Advantages of Seamless Floors

When choosing floor materials, planners should consider the big picture. There are endless options in colors and styles 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. Planners should look at seamless, resinous hard-surface floors, such as epoxy and urethane poured floors. These “hard” surfaces can still be resilient, but seamless is the key. Seams and grout lines, found in vinyl or other types of tile systems, collect dirt. Dirt invites bacteria. This is not only a maintenance problem, but also a health issue.

Planners may wonder if seamless surfaces will work for every area in a facility. They can work just about everywhere, from kitchens to locker rooms to corridors and classrooms. The design elements many seamless floor companies offer provide tremendous design flexibility: you can incorporate shapes, designs and custom colors to define a space without sacrificing performance characteristics (stain, abrasion and impact resistance) and ease of cleaning.

A multipurpose room, for example, might be changed over eight times in one day: from meeting room to cafeteria to student assembly area to gym. 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 underfoot.

In addition, seamless, non-wax surfaces — available in epoxy and urethane poured-in-place floors — speak loudly to sustainability, and a nonwax surface will result in lower life-cycle costs. Also, the use of 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

  • ed tech conference calendar

    Upcoming Awards, Events & Webinars

  • Houston-Area High School Breaks Ground on 117,000SF Multi-Use Facility

    North Shore Senior High School, part of Galena Park ISD in Houston, Texas, recently broke ground on a new multi-use facility for student extracurriculars, according to a news release. The North Shore Multi-Use Facility will include dedicated practice and training space for the school’s athletics and fine arts programs.

  • Photo credit - Chuck Coates

    Florida District Modernizes Central Energy Plants at Two High Schools

    Flagler Schools, a public school district in Flagler County, Fla., recently partnered with Matern Professional Engineering to modernize the central energy plants at two of its high schools, according to a news release. The project is part of a larger, district-wide effort to reduce energy costs and operational expenses.

  • UT System Approves First Funds for New Campus

    The University of Texas System Board of Regents recently approved funds to build the first facility of a new campus in far west Fort Worth, Texas, according to university news. UTA West will serve as a branch of the University of Texas at Arlington and is scheduled to open in fall 2028.