Floor and Floor Treatments

Floor And Floor Treatments 3 (1+2)

Lesson :06 Man-made resilient or soft flooring

Rubber Flooring

Rubber flooring is made from natural substance that are able to bounce back from being stuck. Rubber flooring is being used to a large extent in public and industrial buildings because of their good wearing qualities and resiliency and noise insulation. Rubber flooring material is made up of pure rubber mixed with fillers such as cotton fiber, granulated cork or asbestos fiber and the desired coloring pigments. Now in modern rubber a common synthetic butadiene styrene rubber is used at least in the concentration of 20% with a filler of clay material. It is available in various degrees of flexibility and hardness. Some are extremely soft and used as anti fatigue flooring while very hard rubber is used for stair treading. It is not recommended for installation where there is moisture problem because of difficulty in cleaning.

One of the new innovations in rubber flooring is the studded rubber flooring (originally it was produced by an Italian company and it was applied in a Paris Metro station where it solved many cleaning problem inherent to subways) studded flooring is characterized with a raised circular dots that occurs continuously in a pattern over the entire surface. The advantage of this is that moisture spilled on the floor flows into the depressions between the raised studs. The rubber flooring is available in sheets or of sheet or tiles in a variety of pattern and colors. The thickness ranges from 3 to 10 mm depending upon the size. These days it is used more in kitchens because it is soft underfoot and it prevent slipping because of studded surface and extremely durable.

Characteristics:

• Rubber maintains good luster without finishing.
• It has a good resistance to chemicals and surface moisture.
• Oil, grease makes the floor slippery and it is difficult to restore the original condition.
• It offers insulation against noise and heat
• It resists sigaratte burns.
• It is anti slippery.

Laying technique:

It is laid over a base of water proofed concrete by means of a special adhesive.

Maintenance:

• It can be easily washed and cleaned
• Mild alkaline cleaner can be used (however harsh alkali damage) but should not be left on surface more than 5 minutes because it causes leaching and damage the rubber floor.
• For studded rubber flooring use of wet vacuum is the best method