpet again would save you a lot of hassle. One way would be to not let any children in the classroom use the Blu Tack, as they may be more careless with it. Another alternative would be to use sellotape where possible, as it’s much less likely to cause damage.

We hope that you’ve found this blog useful and that it’s given you some tips and tricks on how to keep your classroom carpets free from Blu Tack.

Our commercial carpet designs are perfect for giving a fresh new look to your school flooring. For more information about how we can help, get in touch today.

Recently, our fantastic team of Area Sales Managers from up and down the country donned their work uniforms, grabbed their litter pickers, and headed out to help clean up their local areas!

As a UK manufacturer, it is important to us here at Heckmondwike that the land we live on is clean, tidy, and remains a wonderful place to live for everyone. It’s essential to us to do our bit for both the environment, and for the people who live in it. So, we arranged a day where our eager Area Sales Managers could make an impact on their own communities, by cleaning up discarded and unwanted litter.

As well as looking unsightly, litter is bad for the environment in several different ways. Firstly, as it degrades, it releases chemicals which are harmful to the earth and air. It is also known to harm and kill animals who may encounter it. Discarded rubbish can also be a breeding ground for harmful bacteria and diseases which can spread amongst humans and animals, as well as encouraging the spread of pest species. All these reasons make it clear just why it’s important to clear up as much litter as possible, in order to protect the world we live in.

Bob Mortimer, our UK Sales Manager, said: “Bringing together our area sales managers from around the country on this initiative was something both myself and the company were very passionate about. Whilst we can’t clear the entire country of litter, doing our bit to help clean up our local areas, whether that’s in Scotland or South London, feels like a great way of making a small but firm difference.”

“As a company, going forwards we’ve pledged to give our eco-conscious sales managers a day of work-time each year to take part in a local litter pick, contributing to the clean-up of their communities!”.