Williams says it will typically take 22 to 26 weeks from time of order to get the stone flooring on site and then the length of programme set after that to install the flooring is dependent on the area that has to be covered. The decision as to whether to complete the ceiling or flooring work first is also a major factor as only one can be done at a time.

"Everyone on site is working to the same goal: finishing in time for opening," says Williams. "If one person doesn't finish as a sub-contractor they will get punished. So I try and get all the facts and all the players together and if I have to drag them across the line then so be it. I have before come full-time on site and organised all the other sub-contractors. It takes that level of commitment to do it."

Williams believes it makes sense to get the client, architect and sub-contractors into one room a year before going on site. "Then you can actually produce a centre that finishes three weeks before the doors open," he says.

When choosing the right flooring for the scheme, Williams says it's about balancing the aesthetic requirements of the architect with the budgetary requirements of the client, as well as the programme of the main contractor.

"At a certain level of the market place if you don't have a stone floor you will be rubbished by the industry and you won't get the rents," says Williams. "Terrazzo floor is coming to an end in the shopping centre industry. It is useful for big stores such as Boots, but shopping centres need the quality to attract the clients. If you have an outlet selling second-hand Nike then put down some paving, but if you have a serious retail outlet and you want to attract Next, M&S and Debenhams, then you need to have a stone floor.

"It's critical because you can walk through a shopping centre without a ceiling or even without a shop, but not without a floor. It has to get you from the door to the last shop in the mall.

"The preferred stone in the last 10 to 11 years has been limestone, and that's probably for its warmth. It needs to be a hard limestone and beyond that it needs to live up to the abuse it's going to take.

"The most commonly used stone is the Jura limestone from Germany. Second to that would be the Yana limestone from Spain, used in the Bullring and the Oracle.

"Then you get into granites. Limestone is prettier but granite is harder wearing. You wouldn't be able to use limestone externally and you also have to watch the entrances because salt eats the limestone."

Williams says clients tend to lean towards the beige and brown coloured stones. "They are warm and you don't want people focusing on the floor," he says. "You want them to look at the shops, so you have different philosophies on shopping centres.

"Decorative floors are starting to fade out. Shopping centres are evolving from when Bluewater was built to the likes of what we're doing now at St David's 1 in Cardiff, where the flooring is the same all the way through the two phases. The flooring is bland because they want people to look at the shops.

"At St David's 1, the owners wanted to spruce the mall up and get the customers in so the rents go up and they get more revenue."

The colour of stone also has an effect on the cost. Williams says clients will typically find something that's £60 psm in a shopping centre. "If you go beyond that you start looking at stupid numbers," he explains, adding that to get a blue colour within the stone is expensive and that the blue will fade in the sun in any case.

Additionally, Williams says his company will always give money back if its estimates are over and above the actual cost at the end of the project. "Cardiff was estimated off one artist's impression," says Williams. "It's a fixed price contract unless they change the size of the scheme. This is where the trust comes in. If someone brings you in early, they have to trust you.

"Bovis trusts us at Cardiff but the client doesn't know us and we have to justify things to them as they're spending a lot of money. So we say, 'if you do this, we can give you some money back'.

"If there is a risk, then you price the risk and tell them what that risk is. So we make allowance for extra money but if we don't need it, we give that money back."

Once on site, Williams also ensures the project runs with military precision. In a refurbishment project, such as St David's 1, his workers need to get in and out in one night so that shoppers can walk into the centre the next day. The mall is completed in phases and all staff train for a week beforehand in putting up and taking down the tents that get erected in the mall during the night. The screed is pumped in first, with wooden boards laid down on top so that shoppers can still come in, and then a few weeks later the stone is laid.

"You do what you have to do to ensure the shops remain trading," William says. "We have standby electricians, and people that take care of the telephones and water, and of course there are emergency procedures in place at all times in case anything goes wrong."

It seems that there is a great deal at stake in relation to the installation of a stone floor, not least colour, cost and durability. The golden rules must surely be to work with someone you trust, and begin the planning and sourcing stage early.

The light fantastic

Clever technology is set to deliver a new wave of flooring in the UK retail sector - with the benefit of great green credentials, according to Flowcrete.

Light reflective floors are being introduced that not only look good, but also help retailers score highly in the sustainability stakes.

Flowcrete has introduced a high level of reflectivity to its seamless terrazzo Mondéco, achieved through the combination of a special formulation to deliver the whitest shade available on the spectrum: 'snow white'. This is further accentuated by the use of recycled mirrors in the mix.

According to the company, in broad terms, the installation of this type of floor could cut lighting bills by up to 30 per cent.

Nick Hyde, technical manager of Flowcrete, says: "We've used special white pigments and additives to create the strikingly brilliant white. The mirrored glass reflects some of the lights overhead, and as a result it reduces the overall lighting requirement for any given area."

Contacts

Szerelmey: 020 7735 9995

Flowcrete: 01270 753000

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