Deli Flooring

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Just writing about deli flooring, my senses seem to be assailed by the pungent odors of garlic, strong pickle brine, and all the other delicious odors that seem to emanate from a deli. It never fails that a deli relinquishes a persistent stream of delightful odors that originate from the innumerable foods being prepared. Whether it’s pastrami on rye, or salami on rye, the sounds and odors seem to be all the same no matter where one visits a deli. There one may wish to partake in a tongue sandwich that is covered with hot mustard, thus making our own tongue seem to swim in all the saliva that the hot mustard brings forth. Jewish delis also served knishes, as well as gefilte fish,

For years and years, New York deli flooring seemed to always be black and white squares made of stick-on tile. The deli manager would instruct one of the “boys” working there to plunge a huge mop into boiling hot water that had been liberally laced with bleach, and clean the deli flooring with tremendous gusto even after working all day. I never remember a bad odor in a deli emanating from that kind of flooring, and perhaps it was all that boiling water and bleach that killed anything that dared seep into the floor, but I highly doubt it. I assume that I was simply too young to know better.

Today it is a known fact that such black and white tiles are not good for a deli, as they allow the introduction of dirty water underneath that tile, and what results is a bad odor from the decaying meats, cheeses and even rye seeds that basically rot and then allow all kinds of nasty things to grow beneath the floor such as molds, assorted microbes and of course bacteria.

What would happen today instead, is that the black and white squares would probably still exist but would be permanently sealed so that nothing could get underneath that deli flooring. Possibly the deli owner would know that the best deli flooring seal would come from Silikal.

Silikal deli flooring would be totally impervious to anything getting under the floor, because Silikal is completely monolithic, meaning that it’s all one piece without any open pores, or seams to it. Not only that, but it would never allow any air bubbles or pin holes to form as the lesser flooring so allows. In addition given that the flooring will be located in a deli where there may be wet areas Silikal would utilize a very special reactive and elasticized resin there in order to better the slip resistance of the deli flooring.

It is interesting to note that the application of MMA (methyl methacrylate) is what all competitors will utilize, however the Silikal MMA has been enhanced to prevent the problems that competitors face. These problems include various application characteristics that then actually promote chemical absorption as well as pinholes in their finished flooring systems. Silikal on the other hand uses enhanced MMA that will never promote such problems in deli flooring.