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Secondary school classroom floors have to deal with feet and furniture. A lot of feet and furniture. Around 30 pairs of feet regularly come, go, or rest on the floor; add to that 30 bags, 30 chairs and many table legs and it’s clear that the floor needs to be tough. We know that classrooms can’t be out of action for long, with most building work restricted to the school holidays, so another challenge for these spaces is reducing installation time.
Altro Cantata is a soft-look adhesive-free floor, available in multiple shades from subtle naturals to beautifully vivid, plus wood-look options. It offers 14dB impact sound reduction and comfort underfoot. Installation is half that of a traditionally adhered floor: you can weld and walk the same day, even over fresh concrete. There are no rucks or movement when down, a promise backed by a ten-year guarantee. At the end of its life the entire floor can be uplifted and reused or recycled.
In a space where there are a lot of students, finding room for group work can be difficult. Taking the workspace from the table and onto the walls, can solve the issue, plus, getting students up out of their seats can break up lessons and help spark creativity.
The Altro Whiterock Whiteboard is ideal for brainstorming. It works just like a dry wipe board and can be cleaned easily once the work is finished with. As needed for a well-used classroom space, it has the durability you expect from Altro Whiterock.
Staff areas are well used; lots of feet, chairs and table legs so the floor needs to be durable. As a space used for work, meetings and well-earned breaks, it needs to look homely and feel comfortable; the floor plays a central part in creating a space where staff are happy to be. With staff areas in constant use, installation or refurbishment needs to be quick and easy.
Altro Cantata is a soft-look adhesive-free floor, available in multiple shades for design flexibility. It offers 14dB impact sound reduction and comfort underfoot. Altro Cantata halves installation time – you can weld and walk the same day, even over fresh concrete, with no adhesive odours. There are no rucks, no movement and Altro Cantata is guaranteed for ten years. At the end of its life the entire floor can be uplifted and reused or recycled.
As a planning and workspace, room in a staff area is valuable. Using the wall area is ideal for brainstorming together and recording information that can be seen easily by all using the room.
The Altro Whiterock Whiteboard works just like a dry wipe board and can be cleaned easily when the information is no longer needed. It’s ideal for schedule development and other non-permanent record keeping. It’s a straight-forward, durable option that looks good in the space while providing a practical working solution.
Altro Classic 25 is a specialist safety floor, meaning it prevents slips with certain contaminants other than water. With a high level of slip resistance, it reduces the slip risk to one in a million, even with that muddy water. It also features Altro Easyclean Technology, making it easier to clean up after a clay session! At 2.5mm it’s tough enough to cope with art props being dragged around the room, as well as the heavy levels of foot traffic from budding artists, with the added benefit of comfort underfoot. And Altro Classic has a track record for safety and durability going back 60 years, so rest assured, they’re in safe hands.
Why should a space that’s all about creativity be a blank canvas? Art rooms walls can set the tone, inspire and showcase. At the same time, they need to be able to cope with the bumps expected in a busy creative space, and handle the odd spatter and settled paint and chalk dust by being easy to clean.
Altro Whiterock Digiclad (Custom) is a custom print option utilising UV cured inks onto an Altro Whiterock sheet from a photographic image or art design. It means the entire wall space can feature inspirational artworks or photography, or even work by pupils past and present, making the room represent the school in unique way. Wipe-clean Altro Whiterock Digiclad is durable, with hard-coat technology providing scratch-resistant properties, ensuring the walls look good for the long-term.
Downtime for students means fun and food. A warm, homely space that can cope with noise, heavy foot traffic, and be cleaned ready for the next break-time, is the perfect recipe. Downtime for school managers and floor installers means headaches and hassle. This key area for a school can’t be out of action for long; quick and straight-forward installation over an existing floor, or over new concrete saves time and worry.
Altro Wood adhesive-free creates maximum impact with minimum downtime – halving installation time - and no adhesive means no associated odours during and post installation. With 12 colour choices, 14dB impact sound reduction and a one in a million slip-resistance reassurance, it offers high levels of comfort underfoot providing a safe, durable and decorative solution for busy spaces. It is ideal for busy public spaces where disruption needs to be minimal.
If secondary school social spaces look adult, smart and impressive, they’re more likely to be treated well and make the room somewhere students are happy to be. Walls play an important role here: when sitting down to eat your lunch, they’re what you can see. While they need to look good, any area where food and drink are served and consumed needs to be easy to clean quickly, and if chairs are next to the walls, meaning students lean against them, they need to be robust.
Altro Whiterock wall designs ensure rooms can dress to impress, without compromising on durability. Natural wood, stone, linen and metal options can be used alone or combined, giving multiple design options. They fit perfectly with our floors and can be used with Altro Whiterock or Altro Fortis to run into adjacent areas. As you would expect from Altro Whiterock, the sheets are impact-resistant, impervious and hygienic.
Altro Classic 25 is a specialist safety floor, meaning it prevents slips with certain contaminants other than water. With a high level of slip resistance, it reduces the slip risk to one in a million, even with sawdust, plus it has good chemical resistance. It also features Altro Easyclean Technology, making it easier to clean up after classes. At 2.5mm it’s tough enough to cope with heavy equipment, as well as regular feet and wheels, with the added benefit of comfort underfoot. And Altro Classic has a track record for safety and durability going back 60 years, so rest assured, they’re in safe hands.
CDT room walls will regularly be knocked, scuffed and bumped. It’s a working space and should look like one but regular painted walls will end up with chunks missing, paint flaking off, scratches, scuffs and more. A freshly painted wall will soon look as though it was decorated years ago. Not the look you want.
Dense, impervious and resistant to bumps, Altro Fortis Titanium wall sheet is designed to protect these busy, vulnerable areas. Its ten shades, which vary from classic White to bold Cardinal red, run through so, unlike paint or some alternative wall coverings, a scrape doesn’t remove the colour. Use alongside Altro Fortis corner protection, a ready-made piece that protects the areas most susceptible to damage from regular knocks.
Altro Walkway 20 SD is a static-dissipative floor, reducing static build-up that has the potential to damage valuable equipment – both in terms of cost and how vital it is in the day to day running of the school. There’s also the added reassurance of its fire standards’ compliance in an area that has a higher fire risk than other spaces. Its 10-year guarantee ensures no disruption to the computer systems caused by repairs to, or replacement of, the floor before this time.
These rooms are not somewhere you want to decorate regularly; the walls need to be durable, easy to install and maintain and be able to house shelving and racks where needed.
Altro Fortis Titanium 15 provides the impact resistance and cleanability you expect from Altro walls. Racks and shelves can be fitted onto it and into the wall behind, leaving a surface that can be kept clean by wiping. With equipment and shelving regularly banging against the wall, it gives peace of mind that the wall will be protected, reducing the need for ongoing maintenance.
Prepping and cooking hundreds of meals, all to be served within an hour, or less, means school kitchens have to operate efficiently and quickly, without compromising on safety. As staff work to get multiple dishes ready, there’s no time to worry about oil splashes or food debris on the floor causing accidents. Once prep and service are over, clean-up and advanced prep for the next day means there’s no rest for staff feet, so a floor solution that can take the burden of a day spent standing will be welcomed.
Altro Stronghold 30 is a specialist safety floor with our highest rating for slip and reduces the risk of a slip to one in a million, even with contaminants such as greasy water, oil and food debris. Its 3mm thickness offers comfort underfoot and also provides impact sound reduction, muffling the impact of dropped pans and trays.
School kitchen walls are regularly spattered with sauces, juices and grease and knocked with tins, pans and trays. They need to be easy to clean and impact-resistant, two things that tiles are not.
Altro Whiterock hygienic walls system has been a market leader for over 35 years. Grout-free, impervious and resistant to impact, it ends the issues associated with tiles, plus is backed with up to 20 years’ guarantee and ongoing technical support from Altro and is fire-compliant. Altro Whiterock White is Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) approved and is made from a high-quality, food-safe PVCu polymer that can handle temperatures up to 60°C, supporting the required hygiene standards. For a classic look there is Altro Whiterock White but if your kitchen can be seen from the adjacent hall, there is Altro Whiterock Satins and Altro Whiterock Chameleon, both designed to create a lasting impression.
For individual learning, small group discussions or browsing the shelves, libraries and study rooms need impact sound reduction from feet within the room. No longer dusty, off-putting spaces, these rooms should feel warm, welcoming and comfortable. With foot traffic mainly in front of the shelves and around chairs and desks, the floor needs to be able to withstand busy use.
Altro Orchestra offers 15dB impact sound reduction, greatly reducing distracting noises. At 2.85mm it also provides comfort under foot, but its excellent resistance to residual indentation ensures the floor’s thickness is only a benefit, with the weight of heavy shelves and other furniture needed in these rooms causing no problem.
When ill or upset, a calm, quiet, warm space is more reassuring than a clinical room. For those managing the space, hygiene and cleanability are top of mind.
Altro Wood adhesive-free offers a choice of 12 wood-look shades, 14dB impact sound reduction and a one in a million slip-resistance reassurance with water, plus comfort underfoot. With good resistance to stains, it is easy to clean manually, with a machine or steam, giving reassurance that fluids and bacteria can be removed. And as with all Altro adhesive-free floors, there is the added benefit of halving installation time.
Let’s face it, treatment rooms will see their fair share of blood and vomit. The walls need to be hygienic to ensure germs and bodily fluids have nowhere to hide, and are easy to clean. As students here may be unwell or distressed, a non-clinical look is more reassuring.
Altro Whiterock Satins is a fully-bonded system that’s watertight and impervious, ensuring bacteria can’t get behind the wall sheet. It’s easy to wipe clean, meaning accidents can be cleaned up quickly and effectively. It avoids the common problems with tiles; staining, cleaning grout and individual tile failure. Altro Whiterock Satins is available in 27 shades, including a selection of calming blues and greens, so there’s a huge amount of design flexibility.
The walls in science labs will suffer the occasional chemical splash, regular water splashes from at least one sink, and ongoing bumps from equipment and bags. A wall sheet system to protect the walls in this area makes sense but, as it’s a school and not a work-place lab, there’s no need for a clinical white look.
Altro Whiterock Satins is available in multiple shades, plenty of options to bring a science lab to life. It provides the impact resistance and cleanability you expect from Altro Whiterock and resistance to a wide range of chemicals, ensuring the walls retain the intended look long-term.
The sound you want to hear inside a music room is the music being played. The sound you don’t want to hear outside the music room, is the music being played. It’s a balancing act. An acoustic floor will reduce impact sound – footsteps within and below the rooms, chairs and other furniture being pulled across the floor.
To instil, encourage and celebrate creativity, there’s a certain responsibility to make a music room…sing. Representing rhapsody or rap, showcasing showtunes or ska, the choice is yours. As with other classroom spaces, especially one that has high design elements, damage resistance is a must.
Altro Whiterock Digiclad allows you to choose from patterns or photographic images, either from our pre-designed collection, or your own design, using a straight-forward ordering process. Durable and with scratch-resistant properties, the chosen design will retain its looks.
Sports changing rooms floor take a hammering: near constant use, mud, studded boots, water, shower gel, bare feet, school shoes. They’re a melting pot of different contaminants, trodden in by both shoes and bare feet. They need to prevent slips, withstand different footwear and heavy traffic, and clean up well.
For showers we recommend Altro Aquarius, a specialist safety floor that offers a one in a million chance of a slip, with both shoes and bare feet, and with shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. More than thirty shades mean plenty of choice when creating a new look or matching with surrounding décor.
These walls get splashed with both clean, soapy and muddy water, plus the odd glob of shower gel or shampoo. There’s bound to be the odd thrown bottle of shower gel or hairbrush too. The walls need to be durable, impervious, to prevent water damage, plus it should be easy to remove dirt marks, soap scum etc.
Altro Whiterock Satins is a fully-bonded system that’s watertight and impervious, ensuring water can’t get behind the wall sheet. Its impact-resistance and 20-year guarantee shows it can cope with what’s thrown at it. It’s ideal for areas, such as changing rooms, which will need regular cleaning and avoids the common problems with tiles; staining, cleaning grout and individual tile failure. Altro Whiterock Satins is available in multiple shades, so there’s a huge amount of design flexibility to create the desired look and feel for this space.
As you would expect, the focus on this area is hygiene. There will be lots of people in and out all day to use the facilities, not always mindful of keeping the area hygienic, so the floor needs to be easy to clean. As there will be regular sink splashes on the floor, preventing slips is also important.
A hygienic, easy to clean walls solution here is going to keep germs at bay. The walls also need to be robust, standing up to knocks, bumps and deliberate damage. To encourage students to look after the space, a high-end look can help.
Altro Whiterock wall designs offer natural wood, metal, stone and linen designs on an Altro Whiterock wall sheet. Fully bonded and with no grout, there’s nowhere for bacteria to hide. As it’s grout-free and impact resistant, it doesn’t present the same issues as tiles, meaning the space is more hygienic and looks better for longer. And when it comes to cleaning, a straight-forward wipe with detergent is all that’s needed, reducing the time needed to clean this area effectively.
A floor in this space needs to be consistently functional. It might have to withstand the weight of PE equipment or shelves full of files, and cope if benches or chair stacks are dragged across it. In case of spills, stains should be easy to clean, and those walking in and out of the room need to be protected from slipping.
Walls in storage spaces will get damaged and no amount of repainting is going to keep them looking good for long.
Dense, impervious and resistant to bumps, knocks and scrapes, wipe-clean Altro Fortis Titanium wall sheet is designed to protect walls. Its ten shades run through so, unlike paint or some alternative wall coverings, a scrape doesn’t remove the colour. If there are any corners within the storage space, there’s Altro Fortis corner protection, a ready-made piece that protects the areas most susceptible to damage from regular knocks.
The Equality Act means there is an obligation to make reasonable provision and adjustments for disabilities, meaning that disability ramps may be needed to give a safe, reliable, easy to maintain entrance to a room. The potential for a slip on a ramp is increased by the fact that it’s a sloped surface so this is a key consideration when choosing a floor. A safety floor that can cope with regular wheeled and foot traffic is a must. To support those with visual impairment, the ramp surface should contrast with surroundings so that the change in surface or gradient is clear. More guidance on disability access ramps can be found in Building Regulations Approved Document M and Approved Document K.
Altro Stronghold 30 offers our highest level of slip resistance, so you can rest assured that with Altro Stronghold, users can move independently and safely. Fourteen colour choices make it easy to find a shade that contrasts with the surrounding floor.
The department for children, schools and families’ publication Building Bulletin 100 (BB 100) is a design guide for improving fire safety in schools, covering new and existing buildings. It specifies the minimum fire resistance of doors in terms of integrity (minutes) when tested to BS 476 pt.22:1987 clause 7. The required ratings are different in different areas. Altro doorsets have an FD30 and FD60 rating, making them suitable for areas with this requirement.
Altro Whiterock hygienic doorsets are faced with PVCu, making them tough and impact-deflective, but also hygienic and low maintenance. They are available in all shades of Altro Whiterock White, Altro Whiterock Satins and Altro Whiterock Chameleon, to match or contrast the adjacent walls. Altro Fortis doorsets and Altro Fortis door protection is hard-wearing, impact and scuff-resistant where needed most. If you want the look of Altro Whiterock on one side, with the toughness of Altro Fortis on the other, that’s no problem. Both options are available with a vision panel to comply with fire door requirements and are wipe-clean.
Find guidance on communal spaces in secondary schools here.
