FLOOR SAFETY SAFE STRUCTURE
When setting up a new facility, health and safety matters should be addressed at the earliest opportunity. With this in mind, Flowcrete guides us through the top considerations when choosing a floor.
Floors present a variety of challenging health and safety concerns, especially for large-scale industrial facilities where slip risks, contamination threats and potentially dangerous working practices all need to be accounted for. If properly considered, the floor finish can help to keep those onsite safe during the building’s daily operational activity.
One of the main issues, especially within industries that are sensitive to contamination, such as the food and healthcare sectors, is the risk of bacteria build-up. Gravity will cause the majority of contaminants to end up on the floor and unwanted substances can easily be walked in from elsewhere. If the floor is difficult to clean and starts to harbour dangerous pathogens, germs could infiltrate working processes, equipment and produce.
This makes the choice of flooring material imperative. Inadequate floors could become cracked and porous. Microbes, dust and mould can then get stuck in these hard-to-clean gaps and a previously perfect surface will have become an unsanitary safety risk.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) rules lay out the properties floors must have to safeguard against spoiled produce and tainted equipment. These guidelines emphasise the importance of a
seamless and impervious finish. The Flowfresh range of polyurethane floors has recently secured International HACCP Certification thanks to its ability to meet the necessary health and safety criteria.
Flowfresh has been formulated to provide a floor that will maintain a compliant finish for the long term despite heavy impacts, corrosive chemicals, thermal shock, foot traffic and moving forklift trucks.
Effective drainage and ease of cleaning are important aspects of the HACCP guidelines. A Flowfresh coating can be laid to falls to allow liquids to run off and stainless steel drainage can be incorporated to channel contaminants and excess liquid out of the area. Coving can also be created using the same polyurethane material to ensure a seamless, easily cleanable transition to the wall.
Flowcrete has developed Flowfresh through an exclusive global partnership with Polygiene®, a manufacturer of natural silver ion based antimicrobial agents. This additive has been incorporated into the polyurethane matrix of Flowfresh to deliver advanced surface protection that eliminates up to 99.9% of bacteria.
This system meets the ISO 22196 standard of measuring a surface’s
antibacterial effectiveness. During industry standard testing, the bacterial population on a Flowfresh floor reached practically zero after a 24- hour period which included intermittent washes. On a standard polyurethane floor the bacterial population remained largely the same and on a polypropylene floor the amount of bacteria significantly increased.
Slipperiness is another key flooring concern. Polyurethane flooring systems are available in a variety of textures and can be graded with aggregates to provide a range of slip resistance levels. This choice means specifiers can select a solution that takes into account the amount and type of spillages the floor is likely to experience.
The floor can also be a useful asset for site owners and operators that want to steer people away from potentially dangerous parts of the site. Clearly marked out pathways can show where it is safe to walk while bright signage is ideal for drawing attention to hazardous areas.
Colourful zoning plans can be used to help facilities avoid cross contamination, for example where high care and low care areas, such as cooked and raw meat spaces, need to be separated. Having floors in bright, contrasting colours is a great way to make a visual statement about the differences between the rooms. Using the previous example, all raw meat areas can be hazard red while the cooked meat areas are vivid green.
Creating a safe floor requires the careful consideration of a long list of environmental and operational factors to ensure that the chosen floor not only safeguards those onsite from harm – but that it will reliably do so for an extended period of time.
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