Sikafloor supplied the solution when the owners of a tea processing plant required a new surface installed without interruption to warehouse staff or production.
The warehouse floor had become dilapidated over time due to constant use of heavy machinery and foot traffic. The plant’s owners selected contractors Thelwell Flooring to install a new surface which was not only durable enough to withstand the long-term rigours of warehouse activity, it had to be easy to install and fast-curing to ensure production work could continue unencumbered at the plant. Sikafloor®-31 PurCem® possessed all the properties to meet these precise requirements.
Refurbishment work at the plant began in May 2017. A 1,200m2 area of new flooring needed to be installed after the original concrete surface became cracked and broken in places. The first 1mm layer of Sikafloor®-31 PurCem® was installed following repairs to the original substrate which also required decontamination.
A multi-component, cement and aggregate coating with excellent chemical, abrasion and mechanical resistance, Sikafloor®-31 PurCem® is also solvent-free, making it ideal for use in an environment where food is stored or prepared and susceptible to odour contamination. Following the first coat’s application, a second one was installed to the same 1mm thickness.
The floor’s refurbishment was carried out in stages over a period of four months in order to minimise disruption to the plant’s daily operations. For the contractors, this meant weekend and out-of-hours working to ensure newly-laid areas of flooring could meet the demands of forklift and other machine activity when warehouse work resumed at the beginning of the week.
Mike Thelwell, Director of Thelwell Flooring, said: “Sikafloor®-31 PurCem® was the only system for this project where speed was of the essence to ensure the refurbishment didn’t interfere with the plant’s production process. It’s extremely easy to install and because it has very low VOC emissions and is solvent-free, it eliminated the risk of tainting food and other edible substances stored within the plant.
“It’s a quality system, and will withstand the long-term use of the sort of heavy traffic you would expect to find in a warehouse environment.”
The Sikafloor®-31 PurCem® was installed in two colours throughout the warehouse – grey to denote pedestrian-only areas; blue for forklift traffic. The refurbishment was completed in September 2017, to the complete satisfaction of the client and without interruption to the plant’s production. Sikafloor®-31 PurCem® not only proved itself the rapid-apply, fast-curing system for the project, its high-quality, durable credentials will ensure it’s the long-term flooring solution for a demanding warehouse environment.
