Minimising disruption for patients, staff, and visitors was a priority for the University Hospital of North Tees facilities team, responsible for the refurbishment of a vast area of new flooring in the hospital’s main public corridors.
For the project, Forbo Flooring Systems supplied its adhesive-free Modul’up Compact sheet vinyl – a resilient solution that was easy to lay and could be walked on immediately after installation.
Built in the 1960s, the hospital in Stockton has seen much maintenance over the years and, visually, had become dated.
Therefore, the aim of the refurbishment was to create a more-pleasant and comfortable internal environment for everyone.
As well as speed of installation, the hospital team’s specification priorities were cleanliness and hygiene, especially as these main corridor routes lead on to clinical areas.
But, also, the spaces experience high footfall and are tested to the limit with heavy medical equipment and trolleys being moved around; so the flooring had to perform well in terms of durability.
“We were looking for something different and when our Forbo area manager, Jon Rogers, put forward the Modul’up solution, we identified a few advantages that appealed immediately,” said Michael Jones, project manager at the hospital.
“Firstly, speed of installation.
“It’s a vast area of flooring to cover. In fact, we’ve not done an area this size before, all at once.
“As you can imagine, we were apprehensive with it being such a dynamic environment.
“It’s hard to co-ordinate one installation, let alone having to snag, or worse, re-lay.
“We liked the fact that Modul’up is tried and tested to meet all the current standards, but is also much easier to install and is easy to clean.
“Secondly, from a subfloor maintenance angle we saw great benefits. The building was constructed in the 1960s, so in certain areas from time to time there are repairs to be done to the subfloor beneath.
“With Modul’up you can cut the weld, roll back, fix the floor, and re-lay with no patching required.
“If you have subfloor issues with normal vinyl floor you would have to lift it with the adhesive. This often causes damage to the vinyl and if patching is required then potentially you don’t get a match.”
Phase One of the project involved the installation of 1,573sq m of Forbo’s Modul’up Compact in Natural Oak in the general circulation areas and corridors.
Creating a fresh, contemporary, and airy feel, the wood-effect flooring has been selected to complement the corridor walls, which feature a split wall colour scheme with the lower half painted in a strong, modern graphite grey and the top half in a lighter, almost-white, grey.
The flooring was installed by Rimick Flooring.
In total, more than 1,500sq m of Modul'up flooring was used throughout the hospital
