Demand for VIP industrial flooring from Europe, available in South Africa from a.b.e.®, has rapidly escalated globally with the Covid-19 pandemic requiring safe health care, as well as hygienic industrial, commercial and residential installations.
a.b.e.®, part of the Chryso Southern Africa Group, is the sole South African distributor for Voelkel Industrie Produkte (VIP) in Germany which has among its latest developments, the revolutionary VIP QuickFloor flooring system, an extremely fast curing flooring system for the most demanding and time-sensitive applications.
QuickFloor has excellent colour and gloss retention, is highly resistant to chemicals, impact and abrasion, and has special slip-resistant surface finishes for applications in hospitals, warehouses, laboratories, factory floors, car parks, garage floors, shopping malls, walkways, pools and patios.
The flooring system can be used as a clear sealer coat on polished concrete, as a single colour flooring system, or in a colourful decorative application incorporating coloured quartz aggregates or coloured paint flakes.
Hospital flooring calls for exceptionally demanding specifications for safety, hygiene and support for medical procedure. Floors here can play a major role in providing a positive germ-free environment and QuickFloor – with maximum underfoot comfort – has been widely applied in areas ranging from emergency to examination rooms, nurses’ stations, and waiting and reception areas.
At food and beverage plants, where cleanliness and purity are now more essential than ever, QuickFloor coatings provide floor finishes that are both hygienic, robust, and anti-slip. Specifically formulated to withstand extremes of manufacturing environments including assembly areas, forklift aisles and loading docks, the flooring can withstand heavy loads, impacts, forklift traffic and exposure to liquids and chemicals.
Retail shops also require attractive, durable, and easy to clean flooring systems – and invariably need fast installation: to have a retail outlet closed for a single day is costly. The QuickFloor system can in many cases be installed overnight and curing is so fast that business can start again the next day. The savings to the proprietor or lessee can be significant.
At public amenities, from seating areas and concourses to the concession areas in stadiums and public auditoriums, kitchens, restrooms and locker rooms, there is also a strong need for hygienic and durable flooring systems. Here the optional slip-resistant surface finish offered by QuickFloor flooring makes it the preferred choice.
Some of the many benefits of QuickFloor systems include:
- Rapid application with squeegee or roller;
- Tack-free in as little as 45 minutes;
- Excellent colour and gloss retention – no “yellowing” of the floors;
- High abrasion and impact resistance;
- Not subject to “hot tyre peel” which can lift coatings from concrete substrates;
- High tensile strength and elongation properties;
- Excellent resistance to solvents and general chemicals; and
- Multiple design options.
Some of the local installations of VIP flooring include its use as protective lining of the floor and walls of a large predator tank at the Two Oceans Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town (the tank features a 10m long full walk-through tunnel), and the air conditioning rooms in the new Discovery head office building in Johannesburg, to name just a few examples.
Overseas, notable installations include the Cleveland Clinic at Abu Dhabi in the UAE, retail stores in Dubai, and for the floors of buses converted into mobile dental offices as well as a police station in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
