Team Floor renovation

Carpet reuse in office floor plates

100,000 tonnes per year and a PEMD statement that weighs on the disposal

Carpet reuse is not a CSR gesture: it is a financial trade-off that releases EUR14,000 to 22,000 on an 850 m2 floor plate, with enforceable PEMD traceability within the meaning of Decree No. 2021-821 of 25 June 2021. On 850 m2 treated, reuse recovers 55 to 70% of the existing stock and avoids 6 to 7.5 tonnes CO2e (ADEME Base Empreinte calculation, textile tile factor 8 kg CO2e/m2). The cost shifts from EUR35-50/m2 for new installation to EUR18-28/m2 for removal-cleaning-relaying, with the range depending on the condition of the resource pool and the expected finish level. Since 2006, Kytom has industrialised this process across its French and Spanish agencies. This page details the method in 5 phases over 12 weeks, the ratios for CFOs and asset managers, and the thresholds below which reuse no longer makes economic sense.

The French carpet industry generates around 100,000 tonnes of waste annually according to ADEME (Construction and public works waste, 2022 edition), the majority of which ends up in landfill or incineration. The AGEC law of 10 February 2020 and the PEMD decree of 25 June 2021 (applicable since 1 July 2023) require project owners to trace the reuse of secondary building elements for operations exceeding 1,000 m2 of cumulative floor area.

For the asset manager: the financial reading of the PEMD. Contrary to the dominant view that presents the PEMD as an administrative constraint, our observation across 34 audited floor plates is different: the PEMD statement becomes a document in the asset disposal file. A broker values a floor plate whose flooring is traced for reuse more highly than a floor plate whose tiles, laid 6 months earlier, are in mixed industrial waste skips. Industry orthodoxy underestimates this mechanism: it is not the carpet that creates value, it is the statement that documents the avoidance.

The ratios observed across the internal Kytom portfolio converge (France and Spain agency benchmark, 2022-2024):

Average reuse rate after 7 to 10 years of use: 55 to 65% of the stock
New installation cost: 35 to 50 EUR/m2 including supply and installation (Kytom supplier quotes 2023-2024)
Reuse cost: 18 to 28 EUR/m2 including removal-cleaning-relaying (Kytom projects delivered 2022-2024)
Carbon footprint avoided: 7 to 9 kg CO2e per m2 (ADEME Base Empreinte calculation, average EF for textile tile 8.2 kg CO2e/m2)

BREEAM In-Use V6 (Mat 03 and Wst 02 targets) and HQE Sustainable Building (target 2 “Integrated choice of products”) certifications reward these approaches. The rating gain observed on Kytom-supported projects is in the order of 2 to 4 points depending on the certifiers, to be confirmed project by project.

From what surface area does carpet reuse become economically relevant?

The threshold is measured through an audit rather than in theoretical surface area: on an 850 m2 floor plate, reuse recovers 55 to 70% of the existing stock and releases EUR14,000 to 22,000, with the cost shifting from EUR35-50/m2 for new installation to EUR18-28/m2 for removal-cleaning-relaying. On small surfaces, the fixed costs of auditing and logistics erode the unit saving: a prior audit of the resource pool validates the relevance before any commitment.