Willis Knighton- Pierremont

General Information

Location: Shreveport, LA 

Building Type: Medical Facility 

Product Manufacturer: Tnemec

Challenge

The current facility standard for Operating Room Floor Finishes has been heat welded sheet vinyl

to support cleanable hygienic environments to meet regulated sterilization requirments. Some of

the downfalls of this flooring solution are their significant susceptibility to failure due to moisture

intrusion, chemical attack, and system failure at the seam locations over time. Martin was

contacted by the Hospital Engineering Department to review these items and work with our

industry partners to design a new flooring system that would eliminate these issues. Martin worked

with Tnemec to provide a moisture tolerant Anti Microbial Resinous Seamless Floor Solution.

One of the main obstacles of this solution was that all installation operations were required to be

performed in a fully functioning hospital surgical suite on a very limited schedule allotment. It was

also determined by the client that a decorative option would be required to satisfy facility design

standards. This requirement added multiple steps to the application and still had to meet the rigorous

regulation standards related to sterilization and anti microbial support. Martin worked with Tnemec to

test multiple applications to find the proper solution to this challenge.

Solution

It was determined that a antimicrobial moisture tolerant resinous

application would be installed to support the issues with moisture

failure in the area and also provide the anti-microbial requirements

necessary for area sterilization. To accomplish the decorative

requirements Martin provided a custom decorative flake broadcast

that was developed with the client design staff to meet the current

finishes in the areas. This would require adiitional applications to meet the aesthetic requirements

which would make the schedule more complex and required a plan to address this requirement.

The project team developed a solution to utilize a fast cure application which allowed the 2nd

broadcast application to be over coated in 2 hours in lieu of standard cure times of 8-10 hours. This

required crew focus to provide the aesthetic requirements with the limited work time of the

material but did accomplish the schedule efficiency required.

During the final design phases of the application the surgical physicians stated that there could be

no substrate inconsistencies due the the specialized surgical equipment and a completely flat surface

was a non negotiable requirement. The decorative flakes provide a slight surface profile that

supports slip resistance so by eliminating that profile the potential for slip hazards greatly increases.

To eliminate the profile the team decided to install a high solids self leveling epoxy coat to fully fill

any surface profile ans provide a completely smooth application over the flakes. To eliminate any

slip hazards the team decided to install an aggregate filled finish coat for slip resistance.

The provided system allowed a low VOC site friendly solution that met the very limited schedule

allotment. The new system provided a fully monolithic moisture tolerant sterile application that has

performed exceptionally to date. In response to the success of this application the hospital team has

initiated additional OR areas at multiple campuses. Martin greatly appreciated the team approach

developed with the client as well as our industry partner Tnemec in the development to this solution

to resolve a facility issue that had been ongoing for years.

Martin always enjoys the opportunity to provide engineered coating based solutions to support

facility challenges. If there is an issue that Martin can help you address please contact us today to set

up a meeting to discuss any issues we can help you mitigate.