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THE CHALLENGE: 200,000 square feet of vinyl asbestos tile throughout this facility was encapsulated with BIO-FLOR™ 182. After this work was completed however there remained a problem with dirt from the bare concrete loading docks being tracked into the new flooring from heavy forklift truck traffic. An unrelated problem was that during periods of sudden weather changes from cold and dry to warm and humid the surface of the loading dock would “sweat” so badly that forklift truck traffic had to be suspended because of slipperiness.
Prior experience with competitive products on this loading dock was entirely negative. Remnants of previous applications here and there were evidence of previous failures.
THE SOLUTION: BIO-FLOR™ 182 seamless flooring epoxy was selected for this application largely because of the excellent results which had been obtained on the previous 200,000 square feet of VAT encapsulation. These areas had been coated with BIO-FLOR™ 182 with a coloured quartz aggregate broadcast to rejection into it. The overall effect after application of a clear seal coat was very attractive and easily cleanable.
The same general formulations were chosen for the loading dock with the exceptions that 24 mesh aluminum oxide was chosen for the broadcast aggregate because of its extreme wear resistance and a final seal coat of gray pigmented BIO-FLOR™ 182 was applied rather than a clear coat.
THE INSTALLATION: Since the loading dock in a mail sorting facility is such a critical asset it was imperative for the contractor to work in close harmony with the facility.
The dock was roughly divided into fourths during the installation with successive fourths being given to the contractor for single 24-hour periods to make the BIO-FLOR™ 182 installations and have them ready for unrestricted service after this time.
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Work began at 8 am each morning. As the areas were being abrasive blasted using 10” Blastrac® equipment part of the crew was setting up a mixing and staging area. Immediately the abrasive blasting was complete the crew mixed and applied BIO-FLOR™ 182 at the rate of 100 sq.ft./gallon. Within 15’ of this application 24 mesh aluminum oxide was broadcast to rejection into the still wet coating. After about four hours excess unabsorbed aluminum oxide was swept off using stiff brooms and saved for reuse on the next section.
When the surface had been sufficiently cleaned a seal coat of gray BIO-FLOR™ 182 was applied at the rate of 95 sq.ft./gallon. This coat is designed to bind and seal loose grains on the surface without simply encapsulating and burying the aluminum oxide. Some surface roughness was desired to enhance traction under the anticipated wet conditions.
The treated surfaces were cured sufficiently for unrestricted heavy forklift truck traffic within 12 hrs after the last applications of seal coats.
RESULT: The coated floor is still 100% intact and functioning well five years after these applications. An unanticipated benefit was the almost total elimination of sweating during periods of sudden weather changes presumably because of the insulating effect of the epoxy coating.
For more information contact:
Paddy Atkinson Director
TFT Epoxies (UK) Limited
13 Ryecroft Lane, Belmont Village
Bolton, Lancashire BL7 8AH
Telephone: +44 (0) 7973 553 447
Fax: +44 (0) 1204 811 212
Email: info@TFT-epoxies.co.uk
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