Floor care attention will vary considerably according to the nature of the business operation and arguably nowhere is it more demanding than in the food, drink and pharma industries where hygiene and cleanliness are paramount. It is not enough to have suitable floor-cleaning equipment and a tight cleaning regime. It is also necessary to consider the type of flooring cover because the hygiene properties of the floor are the most important factor, followed by slip resistance and its ability to be regularly cleaned and maintained.
In this scenario resin flooring is the floor covering of choice but the material needs respect more so than untreated floors. Advice should be sought on the floor cleaning machines and the cleaning chemicals to determine the recommended frequency of cleaning and the most suitable cleaning agents. If floors are not cleaned correctly then the slip resistance could be impaired, making it essential to test slip resistance regularly. The best source to learn more about resin is: www.ferfa.org.uk
Outside of the ultra-clean production environment of food and pharma, the flooring problems are of a different nature because of the interaction with fast-moving, heavy duty MHE, in narrow, often high bay warehouses where hygiene needs are less onerous. These include uneven floors, potholes, crumbling joints and in worst case scenarios the dishing of an entire floor owing to poor sub-soil conditions, though that nightmare is less of a costly problem thanks to pumped foam injection techniques like those employed by Uretek. The same could also be said of advances in floor levelling techniques, like laser grinding, which are far less disrupting than they used to be.
Techniques have also improved for dealing with the common floor problem of crumbling joints in heavily trafficked locations.
Traditional joint systems use straight steel top strips to reinforce slab panel edges, where the gap is filled with a sealant. Shieldjoint, however, developed by Isedio, uses a trapezoidal split line rather than straight edges which is both impact-free and sealant-free.
Outside of production areas more attention needs to be placed on safety floor markings, like walkways and traffic areas because of the movement of pedestrians and forklifts. Floor paint is not the best material choice because it lacks the harder wearing properties of a suitable resin, and so would incur more maintenance costs.
Some of the potential warehouse floor problems can be avoided when starting from a greenfield site. If one chooses a ‘jointless’ floor slab rather than one with troublesome saw-cut induced contraction joints then operational efficiencies will be enhanced, along with floor and MHE maintenance costs, driver comfort and safety.
Other points to consider are the impact of MHE wheels on the slab durability. Many warehouse trucks use small, hard-material wheels like those on reach trucks, creating high point loads and thus more floor damage. A change to articulated forklifts with larger rubber tyres in VNA situations is one possible solution. One should also look at the causes of dust/dirt build-up. Polluted air causes floor dirt but air filtration systems could help companies save up to 70% on cleaning costs. Diesel trucks used internally could also generate black dust problems so consider much cleaner electric trucks.
Warehouse operators increasingly wish for better floor performance and minimised maintenance costs but unless they put in place adequate floor care budgets, which does not seem to be generally the case, then they can hardly expect high floor performance standards.
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