Archive for February, 2012
Pharmaceutical Flooring Offers New Solutions to Old Problems
Pharmaceutical Flooring: Where Flooring Matters
If you picture in your mind what a pharmacy looks like, and then zero in on the floor of said pharmacy constructed in your mind, the pharmaceutical flooring would be rather special. It would be scrupulously clean, gleaming in fact. The corners would harbor no dirt whatsoever and there would be no chinks in its armor preventing any dirt from entering the floor to the substrate. In fact that floor would meet or even exceed the necessary FDA and USDA requirements.
If truth be told, that floor would be chemically resistant to all manner of chemicals, be completely anti-slip to all foot traffic, and would even be resistant to forklift traffic. This means that the flooring items would not allow a break in the important bond found on that flooring to permit dirt, microbes or anything that else that might interfere with it being dust free and totally clean. Silikal fits all of these high demands for pharmaceutical flooring.
It is particularly hygienic since it is seamless, in addition to being non-porous. This is an important fact as germs and bacteria have nothing to attach to. Thus this joint-free flooring will have a high gloss to it, a finish that will completely eliminate all crevices and cracks found in other flooring. Now all the cleaning crew of that pharmacy needs to do is to easily clean it to decontaminate it. Now, that’s fighting bacteria at ground level!
The technical properties of Silikal mean that there are no VOCs whatsoever in the product, thus there are never any fumes to deal with. Its high durability means that your pharmacy can be open 24 hours a day without having to deal with toxic cleaning solutions, that’s how easy the cleanup will be with Silikal. High durability also means that you won’t be out of commission for expensive repair work either that can destroy or mar the sterile processing environments that you work so hard to maintain in your pharmacy. In addition, Silikal is anti-static as well. This permits highly sensitive electronic apparatus to fully operate without disruption of that pharmaceutical environment.
Pharmaceutical flooring extends to pharmaceutical warehouses as well. Thus Silikal is completely ideal for such industrial flooring. Therefore Silikal floors are very commonly utilized for industrial concrete pharmaceutical warehouses. Silikal is proud to say that the floors that have been installed in such pharmaceutical warehouses have stood up magnificently to the frequent cleaning as well as the known harsh sanitizing agents used for such cleaning. Silikal is exceedingly proud to say that there are no contaminants that can enter a Silikal floor.
If and when you decide on pharmaceutical flooring, do remember that Silikal is the only product that utilizes “enhanced” MMA. That’s what makes Silikal completely unique with regard to flooring for pharmaceutical locales.
Self Leveling Floor Underlayment: A Below Deck Dream
Self Leveling Floor Underlayment Finds Purpose In Old Floor Restoration
Often people think that the only kind of underlayment there can be is the padding that goes under a carpet, but in essence that’s what an underlayment does and that’s where it got its name from as it lays under something else. There are some concrete floors that are very severely damaged, thus prior to laying a floor down over it, something has to be done to make it stable enough to receive some floor treatment or other. Often a shotblaster becomes the proper solution to those larger problem floor conditions. A shotblaster is a mechanical machine that literally shoots various sized shot at the flooring so that eventually the floor is basically flat and debris free as possible all ready to receive a self leveling floor underlayment. The shotblaster has its own vacuum system, thus clean up of debris is nominal at best.
As you can imagine having a self-leveling floor underlayment is of extreme importance. At least the self-leveling part of it is. Basically in a liquid form, a self-leveling floor underlayment will seek its own level, much as water does, so that when dried or cured, it creates a completely flat underlayment.
There are definitely exceptions though to having to use a self leveling floor underlayment which could save a tremendous amount of time should an underlayment found to be unnecessary, not to mention the cost that could be saved. For instance, when you have Silikal come to you to give you an estimate, they may well respond that instead of using an underlayment, that instead their product known as SILIKAL® R 62 resin may be utilized instead. This Silikal product is actually a reactive, slightly elasticized resin that can actually be utilized for self-leveling coatings. This then can actually bypass the underlayment process entirely, saving a great deal of time, energy, and cost.
The above named Silikal product is actually characterized by good quality flow properties. Do take note of the word elastic in the description. This is extremely important when using the product on wooden floors that could conceivably move ever so slightly when weight is put on them. By being slightly elasticized this will not cause the resin to break at any time. This kind of advanced product is what has made Silikal rise to be at the very top of flooring products as you can well imagine. Their constant laboratory tests have made their products the best in the world.
Flooring Approved by the USDA: Public Health in Flooring
Flooring Approved by the USDA and the Hidden Benefits
Most people have heard of the USDA, but few know what it stands for, nor what kinds of protection they are offering. The letters USDA stand for the United States Department of Agriculture, and even though the full name brings to mind heads of lettuce and bright red tomatoes, the USDA goes much further than simply dealing with salad items. In conjunction with the FDA, which is the Food and Drug Administration, both these government entities are responsible for the full protection of public health. They are the ones who make sure that your food, as well as its preparation is properly labeled, wholesome, sanitary and of course completely safe to eat. So, as you can see having flooring approved by the USDA is something that we should all be extremely thankful for.
In order for any flooring to pass the rigid constraints that the USDA has with regard to flooring, the floor must stop algae, bacteria, mold and fungus from ever growing on it, or under it. Now, if you imagine that any food plant that might utilize water or other liquids in food preparation, would need to have a floor that is not only steam-cleanable, anti-skid, anti-microbial as well as suitable for heavy traffic or heavy loads such as forklifts, you get the idea of what a USDA approved flooring must have!
Various food businesses that think that the USDA will approve any pigmented sealers or perhaps epoxy sealers on floors will find that these are not acceptable. The reasons why are that in order for floors to pass their rigid requirements, flooring must be proper and keep out any and all problems that are associated with businesses that might handle produce, poultry, dairy, pork, or beef. All freezers and walk in coolers also need to adhere to their requirements, thus commercial kitchens of all kinds, including the poshest of restaurants need to have USDA approved flooring.
The USDA does not only check to see how sanitary a floor treatment is, they wish to make sure that it is odorless, forklift rated, slip resistant as well as chemical resistant too. In freezers it is very important that such a floor is also thermal shock resistant.
Flooring approved by the USDA is not totally uncommon, but some floors go way beyond what the USDA requires. One of those is Silikal. Silikal is utterly non-porous, and it is even warranted to be pinhole free. It is of course, a totally seamless flooring surface, so that nothing can attach to the floor, not dirt, nor bacteria, nor can water leach under it to cause embarrassing odors. In addition, this is an anti-slip product, and since kitchens and food plants of all kinds are wet atmospheres, this becomes more important, as businesses wish to prevent all slips and falls. Besides all those wonderful things that one can say about Silikal it can even put up with mechanical abrasions from various machinery such as forklifts, and can even withstand chemical attacks.
However, keep in mind that in anything from diamonds to floors, there are always better qualities of any product. Silikal surpasses anything else in high quality for flooring approved by the USDA. After all, Silikal will be ready to work on in one hour after it is installed in your establishment. That means no lengthy shut downs, thus more money in your pocket!
Floor Coverings for Allergies: Dust Free Flooring
Floor Coverings for Allergies and Keeping a Healthy Environment
Allergies can be caused by many things, but today scientists have been able to pick out the most common that are related to our floors, and this is also why this article will cover floor coverings for allergies. Most of us are allergic, to some extent, to dust mites, dust mite fecal matter, pet dander, cockroaches and all manner of mold spores. Thus a good part of regulating our allergies is making our floors easy to clean, as all of those things listed can be on our floors!
The use of carpeting actually creates many allergies. They actually harbor the pet dander, mold spores and dust mites mentioned above. Not only that, but they also harbor residue from cigarette smoke, your kitchen grease, various cleaning products, and even the insecticides used to kill cockroaches! It’s a very vicious cycle. Unfortunately too, new carpeting as well as the carpet padding carries its own allergens. After all they have had all manner of stain repellents and dyes applied to them. Consider as well the enormous rolls of carpet may stay in various distribution houses for months, even years before being purchased for installation during which time any sort of critter may make refuge within the stored goods.
The very best floor coverings for allergies then are tile and other flat surfaces that will not harbor as many items as carpeting will. But, one can go one step further, for you see even tile allows dirty water used to clean the tile to go through the tile grout joints and seep underneath said tile. Once it does this, all kinds of dirt as well as bacteria settle in under the flooring. Eventually many tiles fail, and the bacteria grows at an alarming rate. Finally, someone notices quite a bad odor coming from under the floor, and also chances are that a slip and fall problem has also been noted.
This leads me to the final pronouncement for floor coverings for allergies – the very best around is having a Silikal floor. In extreme circumstances even a Silikal floor will have to be consciously and meticulously cleaned to forgo allergies, but that is a very small price to pay to forgo the plague of allergies that some people have contracted. Given the seamless, non-porous attributes the ‘if needed’ meticulous cleaning is left at a minimum based on severity of one’s allergic reaction to airborne particulates.
The way that Silikal fights allergies is certainly most interesting. You see, when Silikal is laid down, either directly on concrete or as an existing floor coating, it forms the toughest adhesion to the substrate possible. You will find that a Silikal floor can be colorful, yet be a high performance floor with truly minimal maintenance even when Silikal has been utilized as floor coverings for allergies.
Commercial Food Grade Flooring: Whats On Your Floor?
Commercial Food Grade Flooring In the 21st Century
The beverage and food processing plants as well as commercial kitchens are actually the origins of the most intensive environments that floors can ever be subject to. Thus, Silikal specializes in these floors so that they are completely sanitary, chemical resistant, as well as thermal shock resistant for restaurants as well as for the food processing industry. Silikal’s floors are United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved, as well as slip resistant and of course totally odorless as all of Silikal’s products are no VOC products. VOCs are Volatile Organic Compounds, and absolutely none of Silikal’s compounds ever have VOCs in them.
Silikal firmly believes that restaurant and processing floors need to add to the general sanitation of their facility and thus they work diligently to make sure that their product is totally unable to harbor bacteria or mold because their flooring is always totally non porous, pin hole free and at all times completely seamless. Silikal makes the ultimate superlative commercial food grade flooring. Silikal’s floors are always safe as they have tremendous slip resistance as well as astounding clean ability.
If you have a restaurant or are in any way connected to the food industry, you will be thrilled with how durable the Silikal commercial food grade flooring is. It is no bluff when Silikal states that you will encounter very little to no repairs over the entire lifetime of that flooring. In fact, many Silikal floors have outlived the buildings they were installed in.
In addition you will find that Silikal flooring for restaurants and commercial kitchens, as well as food processing plants, beverage bottling/canning, or packaging plants is thermal shock resistant. That means that one can use hot water to wash it down, have fryers around it, as well as have that same flooring in freezers, walk in coolers, or wherever there is live steam, or even hot/cold cycling. None of that will affect your Silikal flooring at all.
Because it is chemical resistant, various sanitation chemicals, sugars and acids will not affect that flooring. Truly it is practically indestructible.
But you have not even heard the best news yet. If you currently have newly formed concrete or old concrete that needs a facelift or even tile that has seen its last days, Silikal is the perfect commercial food grade flooring for you. It will actually set up in once short hour!