Innovation to help reduce infection, cross contamination and reduce costs
As the types of flooring installed in Healthcare sector buildings multiply, the challenge for housekeeping managers is to keep them maintained properly to ensure both appearance and safety concerns- including infection control and slip issues - are met.
Initial installation cost, maintenance and durability are all major concerns for stretched budgets and many Facilities Managers are now, quite rightly, looking at the “Life-cycle costings” that installing new flooring entails and - more often than not - realising that, as the old saying goes, “you only get what you pay for”.
Life-cycle costing is a process that can help facilities executives understand exactly what a floor will cost over its lifetime and ensure that a product chosen will meet the needs of a facility. Not only looking at the material and installation cost at the point of purchase, lifecycle costs take into consideration on-going cleaning and maintenance requirements, any factored upkeep and also end-of-life costs when the process begins again. It gives facilities executives a big picture view of the flooring options being considered and can safeguard against reducing budget at initial purchase when considering the significant savings that can be ascertained over time.
So which hard floor sealing system do they choose? We all know that there are already a huge number of floor seals available on the UK market that use ceramic as a component within their construction to supposedly ‘increase’ longevity – make them harder - and, up to a point, these do fulfil their promises however, there is only one seal available in the UK today where you actually tread on the ceramics themselves and which offers an exceptionally long life to the floor backed by up to a 10 year warranty – and that system is Wearmax.
WEARMAX is a seal where ceramics swim across the entire surface of the floor, protecting the final finish - ensuring flooring maintains its looks and performance. Because of the way the final finish of matt, satin or gloss sits on the surface of the ceramics and, because ceramics have a hardness of 9.2, the seal maintains its appearance and slip resistance even in heavy footfall areas such as busy hospital corridors and entrance halls.
Flooring surfaces can endure some of the most punishing processes in any environment. They are subject to a wide range of aggressive materials including cleaning or sterilising preparations and, highly aggressive acids, alkalis and solvents. WEAMAX is smooth to touch and exceptionally easy to clean by simply using a Microfibre mopping system and yet has a slip resistance of 40+ BS7976 - way above the minimum requirements of the British Standard of 36 in the wet.
Whilst some floor seals promise a lifetime slip resistance as long as you re-apply frequently, with WEARAMAX this, labour intensive operation, is unnecessary as the product is warranted for ‘wear through’ for up to 10 years. To facilities managers and cost-conscious organisations such as the Healthcare sector this means reduced organisational requirements, reduced labour costs, chemical and accessory costs and significant reduction in interruption to the day to day running of busy working environments.
With no maintenance at all - just simple cleaning there are tremendous cost savings that can be achieved especially because there is no need for ongoing stripping and resealing. Black marks caused by hospital trollies for instance can be simply wiped off with no loss of lustre. As a water based and solvent free system it is environmentally friendly with very low odour omission during application and is also highly resistant to disinfectants and chemicals.
Howard O’Brien, Managing Director Traffik UK Ltd, “there is only one floor seal that makes ceramic particles swim to create a ceramic surface that is slip resistant and almost as hard as diamond. Wearmax has lasted, in excess, of 15 years in a hospital in Austria and the floor is now 40 years old with no traffic lanes or UV damage! Surely it’s time to drop the polishes and hard labour and make your floors bright forever!”