For businesses that are essentially open to the public around the clock, replacing the commercial flooring can be a challenge. Not only do you have to determine the best time to focus on this important job, you may be unable to close operations for any length of time.
This means you will have to work around the traffic that tends to come in and out of the building throughout the day and night.
Take an assessment of the busiest times of the day and night.
The first step is to determine what sections of the building have the most traffic at different times of the day. You may be surprised to learn that some areas of the building get less traffic during daytime hours than at night. While this is more a rarity, it does happen.
Once you understand the busiest times of the day and night for the commercial property, you will be able to narrow down your focus with regard to when to replace the flooring.
Determine alternate routes that people can use.
If the commercial building is relatively large and has numerous rooms, corridors, and access points, it may be possible to reroute foot traffic around areas you need to work on. If you can close off small sections of the building for the time that your maintenance crew or the hired contractor will be replacing the floor, this is the best option.
If there are no alternate routes and the section of flooring you need to replace will have traffic on it throughout the day and night, then moved to the next step.
Close off one half of the floor at a time if necessary.
If you expect people to be walking down the hallway, corridor, or even a certain room, consider doing only one half of the floor at a time. Tear up the old flooring and rope off or cordon off the other half so that people can continue to move up and down the corridor or through the room.
Once the new flooring is in place and has had enough time to set, open that half, close the other half, and continue with the work.
Always respect workers and clients.
Always make sure that either the maintenance crew or the independent contractor respects those people in the building when they are replacing the floor. This may require them to use manual tools to remove the old floor rather than heavy machinery. If the machinery will be too loud for the environment, then manual tools should be used. Noise should be kept at a minimum if necessary and possible.