How to Lay Safety Flooring

Site Preparation

A good example of what is involved in laying Vinyl or Safety Flooring can be seen in a job recently undertaken for Dog House Boarding Kennels at Wolsingham,County Durham.Tel. 01388 527149.Katherine and Dan the proprietors have kindly allowed us to showcase their workplace.The building itself is a recently new,purpose built, set of boarding kennels arranged on a quadrangle around a central cushioned play area.

In this instance and as can be seen from the pictures,Katherine and Dan had painted the concrete floor with a grey coloured floor paint.In fact it had had quite a lot of coats of grey floor paint over the years.

This paint had to be removed before any screed could be applied,as most screeds would normally fail when laid directly on top of floorpaint.The screed would not have been able to key to the subfloor.To remove the paint a floor scabbler was used.This rips off the top surface of the floor,both paint and some concrete as well.However when the

dust has settled it leaves a concrete subfloor ready to be primed.Although priming is not always necessary with a latex screed

in this instance a single coat of Ardex P51 Primer/bonding agent was applied.Ordinarily it would have been normal practice to lay a 3mm latex screed directly on top of the primed subfloor.However because of the high moisture readings in the concrete subfloor and also because of the low position of the site in general, it was thought best to be extra cautious and apply a Damp Proof Membrane.(dpm).

A Laybond ( Bostik ) one coat damp proof membrane was trowelled and then rolled onto the surface.This was then left for 24 hours to dry.Once the DPM had dried a 3mm thick Latex Screed was then applied across the whole of the floor.In this instance the screed we used was a Laybond Screedmaster 2 Ultimate,mainly for compatability

purposes with the dpm.This was then left to dry.However because of the the weather and the added DPM it took more than 2 days before the subfloor was dry.Once dry,a floor buffer was used to to take any imperfections off the

screed surface to ensure a good flat polished finish ready to receive the Safety Floor or Vinyl Flooring.

Laying the Safety Floor

At the Kennels it was decide that the entrance and offices would be laid with a pre formed cove.i.e the flooring material would be formed up the wall about 100mm to give a one piece floor and skirting.i.e it would be waterproof.

The first step as can be seen above was to mark out the height on the wall to where the skirting/coving would be.A contact adhesive,Balls F60 was then applied to the walls and the floor.Likewise the black capping and the cove

former both received a good coat of F60 adhesive before the two were then stuck to the wall and floor.Once the cap and coving had been positioned it was then time to "slab out" the material.Because the safety flooring comes in a

2m wide roll,in this picture, 3 pieces were cut,slightly wider than the width of the office entrance to enable them to be trimmed back.Once the material had been cut and roughly positioned edge to edge,it was then pulled back to

expose about 50% of the floor.This was then coated with Balls F44 Acrylic adhesive and left to go off for about 20 minutes.The sheet flooring was then stuck down.The other half of the drop then received the same procedure continuing throughout the rest of the slabs of material beyond the entrance and around the quadrangle.Each slab of material was then cut and trimmed and fitted to the black capping on the wall and around door openings etc.A skill that takes

years to perfect.After the slabbed out pieces had been cut and trimmed all the joints and seams were then hot welded.A coiled roll of matching coloured vinyl is heated in a purpose made welding gun and run along the seams to form a waterproof weld.The end result is a work of art that is both functional as well as good looking on a par with

Karndean Flooring, and even with heavy usage should last for years and years.In fact the manufacturers give a 10 year warranty on the material.This product is ideal for surgeries,hospitals,food prep.areas,kitchens,toilets,etc,etc.in fact anywhere where hygiene and cleanliness is important to both business owners and customers alike.

Tel 07957 731995 E. mail: sales@specialistfloorsnortheast.co.uk Tel 0191 4178192

Karndean Supplier and Installer ,Specialist Floors North East