Time to get rid of the flaws

Floors are often subjected to heavy physical impacts, high temperatures, corrosion from oils and sugars, chemical attacks, challenging hygiene requirements and can suffer too from there being limited windows of time to refurbish and repair.

Alan Dean, Flowcrete UK managing director, said: "Usually a floor is the part of a building subjected to the most stress and strain – taking far more weight and movement than other parts of the structure. Therefore, it is important that a building has a robust platform underfoot to cope with the day-to-day demands placed on it.

"That means a floor finish that can withstand factors such as wheeled traffic from fork lift trucks, trolleys and other machinery in use, resistance to any chemicals that might come into contact with the surface and any impacts that might be encountered. Extremes of temperature also need to be considered.”

In many commercial and industrial environments any loss of integrity could lead to potential health and safety problems such as bacteria build-up and slippery surfaces. Refurbishment solutions, such as those offered by Flowcrete, can give floors a new lease of life by providing robust, hygienic and colourful platforms.

Alan Dean continues: "A correctly specified floor will provide a safer, brighter, hard-wearing environment, and aid safety on site, helping to reduce the chances of slips and trips and supporting a well-structured workflow program with the opportunity to introduce lineage and marked out walkways within the floor design.

"Crucially, once applied, a properly specified floor will also last for the long term, meaning that the refurbishment of surfaces does not need to become an annual event, ensuring environmental and economic benefits.”

Specifiers can find out more about how they can improve their floors over shutdown periods with a series of online guides produced by Flowcrete UK. The different grades of resin flooring are discussed in the guides, allowing decision makers to come to an informed choice about which is the right type of finish for them.

Included are the facts and figures that illustrate some of the problems that have to be overcome. For example 35,000 slips and trips are reported each year, a workplace danger that can be drastically reduced with a floor finish designed to reduce this risk.

Flowcrete also uses the guides to detail the benefits of its Flowfast finish that uses advanced MMA resin technology to significantly speed up refurbishment projects. Just two hours after application a Flowfast floor is ready to withstand the rigorous demands of manufacturing. This limits the required downtime, saving businesses time and money while providing them with a new, hardwearing floor that they can get to work on the same day.

Additionally this floor offers a good level of slip-resistance and, because it is seamless, it is easy to clean and maintain

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Ensuring stringent hygiene standards is a priority in many sectors, especially food and beverage processing facilities. In the guides you can find out how Flowfresh, a seamless polyurethane resin floor finish, can destroy 99.9% of contaminants that reach the floor.

The inclusion of a special additive called Polygiene gives Flowfresh its pathogen-killing properties. The silver ions that Polygiene emits can target salmonella, E-coli and many types of bacteria and yeast - helping to stop the spread of harmful germs.

Flowcrete believes that an investment in flooring is an effective way to boost a building’s potential for many years to come.