What is the best Heavy Duty Flooring for a Fire Stations NJ?

The Challenge

A local volunteer fire company, the Angelsea Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, wanted to upgrade their fire station’s floor. They needed a solution that could withstand the massive weight of water-filled emergency vehicles and allow the hall to be used as shelter in times of natural disasters.

Their twenty-year-old epoxy coated concrete floor showed severe damage from moisture, heavy vehicle traffic, and impacts. The concrete was cracked in several places. The cracks emanated from the concrete’s expansion joints.

The Outcome

An decorative epoxy quartz floor from Duraamen engineered products provided a non-slip, seamless flooring solution that is impervious to hot-tire pickup, heavy vehicle traffic, UV rays, and all kinds of severe wear, including impacts and abrasions.

With the new floor installed, the Angelsea Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 (AVFC #1) is once again ready to serve the community during emergencies in any capacity they should be needed.

Overview

The Angelsea Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 (AVFC #1) is located on the barrier island of North Wildwood, NJ, and has been serving the city since 1897. AVFC #1 responds to all types of emergencies like structural fires, residential and commercial fire alarms, and other assignments.

The Fire Company operates two 5 ton surplus military vehicles that have been converted for fire fighting and emergency rescue use in the flood-prone area. The Fire Company’s Station may be used as a secondary shelter during natural disasters.

The fire station’s flooring desperately needed a makeover. The floor had seen twenty years of torment from massive water-laden fire vehicles being driven and parked on it. Not to mention the foot traffic of hurried emergency workers, and the tons of rescue and fire equipment that had been drug, dropped and slammed on the floor.

The concrete had multiple cracks, chips, scuffs, and abrasions. The cracking mostly emanated from the concrete’s expansion joints and was likely due to the fire trucks and equipment’s immense weight.

The expert floor coating installers, Transylvania Coatings, came to the rescue and saved the fire hall’s floor.

Transylvania Coatings trusts superior Duraamen concrete floor coating products because they’re reliable and professional-grade. The first step in refinishing the floor was to repair the cracks, chips, and abrasions using various concrete fillers explicitly designed for this type of project.

Once the concrete repair step was complete, the floor was ground with a diamond grinder. Because Duraamen epoxy coatings have superior bond strength, the installers didn’t have to grind away the old coating in its entirety. They used medium grade grinding-pads—just enough to smooth the repair work and provide a fine grit surface for the Duraamen epoxy to cling.

The epoxy body coat, Duraamen’s Perdure E10, was then applied at a thickness of 10-12mils. The epoxy was broadcast with granular quartz to rejection. It took approximately 2lbs of quartz per square foot of floor to obtain complete coverage. Duraamne’s Stone Blue Kwortz aggregate was the product of choice.

The following day a grout coat was applied using more Perdure E10 epoxy. Once the epoxy had cured, the final step would be to seal the entire floor and add the yellow parking stripes.

Transylvania Coatings decided to use a polyaspartic topcoat to seal the floor. Polyaspartic coatings are hot-tire pickup and UV resistant. They do not need to be reapplied as often as weaker floor coatings. Duraamen’s Perdure P72 polyaspartic topcoat can be ordered in clear and pigmented versions. Transylvania applied a clear P72 over the entire floor. To finish off the project, they used P72 pigmented with ‘safety yellow’ for the parking stripes.

Do you have a flooring project in mind?

Contact a Duraamen representative to help you choose the right products for your project.

Benefits:

• High wear, impact, abrasion, and hot-tire pickup resistant
• UV resistant—will not yellow
• Very low maintenance-reduces floor care
• Slip-resistant
• Very low VOC
• Engineered for heavy traffic

Cost:

Installed by a pro $10–$12 per square foot.

Outside of New Jersey, flooring costs vary depending on your geographic location and coating thickness. The coating’s thickness is determined by the condition of the existing substrate. Is the substrate new, old, level, good condition, deteriorated, plywood, or gypsum?