Commercial Laundry Flooring - 01785 819800
Commercial Laundry Flooring
Commercial laundries have changed enormously over the last few years with many having been transformed from top to bottom into state of the art workplaces.
Commercial laundry flooring is a significant element in this transformation.
These changes reflect a demanding customer base that ranges from corporate work-wear, hotel and restaurant linens through to sterile wear for hospitals and clean rooms.
Over this period we have refurbished a number of older commercial laundry floors by overlaying with self-smoothing, high gloss epoxy resin floors that provide a bright, easily cleanable hygienic floor finish. This is often part of a complete overhaul involving new roofing, drainage, washers, dryers and ironing equipment.
There was a time when the preferred floor tended to be bare concrete that was constantly subjected to constant hot water spillages, bleach and detergents that eroded bare concrete floors.
Performance was the main criteria with aesthetics low on the list of priorities.
That has changed over the years with many modern commercial laundries having been transformed from dull workplaces into bright vibrant places of work.
Epoxy resin self-smoothing flooring was introduced to the UK market in the late 1970’s and is now estimated to have been applied to over three million m2 of floors in that time.
In the early days these floors were referred to as self-levelling and in some quarters still are. This description should be applied with caution as at 2-6mm in thickness the levelling properties are limited – this is compounded by the fact that the high gloss finish will highlight and perhaps even exaggerate the slightest of undulations. If a perfect mirror like self-levelling finish is required proceed with caution.
Self-smoothing epoxy resin floors provide hard wearing attractive surfaces that are chemically resistant, impervious and easy to clean.
Available in a wide range of colours epoxy resin self-smoothing flooring is ideal for industrial and commercial locations where a durable, hygienic dust free environment is important e.g. laundries, laboratories, hospital clean rooms, electronics assembly plants, showrooms and light industrial plants.
Applied at a thickness of 2-3mm self-smoothing epoxy resin floor toppings are capable of withstanding a far greater degree of wear and tear than a high build epoxy resin floor coating and when applied at a thickness of 4-6mm are deemed to be suitable for very heavy duty environments.
Whilst self-smoothing epoxy resin floors will scratch, scuff and gouge if subjected to heavy traffic it is virtually unheard of for the floor to be sufficiently damaged to the point where the underlying concrete floor slab is exposed.
BS8204-6 categorises these epoxy resin floor toppings as:
Type 5 (2-3mm thick) and recommends them for regular foot traffic, frequent forklift traffic and occasional hard plastic wheeled trolleys. In Light to Medium duty working environments the BS indicates a typical life expectancy of 6-10 years for this type of floor topping, dependant upon a number of factors e.g. a factory working a forty hour week will achieve four times the lifespan of an identical operation working a 24/7 regime.
Type 7 (4-6mm thick) and recommends them for regular foot traffic, constant forklift traffic and hard plastic wheeled trolleys with some impact resistance. In Heavy Duty working environments the BS indicates a typical life expectancy of 8-10 years for this type of floor topping, dependant upon a number of factors e.g. a factory working a forty hour week will achieve four times the lifespan of an identical operation working a 24/7 regime.
An anti-slip dressing should be considered in areas where a slip hazard might arise from water ingress, operational spillages or debris that may land on the floor.