According to Priyanka Mehra, Principal Architect, PS Design, “While a residential project can afford to have a high-maintenance floor, a commercial space needs durability. A bathroom or terrace should always have a non-slippery floor as the floor will be wet; however, indoors, you can have a high-shine one. Also, budgets have a significant role to play in the choice of flooring.”

Krishn Katyal, Engineer Trainee, Brigade Enterprises, says “Public areas have vitrified tiles for budget hotels, while rooms have carpets as they are less expensive, easy to maintain and easy to refurbish. It should be value for money.”

And Vivek Rathore, Principal Architect, Salient Design Studio, believes innovation is still low. “The customised options are boutique in operations, making them expensive and catering to a small quantity. Innovations with natural products or stone and with sustainable resources or materials are more in demand and should be explored. We need to invest in green flooring solutions. These have huge potential and may be the only ones in demand within the next five to 10 years.”

Maintenance services, especially for wooden and real marble floors, are a must owing to the need for periodic polishing and maintenance, points out Mehra, and Katyal urges manufacturing companies to supervise the installation of wooden flooring. That apart, other value-added services, such as better manuals and samples, specific partners to provide AMCs for installed products and technical guidance of local manpower for application and maintenance, are needed, says Rathore.