Slip resistance enhances safety
Maintenance staff will also appreciate the slip-resistant properties of rubber, given they often work on wet floors. This will also be beneficial for students, teachers, and visitors walking down corridors and stairwells and through classrooms and cafeterias. Slip-resistant rubber floors exceed Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations, greatly reducing likelihood of falls. Should one occur, the resilience of rubber flooring cushions it, reducing the chance of serious injury. This feature is most appealing to those working with young children, where falls are expected as children run down hallways and around corners.
Moving equipment and furniture across the floor without leaving scuff marks or indentations can be done quickly and easily. Rubber flooring’s low resistance to wheeled equipment also reduces the possibility of over-exertion.
Hard flooring surfaces can cause fatigue and negatively impact the performance of those standing for long periods of time, while softer, more cushioned rubber flooring helps prevent muscle fatigue and aching backs, legs, and feet. Its content and structure make rubber especially resilient, easing the stress of walking and standing.
Rubber supports learning environment
As rubber floor supports a simple maintenance regimen, it also helps create an environment conducive to learning. In addition to contributing comfort underfoot and slip resistance, rubber’s closed, dirt-resistant surface inhibits the growth of bacteria, making rubber flooring naturally bacteriostatic and fungistatic. This important feature helps promote health and safety in schools by preventing infection—especially important in elementary schools, where children tend to spend more time sitting on the floor.
Many rubber floors are free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and therefore also the risks associated with chemical leaching during its manufacture. Rubber flooring does not generate any hydrochloric acid, dioxins, or furans, or contain plasticizers (phthalate) or halogens (e.g. chlorine).
Some versions are even GreenGuard Gold Certified for low volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions.
Rubber flooring also reduces sound associated with
- the hum of technology and mechanical systems;
- student conversations;
- hallway noise;
- opening or closing of doors;
- adjacent classrooms;
- activity centers;
- weather;
- traffic;
- construction; and
- maintenance activities.
This is important for teachers delivering lectures and students listening to instructors or concentrating on work.
The durability inherent in rubber flooring also contributes to the floor’s lifespan, which can be as long as 30 years. This represents a major long-term cost advantage for school districts, as they will not have to replace or discard worn materials for up to three decades.
Rubber flooring also provides an opportunity to incorporate wayfinding in hallways, as well as school mascots, logos, and educational tools.
Conclusion
Each of these properties reinforces the decision to incorporate rubber floor coverings in education facilities. However, none are as important as the maintenance benefits rubber offers throughout its long life cycle. Reduced labor, materials, and maintenance time—as well as other important performance properties—contribute to a safe, healthy, and attractive learning environment.
| RUBBER FLOORING TACKLES MAINTENANCE CHALLENGES AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY |
| Located in the heart of New York State, Syracuse University is a private institution that traces its heritage to 1870. Dumping approximately 2540 mm (100 in.) of snow on the campus each year, the bitterly cold Syracuse winters give the university’s 21,000 students plenty of opportunities for skiing, snowboarding, and sledding on nearby mountains. However, these winters also challenge those responsible for maintaining the school’s 22 residence halls.
“Our biggest challenge is the winters and dealing with the snow and salt—keeping the salt down outside, but minimizing the trailing effect inside,” says Robert J. Spagnoletti, manager of maintenance at the university. Charged with keeping dormitories comfortable, safe, and up-to-date, Spagnoletti and his team searched for a floor covering that could stand up not only to heavy foot traffic, but also to wet snow and salt residue. Just as importantly, the floor also needed to offer a simple maintenance regimen. The search led the school to rubber flooring. Seven years after installation, these floors are continuing to perform beyond expectations in the entryways, corridors, common areas, and stairwells of busy residence halls. “The versatility of the floor lends itself to many different spaces,” says Spagnoletti, “and it performs in all of them, functionally and aesthetically.” As an example, Spagnoletti points to the transformation of dormitory stairwells. “The stairwells were previously concrete with a tread,” he says. “The way the [rubber] all-in-one stair tread piece fit over the existing steps was just perfect. Installation was simple and easy, dealing with one piece. The stairs don’t look industrial any longer; they just look nice, and the rubber adds an element of safety.” Spagnoletti admits rubber flooring’s easy maintenance regimen, which eliminates the need for stripping and applying coatings and wax, played a key role in its selection. In fact, the floor has performed so efficiently in combatting snow and salt trailing, the maintenance team is using spare tiles as walk-off pads for elevators during the winter. Others are sharing Spagnoletti’s enthusiasm regarding the rubber flooring. “We’re getting strong support from our directors,” he reports. “They see the areas where [rubber] has been installed and are happy with how it has worked. That’s really cool for the entire facilities team, because the directors aren’t pressuring us to put down new product that requires us to go through the process of trying and testing products again.” |
Tasha Hughes is a public relations and marketing specialist for nora systems, an international rubber flooring manufacturer dedicated to developing premium flooring solutions for a variety of commercial markets, including healthcare, education, industry, life science labs, and public buildings. She can be reached via e-mail at tasha.hughes@nora.com.
