The healthcare industry offers a unique set of challenges in the flooring world. With numerous areas to accommodate within each facility, it’s important to know all you can about your flooring for hospital. You will need to consider a number of factors when choosing healthcare flooring: what areas in the hospital need flooring, what type of flooring is best suited for that area, longevity of a product, durability, and what is required comfort-wise underfoot, Aesthetics, point load and rolling load requirements, clean ability and cost are also critical components in your hospital flooring choice. It’s important to take everything into account to make the right decision.
The first place your patients and their families will experience is the entrance to your hospital. Therefore, you will want to accommodate not only high foot traffic issues but rolling load traffic considerations as well. These entrance area corridors and public spaces will have the most traffic. These areas will need a high level of clean ability as well as durability. The flooring for hospital product for these sections should be non-slip to avoid any injuries to patients or staff and should be water and stain resistant and offer a high level of durability. A good choice here would be luxury vinyl tile (LVT),sheet vinyl.
Flooring for Hospital Entrance Areas:
Luxury Vinyl Tile: This resilient product is low maintenance and is built to last. LVT is one of the most popular products in flooring today. It’s easy to install, incredibly durable, essentially waterproof, and excellent in high traffic areas. In addition, commercial LVT uses a photographic print process on the tile which allows for almost endless design possibilities.
Sheet Vinyl: This product generally comes in 4, 5, and 6-foot wide rolls and 2-3 millimetres in thickness. This allows for a minimal number of seams and this can be a key factor where aesthetics are a concern. Sheet vinyl flooring has been A mainstay in hospital flooring for decades. Sheet vinyl can be flash coved, which will create a monolithic, seamless floor that is easy to clean and maintain. This surface is also excellent for repelling microorganisms on their surfaces.
