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What are the Flooring Options for a Food Facility Washdown Area
December 28, 2016
Take a look at the California Retail Food Code Section 114268, where it talks about the requirements of flooring for a food facility: "...the floor surfaces in all areas in which food is prepared, prepackaged, or stored, where any utensil is washed, ... shall be smooth and of durable construction, and nonabsorbent material that is easily cleanable. Floor surfaces shall be coved at the juncture of the floor and wall with a 3/8 inch minimum radius coving and shall extend up the wall at least 4 inches...“
There aren’t many flooring options for a food facility that meets those very exacting requirements. Seamless resinous flooring systems best meets these needs. Let’s look at why that is.
First of all, flooring for a food facility washdown area must be able to meet the ordinary requirements of workplace safety and floor longevity. The flooring must be able to withstand frequent cleaning and sanitization that might happen multiple times each day. Cleaning standards require some sort of chemical cleaner, so the floor must not be damaged by these chemicals which may be harsh and abrasive to flooring surfaces.
In addition, the washdown area will have high-pressure sprayers that are scouring equipment and the floor at close range, with very hot water. The floors are repeatedly flooded from cleaning. This means the floors must be anti-slip even through a potential near-constant layer of hot water and soap or chemicals on the floor.
Resinous floor coatings like decorative quartz systems or urethane concrete systems meet and exceed these needs. Duraamen has a variety of resinous flooring materials with exceptionally high abrasion resistance and chemical resistance. If these floors can withstand chemical cleaners, they can definitely withstand water from a power washer or sprayer. In fact, there’s very little than can affect these floors, which makes them perfect flooring options for a food facility washdown area. Urethane Concrete Screeds also provide thermal shock resistance to the floors. The floors are cleaned with hot water or steam followed by cold water. Most of the flooring systems dis-bond from the substrate. Urethane Concrete Screeds have the ability to withstand this hot-cold water washing.
A seamless resinous system like urethane concrete can be applied over existing flooring concrete substrate. Urethane concrete systems are a fast application and a fast cure that can be ready for traffic in 24 to 36 hours. These flooring systems can have additives which can be non-slip and anti-microbial. Because the additives are mixed in with the entire flooring system, if for some reason your floor is gouged, you would still be protected. Urethane Concrete flooring systems do not easily deteriorate, so they can withstand the abuse of any commercial environment. They are applied in one homogeneous layer, so there’s nowhere for bacteria to hide. Get in touch with Duraamen to find out more about Duraamen’s floor coatings for a food facility washdown area.
Company: Duraamen Engineered Products Inc.
Source: https://www.duraamen.com/blog/what-are-the-flooring-options-for-a-food-facility-washdown-area
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