Rubber Flooring Brings Solid Benefi ts

Lower maintenance and ergonomic benefi ts make rubber fl ooring a logical choice for highly sensitive areas in healthcare facilities where doctors, nurses, and staff need to stay healthy and on top of their game.

From healthcare to education, rubber fl ooring offers performance benefi ts and long-term value.

When architects, designers, facility managers, project managers, and other building personnel come together to select materials for a new project, they weigh a number of performance considerations. While they work together to make sure the design supports the functionality of a space, they must also pay close attention to the fi nancial bottom line, which is often deemed the most important factor in materials selection. But what materials can be considered cost-effective? To adequately answer that question, one must fi rst determine a number of key points as they relate to specifi c projects and the benefi ts that particular building materials provide. When it comes to fl ooring for commercial markets such as healthcare, education, life-science labs, and transportation, rubber emerges as a sustainable option that offers performance benefi ts and lower life-cycle costs.

When health is critical

The myriad functions throughout healthcare facilities create a variety of performance requirements for fl oor coverings. However one requirement holds true in every area: The fl ooring must promote a healthy atmosphere. With corridors, patient rooms, emergency departments, pharmacies, and laboratories in the same facility, building owners must fi nd materials that meet the specifi c performance requirements of each application. Whether outfi tting a stairwell or selecting a fl oor covering for an

intensive-care unit, it is crucial to keep areas clean and hygienic for patients and employees.

By installing rubber fl ooring, healthcare managers provide a healthy atmosphere that takes into account the needs of patients and staff. Rubber fl ooring generally has a dense, durable surface that is naturally fungistatic and bacteriostatic, helping to ward off any risk of infection associated with the fl ooring. Because the fl ooring surface is so dense, some types of rubber fl ooring do not require waxing or sealing. The sterile environment is never exposed to the chemicals and toxins contained in those products, and harmful emissions, such as VOCs, are never released into the air.

Cleanliness is critical in all areas of a facility, but it is especially important for those in which patients are recovering from illness or injury. By eliminating these potentially harmful cleaning agents from the maintenance regimen, the indoorair quality of a facility improves, providing patients with the proper breathability to recover in a timely fashion and enabling hospital staff to work and stay energized. Additionally, less exposure to chemicals may decrease the possibility of lingering illness or discomfort and reduce the number of sick days staff members take, which ultimately contributes to a smoothly run facility.

Quiet, comfort, and value

A space that is quiet and calm also enhances patient recuperation. Rubber fl ooring features exceptional acoustic properties, so installing it in corridors and patient rooms can soften the noise of foot traffi c and rolling beds and machines. In fact, some rubber-fl ooring options reduce footfall sound by as much as 20 dB, or what amounts to a perceived 75% reduction in noise. A quiet recovery room provides a patient with an opportunity to get the uninterrupted rest necessary for a full recovery. (A patient’s rapid recovery also helps the hospital’s bottom line. The sooner hospital staff can discharge patients, the sooner they can admit new patients.)

As comforting as a healthy, hygienic, and quiet area is for patients, nurses and staff tending to their needs also require a degree of comfort to perform their jobs. Hospital-staff members often spend most of their work shift on their feet, which gives them a completely different view of comfort. According to studies, the average nurse walks approximately fi ve miles during a twelvehour shift. Some fl oor coverings become hard and unforgiving over time, and after standing on them for hours, nursing professionals and other staff experience fatigue, which may ultimately affect their job performance.

Because rubber fl ooring is a durable and fl exible material, though, it absorbs the pressure of footsteps in a more forgiving manner, offering all who walk across it additional comfort

Rubber fl ooring has the durability to endure heavy foot traffi c in public spaces such as entryways and lobbies in healthcare facilities, as well as the color options to fi t into any design scheme.

A soothing, comforting design is very important for a healthcare facility designed for children to make them feel welcome and at ease. Rubber fl ooring achieves a more comfortable healthcare experience, with a visually appealing design scheme and its inherent comfort underfoot.

underfoot. This feature is especially benefi cial late in a twelve-hour shift. Rubber fl ooring can help keep personnel fresh and motivated to capably accomplish their duties.

Exceptional comfort underfoot is an added benefi t in children’s hospitals and assisted-living facilities, where patients have a propensity to lose their balance. The forgiving structure of the fl ooring can limit the effect of a fall or misstep, making these incidents less dangerous than when they occur on other fl oor coverings.

Rubber fl ooring offers unmatched value and long-term fi nancial benefi ts to healthcare facilities in a number of ways. Most types of rubber fl ooring feature the durability that prevents heavy foot traffi c and rolling equipment, including beds and gurneys, from impeding the performance of the fl oor. Other fl oors may wear down more quickly or need to be rewaxed and/or refi nished, but rubber requires no fi nishes, saving time for maintenance teams and eliminating the need to purchase costly supplies.

Rubber is durable and low-maintenance, and it consistently retains its good looks. Most types of rubber fl ooring can be maintained with a wet mop and a pH-neutral cleaning solution. Some manufacturers even promote cleaning regimens and systems that completely eliminate cleaning products and agents, recommending only water to clean their fl oors.

Furthermore, rubber fl ooring boasts a life cycle of about 30 years, which means it needs to

be replaced very infrequently. This keeps overall softens the pressure of footsteps and absorbs the costs down, maximizing the value of the fl oor impact of every movement, allowing educators over its life cycle. to stay fresh, focused, and effective. An educated choice it an ideal choice for a variety of other education Schools of all varieties—from pre-schools to applications. Higher-education facilities have areas higher-education facilities—face a unique combithat require different types of fl ooring to match nation of challenges on a daily basis. Building and their performance needs. For example, laboratories maintenance staffs are responsible for choosing require fl ooring that is easily cleaned and able the proper materials for school applications, to withstand harmful chemicals that have the which can vary greatly: from athletic facilities to potential to cause staining. Meanwhile, athletic classrooms, and laboratories to libraries. Mainteworkout facilities need fl ooring that is durable nance teams have the unenviable task of continuenough to hold up to heavy equipment and the ing their regimen and keeping these areas clean. intermittent dropping of free weights. Because of its Some students, younger children especially, can resilient structure and a low-abrasion surface that be careless and messy. Older students can also be helps it stay true to shape, rubber fl ooring is a great negligent and even destructive with graffi ti and fi t in these and other areas. defacing school property.

Generally, maintaining Custodial crews appreciate no-wax rubber fl ooring because an educational facility is an of its low-maintenance requirements, especially when uphill battle, but one that can moving furniture to clean the fl ooring is kept to a minimum. be made a little easier with the installation of rubber fl ooring. The fl oor’s low-maintenance features allow workers to simply mop classrooms, without having to move furniture. This is a real time-saver, enabling maintenance staff to focus on other tasks around the school.

Rubber fl ooring also provides tangible performance benefi ts for students and educators in classrooms and throughout other areas of their facilities. Classrooms are where most learning happens, and it is important for students and teachers to feel No experimenting comfortable in the learning environment. Rubber Healthcare and education markets present a fl ooring can provide that comfort in a number of wide array of applications that can be outfi tted ways: with rubber fl ooring. However, the fl oor covering • Rubber fl ooring provides enhanced acoustic can also be an effective solution in commercial properties, allowing teachers and students to market segments. The sensitive environments of communicate freely and exchange conversations industry and life-science labs are highly sterile atclearly and unmistakably. This leads to students mospheres that cannot afford any shutdowns for experiencing a better understanding of the submaintenance purposes. Some of these spaces, ject material at hand, and ultimately helps them including pharmaceutical manufacturing sites learn at a more effi cient pace, which benefi ts the and classrooms, house sensitive products being teacher and the student. developed and/or manipulated. These sites must • In higher-education settings, the heightened be effi ciently maintained with neutral cleaners to acoustic benefi ts can be particularly important prevent any contamination that could affect test in large lecture halls, where as many as 500 results. students may attend a class. These spaces also require fl ooring with a • While students and teachers must be comfortdense surface that can withstand chemical spills able in a classroom or lecture hall, the onus is and maintain the integrity of the overall space. on teachers to effectively communicate subject As an added benefi t, rubber fl ooring never needs material. Teachers and professors often teach on to be stripped or waxed, meaning that its simple their feet, conducting and executing the lesson maintenance can save a lab time and money. plan in front of a whiteboard, chalkboard, or The dense, durable surface of rubber makes video screen. The physical toll on teachers and Rubber on the roll professors can be signifi cant. Rubber fl ooring Transportation is another market in which lowmaintenance, highly durable rubber fl ooring can pay dividends and offer benefi ts to passengers and operators. Rubber fl ooring can often be found on particular types of mass transit, such as rail transportation, subway cars, and buses, as well as other types of transportation, including marine and cruise ships. All of these transportation methods are heavily used and experience little downtime, which means properly maintaining them can be challenging. Removing a railcar or a marine vessel from its normal route can be costly in terms of lost passenger fares or operating a replacement vehicle. Rubber fl oorcovering can minimize downtime from a maintenance and replacement standpoint because the durable surface and structure can be cared for simply and effi ciently. Its durability can withstand the constant traffi c of passengers c and staff moving through the a aisles and oft-used areas of all a of these vehicles. o On cruise ships, rubber fl ooring has the r performance benefi ts and p versatility to outfi t a variety v of areas throughout the o ship. It offers the durability s and slip-resistance for fooda service and restaurant areas, s while providing the highw quality acoustics that can q help passengers and crew h members rest easy, providing m an enjoyable experience for a everyone. e Rubber fl ooring offers a variety of performance a benefi ts for commercial applications. With superior slip-resistant, acoustic, and maintenance properties, the fl oorcovering possesses the qualities that ensure continued, high-level performance for decades. Its versatility and longevity separate rubber fl ooring from other fl oor coverings. The benefi ts rubber fl ooring brings to a variety of markets make it an environmentally responsible, cost-effective choice that can help an organization effectively achieve the long-range goals set out during the planning phase of a building.

Mike Simoneau is a marketing specialist for Nora Systems Inc., a Lawrence, MA, manufacturer of high-performance rubber-fl ooring solutions for commercial markets including healthcare, education, industry, science, and transportation.

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