Finding High-Traffic & UV-Resistant Flooring Solutions for Schools

Challenge: The Need for a High-Traffic & UV-Resistant Flooring Solution 

A new floor finish was required for balcony areas, stairs, and landings in Failsworth School, Greater Manchester, which are subjected to busy footfall traffic throughout every school day. Because the atrium area of this school is flooded with so much light through a polycarbonate roof, it meant whatever was chosen had to be UV stable and durable.

Whilst the priorities were for a safe anti-slip, seamless solution first and foremost, having so much light provided an opportunity to have a highly decorative finish with a sparkle that would fit in with the modern building design. Details on the project included having skirtings with the resin flooring to enhance ease of cleaning. The decorative finish also needed to be suitable for steps and compatible with expansion joints to accommodate any movement in the building. 

Solution: Finding Decorative & Low-Odor Floor Coatings to Withstand High Traffic 

Specialists from Sherwin-Williams worked with the flooring contractor, Monarch Resin Floors, to select a decorative hard-wearing, cleanable, safe finish, which also had a low odor during application, as this was a school environment.

As the new coating was to be applied to a concrete substrate with a previous resin flooring, the finish chosen was a multi-coat resin system incorporating decorative multi-colored Deco Flake with sparkling glitter.

The flooring system proposed involved epoxy primer, epoxy high build base coat, decorative flake scatter with glitter, clear polyaspartic high build UV stable, clear coating, and finished with clear matte polyurethane water-based UV stable sealer.

After surface preparation, the primer base coat was applied, followed by the decorative flake distribution and glitter distribution. This surface than needed careful preparation to create the right profile to receive the seal coats. As polyaspartic-based products have a short pot life, they must be installed quickly and very consistently across the floor with no ponding of the resin. Finally, the application of the water-based polyurethane matte seal coat required a skilled cross-rolling technique to achieve a perfect, even consistent finish without any roller marks.

This complex multi-layer resin flooring system required highly experienced and skilled applicators who understood what was needed for the coat.

Also, on this project, floor joints and skirting were involved as part of the floor finish. It was essential that these areas were installed to a high standard for the overall appearance of the floor. The whole floor system installed was solvent free and included the use of water-based materials. Because the floor is designed to become part of the building as a permanent fixture, it should never require removal to create possible landfill waste.

Outcome: Achieving Beautiful High-Traffic Flooring with Sherwin-Williams

This project delivered a great looking resin flooring with a decorative sparkle suitable for heavy footfall use in a high-profile area. The resin design now complements adjacent flagstone areas in the school atrium and provides a continuous flooring system that is safe, easily cleaned and hard-wearing for the long term.

With the finished floor having to meet several requirements, the specialist resin applicator Monarch Resin Floors did a great job meeting all the demands of this situation. The floor needed to be safe, decorative, UV stable, durable, and high-performance. The floor provides a safe anti-slip finish, which was confirmed by anti-slip testing and achieved a low slip potential in wet and dry conditions, but is also easy to clean. Where scuff marks appear from the shoes, the school can remove these every week. The school's maintenance manager commented, '‘The floor meets all our requirements, and we can get it very clean each week with our normal cleaning process to make the whole area look really good."