Choosing the right flooring in Europe

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” This saying is true and important for the tradeshow industry. Those of us who are involved in international exhibiting constantly face the challenge of creating an exhibition environment for a couple of days, which allows for visiting prospects to feel good in our “base or showroom,” far away from home, and focus on our exhibits instead of design flaws. Not knowing or ignoring local customs and preferences can build up unnecessary barriers between you and your clients.


One of the most frequent comments of European exhibitors and visitors in U.S. tradeshows is about the “too soft” flooring.
Americans like to stand and walk on soft grounds, therefore padding is a necessity, which, in addition, accommodates wiring underneath. Europeans prefer hard grounds under their feet. Wiring is, in most cases, round and not flat, and padding won’t help with that.

European carpets are not as thick and padding is absolutely not common. Depending on your electrical and utility layout, you want to choose whether you need raised flooring or not. If no wires have to spread out underneath your flooring, you’ll have the following choices of materials:

Absolutely low-cost and very common in low-budget pavilions is the use of Needle Felting, used in the U.S. for office flooring solutions, which mostly come in tiles. It is easy and quick to install. If you want to invest in more quality, you might want to choose among the two most preferred tradeshow carpet solutions, which are very dense and short cut, the velours-carpet, or the Rips-carpet (www.messebraun.de/html/teppich-farben.html).

If you want your booth image to be high-tech or executive, you definitely want to go with wooden flooring or laminate. Those are available at local exhibit houses, often pre-mounted in square-meter-segments for easy installation. They are also known as “dance floors” because they are used in hotels to create a dance floor on a permanent installed carpet.

If you want your booth design to be hip and unique, lots of alternative and affordable solutions are available, like hard rubber in all kind of colors and patterns, sealed cork, tiles and many more. Even raised floors with lighting or water underneath are an appreciated attraction at tradeshows.

Should you have the need for a raised floor, different solutions are available. The simplest of them all is to put some sheets of pressed wood on the floor, with 2-by-4s underneath. Then choose from one of the floorings, mentioned before to create the desired surface.

Many different pre-fab raised floor systems are available for rent or purchase. Just contact some local exhibit builders and ask them for their inventory.

Do not worry about drayage and labor. Your rental supplier is responsible for delivering the flooring to your booth site and installing and dismantling after the show. If you choose to purchase, and not return the carpet with your exhibit after the show, be aware that the hall will charge you for disposal. This also applies for the vinyl or poly, which you use initially protect your carpet during installation.

Horst Tondasch is a recognized international Tradeshow-Consultant, specialized in Europe and the U.S. His Company, Coral Enterprises Inc., provides Exhibitors in Tradeshows and Exhibitions in Europe and the U.S. with the entire service-line, which is required for a professional Tradeshow-Presentation. He can be reached at 239-542-1771, and Horst@Coralenterprises.com and all publishing rights remain with Coral Enterprises Inc.
Copyright