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SCMP Reporter

AN Olympic winner will take pride of place at the Toptech stand at the Ideal Home Expo.

  Robbins' floors came through with flying colours in six separate events at the Summer Olympics, the same way they did for the 1984 Olympics and the 1986 Asian Games.

  While Hongkong residents may not make the demands on their floors that Olympic athletes make on the basketball and gymnastics courts, they do demand the best.

  A home owner expects his residence to need painting a few times during its life time, and especially if that property is rented out to an assortment of wear-and-tear tenants.

  Holes made by picture hooks in walls are easily fixed with some filler and paint.

  Windows and even doors can be removed if broken or worn.

  Carpets can be lifted and replaced when the years take their toll.

  But few people want to consider the cost of putting down a complete new floor.

  The expense alone would be daunting, let alone the nuisance of having no flooring for days.

  When new home owners put down a floor, they expect it to last. And they look for a flooring which will be durable and resist adverse weather conditions.

  In the dictionary, oak is described as ''durable'', and the mighty oak tree has certainly a well-deserved reputation for living to an old age.

  So it would seem a smart choice to put oak down as a floor.

 Robbins flooring, from Toptech, uses only maple and four top grades of finished oak. And they never mix species so you can be sure of a consistent colour.

  All Robbins' timber is cut at 45 degrees to produce an edge-grain which prevents the wood expanding or contracting in varying weather conditions.

  In addition, three plies of solid oak (rather than softwood fillers) are bonded so the grain in the centre layer runs at a 90 degree angle to the grain on the top and bottom layers.

  This means that the centre layer, by going against the grain of the other layers, prevents warping.

   An indication of the durability of Robbins' flooring is the fact the company is one of the few manufacturers of approved flooring for the National Basketball Association in the US.



Olympic winner to take pride of place