On a typical day in the UK, 835,000 people will visit their GP, 50,000 people will go to A&E and 36,000 patients will attend hospital for planned treatment.
In October 2019, there were 223 NHS trusts in the UK. These trusts are responsible for providing patient care across approximately 1,250 hospitals, and with hospitals, and most other healthcare settings, running 24 hours a day, finding the time to maintain our hospitals is difficult to say the least.
Luxury Vinyl Tiles (LVT), lino and sheet vinyl are commonly used floor coverings within the healthcare sector as they are easy to clean and maintain. Installing sheet flooring requires a smoothing underlayment that will dry with an extremely smooth finish, as beds and other equipment needs to be easily moved around hospital corridors, and any lumps or bumps can cause serious safety issues for staff and patients.
UltraFloor Level IT Smooth has been specifically formulated to do just that. Pump or trowel applied, Level IT Smooth has an extremely smooth finish and boasts a superior flow – a feature experienced contractor, Newlay Floors, certainly benefitted from when they used Level IT Smooth in the Children’s OPD Department at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham.
The UltraFloor range also includes Level IT Super Flex 30 and Level IT Super30 – smoothing underlayments ideal for hospital flooring. These floor levellers, as well as Level IT Smooth, are all protein free, reducing the risk and spread of disease as the types of dangerous and contagious bacteria that thrive in protein are eliminated – a must-have for all healthcare flooring projects.
UltraFloor smoothing underlayments boast low odour properties, providing a more pleasant environment for contractors, staff and recovering patients.
What’s more, each of these superior smoothing underlayments has a high compressive strength which makes them perfect for environments subject to constant use – an important feature for hospitals and healthcare centres where floors are subjected to constant and daily traffic from hospital staff, patients, visitors and heavier items such as wheelchairs, hospital beds and equipment.
Subfloors prepared using Level IT Super30 can receive foot traffic in as little as 30 minutes, unbonded floor coverings after 45 minutes and bonded coverings in 90 minutes. This feature was particularly appealing for specialist flooring contractor, Blackheath Flooring Ltd., who used Level IT Super30 at Dulwich Hospital in London.
It was important that downtime was kept to a minimum at Dulwich Hospital as work had to be completed during weekend evenings when the hospital was at its quietest. Level IT Super30 was applied on Friday evening with the chosen flooring installed the following day. The rapid set time of Level IT Super30 meant these parameters were easily achieved.
Completing UltraFloor’s portfolio of subfloor preparation materials is a range of adhesives, which includes Grip & Grab IT multi-purpose adhesive.
Grip & Grab IT has been designed for a variety of applications and is the perfect adhesive for fixing stair noses to the vast number of stairs often found in large healthcare buildings. Quick and easy to apply, Grip & Grab IT boasts high strength giving you confidence that once cured, the adhesive will not fail – an essential feature for ensuring the safety of hospital staff and frail and poorly patients.
Choose UltraFloor for all your healthcare flooring installation needs.
Source: Sanctuary Personnel
“Queen’s Court were over the moon with the job. We completed on time with minimal disruption to residents. We installed the flooring during the winter months, but the colder weather had no effect on the performance of Level IT Pro30 – it ticked all the boxes”
Partner of Westbury Carpets & Floor Coverings
Instarmac is home to six market-leading brands - a one-stop shop for all facility management repairs.
Instarmac’s flooring brand, UltraFloor, has a long and successful history of supplying subfloor preparation materials to the education sector.
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