Gulf Construction Online - Kemsol offers ‘total solution’ concept

Carpets & Floor Coverings

Kemsol ... offering an extensive line of flooring solutions.

Kemsol offers ‘total solution’ concept

Keeping pace with the growing PVC flooring markets of the UAE, Kemsol Middle East looks forward to a strategy of offering total solutions under one roof, which could earn it a larger share of the local market.

01 April 2007

With the PVC flooring market in the UAE growing at the rate of 15 to 18 per cent per year, Dubai-based Kemsol Middle East has geared itself to gain a larger share of the pie, by offering a total solution and setting up an in-house team of PVC layers, trained and capable of taking on large-scale projects.

Its total solution package for PVC flooring includes stripping of the old flooring, levelling of sub-floors, laying of flooring, line marking (for example, as required for multi-purpose halls in schools) and polishing and maintenance.
“The PVC market in the UAE is in the region of 500,000 sq m per year but growing steadily,” says Manoj Khanna, director of Kemsol Middle East, which offers an extensive range of speciality and commercial grade flooring solutions in various attractive colours from LG Chem Korea, a Korean manufacturer of the LG PVC flooring solutions.
“PVC flooring is a specialised product and requires the utmost care in sub-floor preparation and flooring application thereafter,” Khanna says. “Kemsol has a reliable team of applicators, who have not only been specially trained, but also are well-experienced to handle this portfolio.”
In line with the latest trend towards wooden parquet flooring, LG Chem offers PVC options that offer remarkable resemblance to their wooden counterparts.
“We are replacing real wooden parquet and engineered parquet with our LG Chem PVC antique wood selection, which is 3 mm thick, and feels and looks exactly like wooden parquet,” he points out.
He continues: “The LG Chem flooring offers a host of advantages over wooden systems, including cost benefits, a five-year guarantee, no problems with water seepage – which is the bane for wooden parquet – insect-proof and anti-fungal. It has a polyurethane layer to ease maintenance.”
The LG Chem speciality flooring range includes:
• Rexcourt, which comprises sports flooring products designed for sports stadia, multipurpose halls and gymnasiums;
• EQ Floor, a special flooring for hospitals (nurseries and children’s play areas, recovery rooms, nursing rooms), schools, gymnasiums and auditoriums. It has a anti-bacterial and anti-fungal top layer and is available in the form of rolls with a thickness of 6.0 mm;
• Conductive and Static Pulse, which are conductive and static-dissipative special tile solutions for areas where electrostatic discharges can damage and degrade sensitive electronic equipment. Conductive tiles are used in operation theatres and clinics in hospitals, whereas the anti-static tiles are used in laboratories and clean rooms, computer rooms, as well as in aerospace, pharmaceutical, optics and microelectronics areas.
Other flooring solutions designed for use in hospitals include the Naturelife, Clight, Decotile Series’ Fine And Econo ranges and Safedeco series.
“The Naturelife range, which is available in roll form and in a thickness of 2.2 mm, has a highly specialised top layer which is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, and has a layer of fibreglass all along its thickness, imparting great resilience and support. This makes the product a very good choice for general hospital applications that require a heavy-duty flooring choice,” says Khanna. “It has been used extensively in the US in most medical institutions.”
Another product designed for heavy-duty applications in hospitals, medical Institutions, pharmaceutical companies, is the Clight range, which is also available in roll form with a thickness of 2.6 mm and featuring a special polyurethane top layer.
Manufactured specially for back-of-the-house and kitchen areas is the Safedeco series, an anti-skid studded variety of flooring.
The Decotile Series’ Fine And Econo line is an extensive range offered in various designs and patterns for front-of-the-house, reception and office areas in hospitals, as well as for residential applications, hypermarkets, showrooms and commercial office flooring.
“Kemsol was instrumental in bringing LG Chem into the region,” he says. “The Korean giant offers an extensive range of value-for-money and top-quality products.”
LG Chem is very strong in the hospitals, schools, malls and hypermarkets – especially in the area of luxury retail showrooms – and office flooring segments of the market, he adds.
Apart from the UAE, LG Chem Korea’s flooring solutions are sold in more than 50 countries, contributing substantially to the LG group’s annual turnover exceeding $100 billion. An ISO 9002 company, LG Korea flooring adheres to European, DIN (German), and ASTM standards.
The Kemsol Group was established in 2000 in the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, essentially to take advantage of the business possibilities that the construction boom in the UAE presents.
“Its fundamental focus is on the marketing of various quality products from carefully hand-picked supplier corporations the world over. Since its inception, Kemsol has set up a state-of-the-art warehousing facility at Jebel Ali Free Zone, which is capable of storing 400 containers of materials.”
For clients who are looking out for ceramic and porcelain vitrified tiles for their flooring requirements, Kemsol markets an extensive range from Yuksel Seramic of Turkey for any application area.
“These tiles are first choice where glazed, glossy, anti-slip, matte and rustic finishes are required and are available at very reasonable prices,” Khanna points out.
Yuksel boasts an extensive product-mix in an earthy selection of fine ceramics and porcelain. These tiles are manufactured to EN standards and are sold in more than 20 countries worldwide.
Kemsol has also added crystallised glass flooring to its range of upmarket flooring solutions.
Apart from flooring, the Kemsol Group offers a diverse range of products including u-PVC windows and doors. As a licensed fabricator of Shide windows and doors, Kemsol now produces these u-PVC products at its new state-of-the-art factory in Jebel Ali. The facility, a backward integration project for the company, caters to the specific, custom-build requirements of the projects market in the Gulf. All the required raw materials and technology being used at this fabrication unit are from Italy and Korea.
Other products offered by Kemsol include high-quality sanitary ware from Kerasan of Italy and RSG of Japan, time-tested mixers from Grohe; and solid acrylic surfaces from Polystone for kitchen counters and bathroom vanity tops.
Some of these solutions are now on display Kemsol’s recently-opened luxury showroom for the interiors markets on Al Ittihad Road, opposite Dubai General Police headquarters.
“The response to our new showroom has been excellent. We have increased our retail sales appreciably. In addition, the number of end-users, consultants and architects visiting the show room over the past year has been phenomenal,” Khanna concludes.