[Closed] Any architects on here?

What type of commercial buildings?

The flooring finishings  in an office unit  will be radically different to a warehouse or a factory or a retail unit.

Is it the floor finishings or the structural floor?

Ground floor only or upper floors?

Is it for your brother-in-law?

I'm not but may be able to help as i spend a chunk of time assisting architects putting together specs for product in my field. What help do you need and with what? Actual bricks and mortar or furnishings?

Is it for your brother-in-law?

😀

Is it for your brother-in-law?

LMAO!!!

Nope.

It's for buildings such as schools, hospitals, clean rooms and ESD type environments.

I've got an opportunity to move out of a lengthy career in Electrical bases Sales Specification work and into flooring.

My traditional customer base is M & E consultants but in this role it will be with architects, which I have dealt with in the past but only in electrical based capacity.

I'm doing a load of research and my query is more about who in a practice would specify flooring product.

Doesn't it depend on the nature of the contract? For example, if you have a turnkey development then the employer's architect will usually specify, but if it's a D&B contract then the main contractor would be dealing. If it's a shell then presumably the tenant will specify.

I wouldn't have thought specifically there's any hard and fast rule, it depends on the project.

In hospitals and schools, flooring is fairly simple and would probably be specified by a technician, before being signed off by a senior architect.

Are you looking to work for a flooring manufacturer?

if it’s a D&B contract then the main contractor would be dealing

Yes, but the main contractor employs the architect, who will generally make the first shout on the flooring spec, until the MC tells them to change it for something cheaper...!

Yes, but the main contractor employs the architect, who will generally make the first shout on the flooring spec, until the MC's QS tells them to change it for something cheaper…!

The greedy, heartless, money grabbing arseholes 🙂

😂

Yep - usually because the client’s QS got the cost plan wrong in the first place 😁

Yes Wallop, I have two interviews, both with flooring manufacturers.

I'm currently in LED lighting which is a total mess of an industry at the moment, I want to get out of electrical and into different side of construction sales.

OK, so there are four types of business you'll need to be dealing with:

1. Architects - they specify flooring materials.

2. Main Contractors - they often have the final say in the selection of a flooring material.

3. Flooring contractors - they are ultimately the ones who will buy it off you, and can have a lot of influence over specifications.

4. Clients - some informed and regular clients will have good estates and facilities departments who know what sort of flooring works for them.

Perchy - have I missed anyone?

Also - specialist environments such as clean rooms and ESD areas are often outside the knowledge of an architect, so look out for specialist installers of this type of environment.

Perchy – have I missed anyone?

Nope.  Got it covered from the ground up 😉

Thanks for the considered reply, Wallop, I've got 20 years of construction spec sales and numerous training courses like Howitt's so I'm comfortable with who to target in general, it's just who within an architects practice would assume the role. As a spec sales i'd be dealing with everyone you mentioned above to defend a spec, I'm curious to know who would create the spec in a practice.

In LED lighting, architects have very little input, unless it's architectural lighting, but I know the type of flooring and colour etc wouldn't be left to a contractor (unless it#s of course D & B) but even then if the architect has novated with the project they may well still have influence.

who within an architects practice would assume the role

Are you specifically looking at sales i.e. you sell the product to the user who incorporates it into a project, or are you looking to get your product specified in projects?

If the former, I'd have said the architect might specify but as wallop said it's more likely to be main or specialist subcontractors who actually purchase the materials.

, but I know the type of flooring and colour etc wouldn’t be left to a contractor

...except it almost always is with the inclusion in  the spec of the words "or equal and approved"

There aren't many architects who wouldn't allow themselves and the contractor that bit of wiggle room in a spec, especially if it's for something where there are as many choices as floor coverings.

Getting it in the spec does not equal sales.

"have I missed anyone?"

Your thinking isn't flawed

Don't use cove former at the delivery entrance to a kitchen, fine in the rest of the kitchen, but the first clumsy pusher of a cage trolley will take chunks out

I work in a related field the spec is driven by the three things:

A good estates dept.

A good interior designer

Which result comes up first in BIM or NBS

(Edit 4, copy paste from the last spec, maybe change a word here and there so the spec remains the same but the product description doesn't match, like carpets made of engineered oak)

Actual sales are completely driven by colour and price.

The contractor won't choose the colours that'll be the client or the ID.

The client won't choose the product unless unless they've got a good estates dept with an established usage and choice on the initial brief, the ID might if you're lucky. In all likelihood it'll be the contactor (who may have an ID...)

If it's the same colour as far as the contactor, QS client are concerned it's the same product.

According to my NBS figures I've been included in 132 tenders this month. I've seen 4 of them. I might win one of those. The rest are cleared off by a main contractor who knows someone who does soft furnishings already and will never make it beyond equal or approved.

Find some good IDs and work with them. Accept they want it to look like x y or z and if your very lucky will have some passing knowledge of function but in practice practical and legislative concerns don't interest them (basic things like FR rated ruin the aesthetic).

For an architect soft furnishings are an afterthought (and below them, because they're an unqualified IDs job) i get at least a job a week from a new build hospital ward, school classroom block etc, where they forgot the furnishings until the ward sister/teacher pointed it out on hand over day.

Here's the conversation that usually happens when I get a flooring spec :

PP: Hi Flooring Guy, How much per square metre for the Carpetron 3000 as per the spec?

FG: £76 /m2

PP: Oooh! That's a bit rich for my blood. That dumbass estimator only priced in £50/m2. What do you have that looks the same for less than that?

FG: I'll call my suppliers and phone you back.

10 mins later

FG: PP! I've spoken to geordiemick00 and he can do the Rugmaster1500 for £46/ m2. It kinda looks nearly the same.

PP: Send me a sample and I'll tell the architect that's what he's getting. Cheers mate!

That's the conversation that converts into actual sales for the OP.

Here’s the conversation that usually happens when I get a flooring spec :

You missed the "handover is day after tomorrow" bit.