Flooring News

Among the building products used to help rebuild The Lighthouse School near Nashville, Tenn. during a recent episode of ABC-TV’s Emmy award-winning Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, installers selected SpraySmart adhesive from Tarkett’s Azrock brand.

The school, which not only serves as a place for education, but provides shelter, food, water and a variety of social and financial services to the Nashville community, was completely destroyed in the 2010 flooding that devastated much of the Nashville area.

“Tarkett is committed to making better spaces for people and we are so pleased to have been able to help the Nashville community, which was so devastated by the flooding, by providing some of our flooring and adhesive products to build a better school,” said Kathryn Holdridge, Tarkett product manager for the Azrock tile line. “Because the construction and installation crews had to build a new structure within one week, we knew they would need products to be installed quickly and efficiently. SpraySmart reduces installation time by 70 percent, so it was the perfect fit for the project.”

The episode’s design team included Ty Pennington, Paul DiMeo, Tracy Hutson and Leigh Anne Tuohy, interior designer and subject of the nationally acclaimed movie “The Blind Side.” Nashville-based Dryden Abernathy Architecture Design (DA|AD) led the architecture and engineering team with LP Building Products and HARDAWAY Construction Corp. acting as the two primary construction firms. In addition to Tarkett, several other businesses donated materials and labor and hundreds of volunteers joined the construction effort. Additionally, J & J Interiors Inc. provided the commercial flooring installation by using Azrock’s SpraySmart adhesive. SpraySmart sets quickly, allowing installers to efficiently lay the flooring tile and the tack was strong enough to hold the tiles in place, even with immediate traffic after installation.

“We could not have completed the installation in the timeframe without Spray Smart,” said Jay Crump, President of J&J Interiors, Inc. “Once we put the floor in place and walked away, the Azrock floor stayed in place. Within minutes of laying the floor, the construction crew brought in lifts to paint the walls. Plus, the amount of foot traffic was unreal. There were designers, lighting and video crews, plus local on-lookers touring the school and walking all over the floors, right after the installation was finished.”

In addition to providing its SpraySmart adhesive, 13 colors of Azrock Cortina Grande and Karim Kolors were installed in the entry way and corridors of the school. The Lighthouse playroom featured five colors of Azrock Cortina Grande and Milano with a color scheme that illustrated the depth of blues in the ocean as well as the waves and surf that splashed onto the sandy beach.