In 2018 South Ayrshire Council appointed main contractor Portakabin to build a proposed new state-of-the-art Early Years Centre in Ayr, Scotland. The now completed £2.2 million Cherry Tree Early Years Centre development provides the largest modular modern learning environment in Scotland.

Cherry Tree Early Years Centre believes that education and care are indivisible, that the early years curriculum offered should be appropriate for children aged up to five years and should recognise the central role of play in early learning.

To support this aspect of the curriculum the Cherry Tree Early Learning Centre has since Autumn 2015, become a ‘partner’ school in the South Ayrshire Council Attainment Challenge Project. The Attainment Challenge aims to address one of the key national priorities within the national improvement framework. One aim of health and wellbeing in schools is that every young person feels cared for and valued as an individual. Add to this the centre’s maxim of; eat, move, connect, learn, play, give and one can clearly see that the environment for growing is pivotal to their overall ethos.

Ensuring that the children and staff would have a safe and comfortable environment was at the forefront of the planning and specification process. It, at the time of construction, needed to include the best quality flooring possible.

The overall flooring specification via Portakabin for this new build project was the responsibility of Architect Richard Hirst of South Ayrshire Local Government. The final choice of products was awarded to international flooring specialist Gerflor, who supplied 300m2 of its hugely popular Taralay Impression Comfort and award-winning Taralay Impression Control products.

With nearly 75 years’ experience of innovation driven by investment, Gerflor specialise in early year’s education, offering solutions combining technical and design characteristics for any room within the facility.

Roy Burrell, Director and General Manager, Portakabin (Scotland), said, “we’re a trusted team of specialists when it comes to building learning environments in Scotland. Having worked with councils like South Ayrshire before, our experts are more than aware of how we can deliver outstanding schools with the tightest of programmes. We were delighted to learn we had won the contract for Cherry Tree.”

Richard Hirst commented,” the client required a floor finish that could easily be cleaned. We specified Gerflor’s Taralay Impression Comfort for the playrooms and their Taralay Impression Control for the toilets.

The choice of Taralay Impression Comfort in the playrooms was the perfect decision as it provides a degree of cushioning and sound absorption in addition to its easy cleaning virtues and its great slip resistance qualities.  We specified Taralay Impression Control for the toilets because of its excellent slip resistance properties.”

Taralay Impression Comfort from Gerflor comprises a Very High Density (VHD) foam backing delivering 19dB of impact sound insulation. It is reinforced with a glass fibre grid and has a printed design that’s protected by a transparent wear layer. The product is protected by a UV cured surface treatment Protecsol® 2 which is easy to maintain and permanently eliminates the need of an acrylic emulsion (metallisation). Taralay Impression Control is suitable for medium to high traffic areas including hospitals, schools, commercial and public areas. For designers, the range offers 86 references and includes 23 wood effect references, covering the spectrum of wood colours. Additionally, there are 10 stunning designs incorporating cements, materials, leathers, regular and geometric patterns as well as a palette of 13 solid colours.

Voted CFJ/CFA Product of the Year at the 2016 Flooring Industry Awards the Taralay Impression Control collection is ideal for hardworking places and has been developed specifically for an extensive range of contract applications. Taralay Impression Control offers Safety in Numbers. It has a HSE 36+ pendulum test value, ≥ 20 μm surface roughness and a R11 wet slip resistance rating.  With a Group T wear rating it’s also ideal for heavy traffic environments making it an ideal choice for the toilet areas at the Cherry Tree Nursery.

The installation of the Gerflor flooring was undertaken by Livingston-based Kirkton Flooring Ltd. Ryan McMeechan, Director, Kirkton Flooring commented, “we were asked to tender by Portakabin who were the main contractor for the project. We have regularly worked with them before on several key new builds. Gerflor products are all very easy to work with, and we as a company would certainly specify them for future projects.”

Richard Hirst concluded, “We have specified Gerflor products before. As with other projects this new flooring has been very well received by the client and we would certainly choose Gerflor products again for other new build or refurbishment works.”

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 visiting gerflor.co.uk for the latest innovations.