- BASF provides high-performance flooring solution for UQ's new Veterinary School Kennels
- UCRETE delivers outstanding non-slip and easy-to-clean performance
- Wide range of resistance to chemicals, solvents and extreme temperatures
Gatton, Queensland – December 11, 2010 – When it comes to ‘tough environments’ for floors, the kennels in one of Australia’s leading veterinary sciences schools is surely up there with the toughest. As well as being able to withstand the highly acidic urine and dog droppings, one of the major challenges for the floors in kennels such as these, is being able to cope with the extremely rigorous daily cleaning and hygiene regimen.
Peter Hollis, Managing Director with specialist flooring applicators Master Floor Coatings Pty Ltd, explained:
“In a kennel facility such as this, hygiene is of the utmost importance. The floors are cleaned and disinfected daily using a combination of cleaning chemicals and high-pressure hot water heated to 80º C, and in many instances, that can do as much damage to a floor as the mess that you’re removing. ”
“Put simply, unless you have the right floor down, it’s not going to last very long at all,” he said.
With that in mind, when it came to selecting the floor for the new kennels at the University of Queensland’s School of Veterinary Science in Gatton – some 90km west of Brisbane - construction contractor Laing O’Rourke chose UCRETE® DP from BASF Construction Chemicals.
Renowned throughout the world for its outstanding strength, resilience and non-slip performance characteristics, UCRETE® DP’s unique monolithic formulation combines the toughness and chemical resistance of polyurethane with the heat resistance and durability of concrete. What’s more UCRETE® DP’s profile provides the added benefit of an extremely high level of slip resistance, while still remaining easy to clean and maintain. It meets the requirements of both the U.S. and European standards for slip resistant pedestrian surfaces, as well as those of AS/NZS 4586:1999 Slip Resistance Classification of New Pedestrian Surface Materials in relation to “high slip risk” areas.
Encompassing a total floor area of some 1290m2, the new kennels form part of a major upgrade and expansion of UQ’s School of Veterinary Sciences’ facilities.
The first task associated with laying the new floor, was to establish the fall required to provide adequate drainage within the kennels. To achieve this, the crew from Master Floor Coatings first ‘scabbled’ the existing concrete slab floor and then used CONCRESIVE® 2525 - a solvent free, high performance epoxy binder, also from BASF Construction Chemicals – to create a fall of 50mm across the width of the kennels.
With the required fall and drainage channels established, the floor was then coated with a 9mm thick application of UCRETE® DP with a non-slip rating of R11.
Interestingly, prior to the application of the UCRETE® DP floor, the UQ School of Veterinary Sciences requested samples with three different non-slip gradings to assess the ‘coarseness’ and suitability of the floor, and to ensure that it wouldn’t be so abrasive as to damage the dogs’ foot pads. The R11 slip-resistance rating was found to provide the ideal balance of slip resistance and easy cleaning, without being unnecessarily abrasion on the dogs’ paws.
“UCRETE® DP provides the ideal flooring solution for facilities such as these,” Peter Hollis said. “It’s extremely tough and robust, it provides outstanding resistance to a wide range of chemicals and solvents, and it is unaffected by thermal shock and/or repeated temperature cycling.”
“Furthermore, from our perspective – as a flooring contractor – I know that I’m not going to have any problems. We’ve used UCRETE® in wide range of applications and we’ve always been extremely pleased with the results.”
“It goes on well, it has a fast application ‘turn-around’ and it always gives us a great quality result that we know is going to last,” Peter Hollis concluded.