Are Your Campus Floors Getting A Failing Grade?
You may be aware of many areas throughout your campus where your flooring is failing which impacts the safety of students and staff. These problem flooring areas, when left unresolved, can grow to impact the overall structure of the building, especially rooms directly below the poor flooring. There are also other health and air quality considerations like mold growth on tiles if the flooring is in your commercial kitchen or walk-in freezer or cooler box. Just like students, you don’t want a failing grade in maintaining all of your critical use and high-traffic spaces to ensure safety, health, and surface protection.
Science Labs have unique educational flooring requirements for safety and durability.
Top 5 Priorities to Solve When Upgrading Campus Floors
If your campus has seen better days, now may be the ideal time to tackle those problem flooring areas. With students and staff gone for summer or long breaks, and foot traffic is at a minimum, it’s the perfect opportunity to install new flooring or repair existing damage to improve your learning environments.
As a facilities manager, you are often challenged with prioritizing which school flooring project to focus on first. To help you identify and prioritize your flooring replacements, we’ve summarized the top 5 concerns to address during the low-traffic time between semesters, so you can ensure that your campus looks its best for years to come.
1. Safety and Slip-resistance
One of the most important aspects of campus safety is ensuring that slip-resistant flooring is installed in key areas. Commercial kitchens and food preparation areas, classroom science labs, dormitory or locker room shower areas, indoor pool decks, and hallways are all high-traffic areas where slip-resistant flooring is essential. Make it your top priority to avoid injuries as well as worker compensation claims by having safe footing floor coating with anti-slip safety throughout these spaces.
2. Hygienic and Mold Free
There are campus flooring spaces where you want to avoid bacteria and mold that can seep into LVT seams, tile cracks, or porous grout. You need to consider surfaces that are nonporous, with antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. This type of floor coating is also helpful in alleviating unpleasant odors which makes for a more enjoyable experience for students and staff.
JetRock epoxy flooring applied to campus indoor pool space.
3. Ultra Water Tight
The installation of a waterproof floor without any seams offers the best protection from any type of leaking. This is especially important when you have multi-level residences or adjacent rooms that contain students or staff offices, critical air handling equipment, supply rooms, or furnishings that would be damaged by water, bacteria, and mold. The best practice to avoid any potential shutdowns of critical spaces is by installing a watertight flooring system with an integrated base. This will ensure that water is going down the drains rather than the sub-floor.
4. Durable for Decades
You’re looking for a replacement that is cost-effective and once installed can outlast the time your students spend on campus and in their classrooms for the next four years. There are flooring options that are 3x stronger than concrete, are chemical resistant, and withstand extreme temperatures. The most durable flooring solutions can also be the most cost-effective compared to LVT when you factor in a single day of installation, an elongated lifecycle, and the need for very little maintenance.
5. Continuity of Critical Operations
There may be mission-critical areas on campus like your loading docs or operational areas that don’t ever shut down even when the students and staff leave for their breaks. These floors see a lot of foot traffic as well as forklift and pallet jack traffic so they need to be durable. There are a number of floor coatings that are ideal for fast installation overnight or on a weekend end so that you maintain your operations without disruption. Or if you’re able to shut down, there are options that are multi-step installations but can give you more color options as well as texture options. When combining durability and a one-step application process, you can be assured you’re making the right choice for your critical facilities.
Campus floor coatings have unique requirements for each space or operational area in a college. It’s important to find the best floor coating for the space since these floors will take a beating from the thousands of students and staff every day.
Choosing the Right Type of Flooring for Your Campus
Once you’ve prioritized your educational flooring installation or replacement projects, the next step is to consider the best commercial flooring options that meet your needs. Ask yourself, what flooring problem are you looking to solve. Are health and safety concerns at the top of the list? Perhaps an extended lifetime, low maintenance, and durability of a floor are important for your high-traffic area? It could be a leak that is causing headaches. Solving these issues often requires careful consideration of floor coatings and how each can resolve the problems. An expert consultant from a quality floor coating company will go through the considerations and help you select the ideal coating for your needs.
That’s where Jetrock or urethane concrete flooring can be a unique solution. These types of commercial flooring options are built to last. They can take all the traffic you can throw at them and still look good. And they’re not just tough, they’re also aesthetically pleasing. Jetrock and urethane concrete flooring come in a variety of colors and styles so that you can find the perfect look for your campus.
If you are looking for experts in solving your campus flooring challenges, let’s connect soon to discuss how JetRock or urethane concrete from Feature Flooring can meet your education environment needs. By taking advantage of the low-traffic time between semesters, you can ensure that your campus looks its best when students and staff return and for many years to come.