Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Seamless Floors Keep Maintenance Simple, Offer Performance, Flexibility

Planners choosing flooring materials should consider the big picture when they are addressing ease of maintenance. There are endless options in colors and style; you can find that in most every category of flooring, but finding a floor that meshes with overall design, meets all the performance standards and promises to be easy to clean can be challenge, however it is critical due to the traffic, messes and day to day wear and tear on a school floor. Planners should look for seamless, resinous hard surface floors, such as epoxy and urethane poured floors. These “hard” surfaces are resilient, but seamless is the key. Seams and grout lines collect dirt. Dirt invites bacteria. This is not only a maintenance problem, but also a health issue.

Seamless surfaces can work just about everywhere, from kitchens to locker rooms to corridors and classrooms. The design elements provide tremendous design flexibility; you can incorporate shapes, designs and custom colors to define a space any way you chose without sacrificing performance characteristics (stain, abrasion and impact resistance) and ease of cleaning. Think for example about the popularity of the multi-purpose room. This room’s purpose might change over eight times in one day. The floor stays the same, but the uses vary and everyone’s needs are accommodated. More importantly, the maintenance staff can move in and out of the room quickly to ready the floor and the room for the next function. A seamless, resilient system meets all these needs, plus keeps noise down and is easy under foot.

In addition, seamless, non-wax surfaces are sustainable; a non-wax surface will result in lower life-cycle costs. Also, the use of a urethane-based seamless systems provides increased chemical and stain resistance, particularly in laboratory applications.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

About the Author

Kendall Speer Ellis is the Marketing manager for The Stonhard Group. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Porter Family Center

    Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of New Construction.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Indiana University Launches Capital Campus in D.C.

    Indiana University recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new IU Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., according to university news. The eight-story facility will provide a central hub for the university’s existing programs and business operations based in D.C., uniting them under one roof and providing the opportunity to expand.

  • Cleveland High School Breaks Ground on Modernization

    Portland Public Schools in Portland, Ore., recently announced that construction has begun on a modernization project for Cleveland High School, according to a news release. The existing building will be replaced with a new, 300,000-square-foot facility at the same site.