Medical institutions, whether hospitals, dentist and doctor’s offices, clinics, or assisted living homes, all require one thing in common, and that is high-quality flooring. Ranging from cleanliness and accessibility to heavy wear, navigation, and providing a therapeutic atmosphere, the flooring is essential for building a high-quality care environment in these establishments.
Vinyl
Vinyl flooring is rapidly being used in hospital interiors across the world, and it is easy to see why. The rationale is pretty straightforward since vinyl fits the exceedingly precise flooring requirements of today’s healthcare facilities. While vinyl plank flooring is mostly used in homes, sheet vinyl and luxury vinyl is used in hospitals.
Sheet vinyl is typically available in 2 m wide rolls with a length of 20 m and a thickness of 2-3 mm. This enables the application of vinyl sheets with few seams, resulting in a flawless and polished look. Luxury vinyl flooring hospital tile designs are well-bonded, tough, and long-lasting, as to why they outperform vinyl sheets. Furthermore, commercial LVT employs a photographic print technique for nearly limitless pattern designs.
Hospital floors, subjected to heavy traffic 24 hours a day, can be a formidable architectural task. Vinyl flooring is long-lasting and sturdy, as well as safe, shock-absorbing, and comfortable to walk on. With the ability to withstand heavy static or dynamic loads like rolling medical equipment or gurneys, the vinyl flooring hospital variants are ideal for today’s healthcare environments.
Vinyl is anti-static, preventing electrostatic shock to sensitive hospital equipment, while it decreases the hospital noise and gives superb acoustics, a key reason why vinyl is mostly employed in hospitals. Even though hospitals encounter many people daily, they should maintain a calm setting. Patients that are recuperating from injuries and post-surgery want solitude and quiet. As a result, the flooring must decrease noise, and vinyl flooring is an excellent sound insulator, making it ideal for hospital hallways, patients and waiting rooms.
Vinyl’s particular hygienic features make it perfect for hospitals to maintain the requisite high levels of sanitisation. It features an impermeable sealed surface that can be cleaned every day using ecologically friendly cleaning products. A good hospital vinyl flooring should be bacteriostatic and fungistatic, and it should be treated with a solution that inhibits the growth of bacteria. An excellent vinyl floor with a UV-cured coating does not require frequent waxing or polishing and is impervious to water and stains. As a water-tight floor, vinyl helps prevent mould formation, which can cause respiratory difficulties in some people.
Vinyl flooring is simple to clean and maintain, assures patient safety, and allows for the incorporation of signs for easy navigation, all while being cost-effective and ecologically friendly. All of these qualities, combined with vinyl’s ease of maintenance, is precisely why vinyl is one of the most popular and sustainable flooring options for healthcare facilities today.
Rubber
When you choose a particular healthcare flooring, you want to know that your investment will pay off in the long run. This is usually the case with rubber flooring. Rubber improves interiors with smooth installation, unrivalled durability, and a wide range of design options. Its robust structure provides proven strength under strain, withstanding even the harshest medical conditions without losing its beauty.
Rubber floors’ hard, nonporous nature makes it impossible for dirt and bacteria to gather and proliferate. Rubber floors, which are naturally bacteriostatic and fungistatic, can prevent the spread of infections by limiting the development and reproduction of hazardous microorganisms. Rubber flooring, which meets tight healthcare requirements and specifications for bacteriostatic interior surfaces, can assist safeguard vulnerable patients and medical personnel in hospitals where exposure to germs and fungi is a typical concern.
The same nonporous composition allows the floor covering to resist dust, chemicals, and disinfectants. Furthermore, certain rubber materials do not require finishing, waxing, or sealing, obviating the need for time-consuming stripping and re-coating. For thorough cleaning, these floors do not require cleaning solutions that contain harsh chemicals. Several manufacturers provide cleaning solutions that use only water, saving healthcare organisations money on chemicals that would otherwise be used. This is especially significant for busy healthcare institutions that operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Linoleum
Though not as popular as it once was, linoleum is still a favoured choice for hospital floors. While the traditional linoleum of the 1950s and 1960s was largely beige, grey, blue, or red, linoleum is now available in a wide range of decors, patterns, and rich colours.
Linoleum, just like rubber, is a green product manufactured from natural materials such as linseed oil, cork dust, and jute fibre. For people who are concerned about the environment, this product frequently stands with rubber. Linoleum is a long-lasting flooring material resistant to hard wear use, scrapes and damage. It can endure between 20 and 40 years, depending on the environment and the amount of traffic exposed to. The floors can be repurposed since the material is fully biodegradable and can be easily disposed of.
Linoleum also has antibacterial qualities that keep microorganisms at bay. Linoleum is gaining popularity among healthcare institutions worried about its environmental effect and wishing to offer a healthy atmosphere for their patients. Linoleum is commonly utilised in public areas such as corridors, nurse’s stations, waiting rooms, and patient rooms. There is some uncertainty regarding where linoleum may be successfully employed. Even though it is a smooth floor, it is not a practice to be used in surgical rooms.
Before deciding on a material, talk to the end-users and find out their needs, such as the particular requirements for the area, the ability for maintenance to go in and clean, and the design they want. Also, ensure that environmental services personnel are adequately educated in maintenance methods and have the necessary equipment and materials for the proper upkeep. Educate the healthcare team about the flooring option and what to expect from the cleaning process.
Also, colour is essential for making it easier to navigate your way through the various hallways and wings that many hospitals have. Colours and patterns can help to create a “non-institutional” feel while also assisting with navigation. And since certain people have sensitive eyes, non-glare finishes are ideal for healthcare settings.