Why Epoxy Flooring Systems are Ideal for the Healthcare Industry
Modern hospital flooring sealed with epoxy.
Hospitals are the world’s most unique environment. In the U.S., a hospital has about 640,000 square feet, and, what covers this area is a crucial component of a healthcare center’s viability. Across this vast surface area, facility managers, designers, and specifiers must consider a broad range of factors when designing new or renovated medical facilities, hospitals, and centers. A flooring system affects productivity, health and overhead expenses related to compliance and safety standards that can result in fines or legal action. Everything from human demands to patient safety demands, to aesthetics, functionality, and durability must be considered. These are the non-negotiable demands of flooring systems across the medical industry:
- withstand heavy equipment and machinery
- withstand constant traffic and use
- easily maintained
- offer durability and longevity
- easily cleaned and sanitized
- the degree of comfort during prolonged human use
- slip resistant
- aesthetic appeal
- nonporous, sterile flooring inhibiting the spread of pathogen and the growth of micro-organisms.
As the nation’s leading epoxy supplier and provider, we have built a portfolio of healthcare facility projects due to the high suitability of epoxy flooring systems for the industry. This article explores a few reasons why epoxy is ideal for healthcare facilities.
Strength, Durability, and Longevity | Epoxy is the strongest of flooring systems. The chemical process bonds diamines and epoxies resulting in a hard, strong, dimensionally stable, seamless surface – completed bonded to the substrate – that is impact resistant. This means that epoxy can withstand repetitive use under heavy equipment and machinery without cracking. It supports the traffic that occurs daily in a medical facility, including human traffic and significant weight loads of wheeled apparatus and machinery. It withstands spills, collisions, impact, and corrosive elements for years without cracking or chipping, a consequence that can result in contamination. Epoxy is also temperature resistant and has higher resistance to radiation up to 10 MGy and 100-150 MGy (for hardened compositions and non-reenforced composites respectively). Its strength lends an epoxy floor unparalleled durability and longevity, lasting an average of 25 years.
Comfort During Prolonged Use | Employees in medical facilities stand/walk up to 12 hours per day. Poor flooring can impact comfort or complicate musculoskeletal conditions. Solutions like flexible epoxy polysulfide with rubber aggregates or ergonomic systems create a cushion effect on surfaces while still offering ease of cleaning. These formulas can be custom designed by the REDRHINO epoxy experts to meet any of your needs.
Epoxy requires less labor to easily clean and sanitize.
Ease of Maintenance + Sanitization | Medical facilities require flooring systems that will improve health outcomes for both patients and employees. They must withstand harsh chemicals, rigorous cleaning and sanitizing procedures. Not only are epoxy coatings impervious to chemical degradation, they do not require waxing, buffing or any extra maintenance. From a financial standpoint, epoxy flooring offers lower life-cycle costs, due to having a greater ease of maintenance than that of any other flooring system, with the longest life cycle of current flooring options.
Slip Resistant | There is myriad reason that medical facilities require slip resistance flooring. There is constant traffic, sharp corners, equipment, charts being read in transit, etc. at all times. Trips and falls occur often, jeopardizing varying complications and mobility impairments of both patients and employees. Epoxy flooring systems offer excellent slip resistance coating exceeding ADA recommendations for slip resistance on flat surfaces. Textured surfaces, no-skid waxes, safety stripping, and the aforementioned flexible epoxy polysulfide with rubber aggregates all make surfaces safe. Because epoxy flooring systems are easily customized, both in formulaic considerations and application area, a facility’s design can accommodate each space with the appropriate slip resistance to maximize health outcomes. The epoxy experts at REDRHINO can work with facility managers, contractors and designers to build a flooring system that meets your exact needs.
Seamless + Sterile | Operating rooms, emergency rooms, labs, storage facilities, etc. are all regularly exposed to pathogens, bacteria, and biohazards. To mitigate this risk, seamless flooring bonds, the type that only epoxy can offer, is recommended. Epoxy floor coatings bond completely creating a non-porous, seamless surface that’s impenetrable by pathogens, mold or bacteria. In contrast, permeable substances like grout or fractional cracks in vinyl or tile flooring allow the proliferation of pathogens and limit sterility. Further, only epoxy bonds to the surface allowing no room for glue or moisture to become trapped, compromising sterility. Seamless flooring is more effectively cleaned/sterilized increasing hygiene and inhibiting pathogens. To further restrict the potential spread of infectious disease, antimicrobial additives are available to add to epoxy resin formulas.
Aesthetic Appeal | Healthcare Facilities Today has presented industry evidence that supports the important role of healthcare facility design in a patient’s healing process and experience. When considering design values – like those that a color has on a patient’s mood – epoxy is a compelling option with resins spanning the complete color spectrum. This design is customizable by color or in application to maximize aesthetic values in various areas of the facility.
Epoxy coatings are excellent flooring choices for hospital and medical facilities because they offer unparalleled strength, durability, safety and sterility while being completely customizable and providing aesthetic appeal. Every REDRHINO project undergoes thorough consulting to determine your needs and match them with our superior, quality products and experienced, comprehensive installation. Contact REDRHINO to discuss your needs how epoxy flooring systems can meet the needs of your project.
