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Published on 04 January 2021 11:46

How Resin Comfort Flooring Delivers Soft and Durable Finishes for Industrial and Commercial Situations

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Key Learning outcomes
  • Reasons for resin comfort flooring
  • Typical resin comfort flooring systems
  • Application of resin comfort flooring
  • Surface preparation
  • Keys to success
Resin comfort floors marry extreme durability and robustness, yet retain a soft and comfortable finish which is modern and attractive for diverse applications. Designed with footfall and wear in mind the finish is so tough it’s suitable for industrial areas as well as commercial and domestic facilities. The range of comfort flooring typically offers a choice of 3 flooring systems providing varying thicknesses with degrees of bounce and flexibility.
These systems are installed by specialist resin flooring applicators. When installed correctly to prepared substrates such as concrete the systems become a permanent part of a building and provide a monolithic long term solution.

Resin comfort flooring is often chosen, and installed, on the basis of the many hygienic qualities provided with the floor system options available. Under normal conditions, due to its smooth finish it is enough to sweep a resin comfort floor with a basic brush cleaning regime.

The systems are watertight and impervious so if there is any dirt and deposits on the floor then a standard wet cleaning regime with a mild detergent is all that is required to maintain the beautiful finish the same as when the floor was laid.

1.0 The reasons for resin comfort flooring

Where footfall occurs resin comfort flooring finishes are good for the back due to the soft impact effect. With many traditional hard floors, regular users can find they experience difficulties with back issues from walking on an unyielding surface. The soft finish with comfort floor systems provides sound absorbing ergonomics, improving the acoustic properties of the building and reducing acoustic impact on other areas of the building. The performance of comfort flooring has the benefits of cushion vinyl but with the additional benefit of providing a seamless hygienic floor.

Generally, the thicker the floor, the more resistant the floor is to heavy wear. But sometimes a hard floor such as a tile can be prone to chipping and pitting from impact damage because of its brittleness. Resin comfort flooring delivers thickness for strength but because of its soft finish it has excellent resistance to sharp objects, impacts, shocks and dropped objects, minimising the chance of remedial repairs being required.

Technical performance
Flexibility: The flexibility and bounce of a resin comfort floor can be stated by using measurable data such as shore hardness (A or D), tensile strength, elongation at break and noise reduction in decibels (dB). This performance will be much greater in terms of flexibility and noise reduction than normal self smoothing resin systems which are formulated set or cure to as hard a finish as possible, making them more brittle. A multi-layer resin comfort flooring system could achieve a shore A hardness of 80 and have noise reduction performance up to 20dB. So with comfort flooring where a heavy item is dropped or where there is impact from a heel the soft finish will allow for a slight initial indentation to occur but the floor system will recover and the sound will be greatly reduced.

Bond Strength: Resin comfort flooring systems have superb adhesion to become monolithically part of a concrete substrate and they are impervious with excellent wear resistance and impact resistance. The bond strength is so good that when tested for adhesion the concrete substrate will fail before the polyurethane screed does. A bond strength of >3 N/mm2 is achieved in line with BS EN 13813 testing which confirms substrate failure will occur before the resin flooring does.

Water Permeability: The water absorption of polyurethane resin comfort floor screeds is nil meaning they provide an impervious surface.
Resin comfort flooring installed in a commercial situation subject to busy use
Resin comfort flooring installed in a commercial situation subject to busy use
 
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