Astrea Academy is a new-build and refurbishment project in the north-east of Sheffield, opening its doors to a handful of students in September 2018. However, in seven years’ time it will be one of the city’s biggest schools taking children from nursery age up to sixth form. Since opening, international flooring specialist Gerflor were keen to know how their newly installed sports floors at the academy were performing.

Astrea Academy will ultimately be able to accommodate 1,200 pupils aged two to eighteen following rising demand for school places. With the expected levels of growth came the need for vision and future proofing for the school’s infrastructure, this included flooring for the all-important indoor sports facilities that the academy provides for both pupils and staff alike. The Academy has a three-court sports hall with excellent facilities for indoor sports including; basketball, badminton, netball, football and gymnastics. Therefore, choosing a high performing premium sports floor would be a key decision that the appointed architects Race Cottam would see as fundamental in providing the perfect all-round sports flooring solution for the school.

The project would see Gerflor supply 550m2 of its Taraflex^® Comfort vinyl sports flooring in Teal for the academy’s sports hall, with a further 250m2 in Oak chosen for the gym area. Being a P3 category sports floor Taraflex^® Comfort offers the highest levels of comfort and shock absorption to prevent long-term injuries and immediate injuries on impact. With the school’s potential wide age range of users and abilities it would be the ideal solution in delivering stunning sports performance, together with extremely high levels of comfort and safety. Taraflex^® Comfort is in fact the first Taraflex sports floor in the P3 category and with Gerflor’s technical and innovative knowledge brings optimal comfort and safety. It’s a sports floor suited to all levels and all sports for a vast array of users… and delivers a wide range of stunning trendy colours, allowing the specifier or designer to be the architect of their own sports floor.

Taraflex^® sports flooring has been the number one preferred indoor solution for over six decades and has been selected for 10 Olympic Games since Montreal in 1976. It is also widely recognised and used within the education, community, leisure, health and fitness sectors.

The installation of the Taraflex^® Comfort flooring for Astrea Academy would be as equally important as the original specification in obtaining the final look, performance and finish. UK-wide Active Flooring Solutions Ltd would be tasked to deliver a high-quality finished floor fit which would meet both requirements of purpose and looks. Working nationwide and across all sectors, they strive to be the flooring partner of choice and as one of the UK’s leading contract flooring installers they offer a complete service from specification to installation and aftercare.

Nick Roebuck, Estimator, Active Flooring Solutions Ltd said, “We are a supply chain partner to Kier Construction who built this new project. The Gerflor flooring for this new build was originally specified by the architects Race Cottam Associates”.

The new and improved Taraflex^® range is now even safer, better performing and offers even more protection than before. The vast majority of the Taraflex^® sports flooring collection is treated with Triple Action Protecsol^® which ensures that no polish is ever required and allows for easy maintenance. It is an ‘intelligent’ surface treatment delivering the ideal compromise between slide and grip for sports shoes and is also anti-friction burn.

On performance and suitability Nick Roebuck went on to further comment, “this is a high performing product as far as vinyl sports flooring is concerned. We would certainly use Taraflex^® Comfort again, as we specify Gerflor products on a nationwide basis for several similar projects”.

Luke Cropper, Campus Manager, Astrea Academy said, “we are extremely pleased with the Gerflor sports flooring which is performing really well and looks fantastic”.

Learn more about Gerflor solutions; ask for a free sample or contact us to speak to a specialist today by calling 01926 622 600, emailing contractuk@gerflor.com, or visit gerflor.co.uk for the latest innovations.