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Hospitals are one of the most important parts in the development of society. In order to provide the best service to citizens, a hospital should have good equipment, excellent doctors & nurses, and good hospital environment.
Hospital grade flooring places an important role in providing a good hospital environment.
People may ask: What is the best hospital flooring?
When take into consideration of safety, infection control, influence on the environment, the answer can only be: Vinyl sheet flooring.
In this article, we will discuss why vinyl sheet flooring is the best hospital flooring.
It’s an in-depth article that takes 30 minutes to read.
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Sustainability
Sustainability is the core competence for all the construction materials right now, when a product is using less raw and 100% recyclable, it is very likely to be the product trend in the future. It also means the material itself is can reflect a social responsibility from a hospital. The hospital floor material is sheet vinyl so this is eco friendly.
Material safety (low TVOC & Formaldehyde free & non-toxic)
Safety is the most important thing for a hospital. So we will make sure all the people inside the hospital included doctors, nurses, patients, visitors will be very safe inside, especially when some of the patients are vulnerable to air problems. Formaldehyde is the biggest problem for flooring, almost all of the major safety tests for flooring are base in formaldehyde, but vinyl sheet flooring is so good that no formaldehyde. When there is no toxic and the TVOC level is far better than the global standard.
Low Cost
Flooring Cost is always the one of the most important factors when construct a building. Lower cost flooring will ensure you to meet your budget for flooring installation.
Antibacterial and fungicidal
No doubt this is essential for hygienic facility, ceramic tile is used to be the choice for hospital operation room , but this is far from enough, weaponry against bacteria, mold spores that can lead to infection in surgery, this is very important. With antibacterial and fungicidal function, hospital can provide a better treatment and environment to all the patients.
Fire resistant
Think about wood and bamboo flooring when there is a fire and you will know how important it is to have fire resistant function on the floor. With fire resistant flooring, you will no need to worry that the building will be destroyed by flames, and it will leave more time for people inside the hospital when there is a fire, especially for those physically inconvenient.
Water proof
Water spilled is unavoidable in hospital, when the floor is water proof, meaning that it can handle light moisture without becoming damaged. Mold will still grow on the material if left unchecked for too long but you can added bonus of being able to sweep up any spills or accidents with ease. This will ensure longer flooring expectancy life, and give patients a better living environment.
Slip resistant
The flooring chose for hospital should be stable and textured enough to prevent people from slipping and falling. When navigating changes in flooring, make sure the areas remain smooth without edges or height differences that people can trip over.
This is so important for hospital grade flooring.
Durable, scratch resistant
In hospitals with large flow of people, only the flooring with high wear resistance can meet the demand. Durable flooring is always important in construction.
Comfort to walk
The hospital is a place with a large flow of people. Under the action of local pressure, the flooring will instantly produce resilient deformation, which increases the surface friction coefficient and is not easy to slip when walking. At the same time, the flooring should has certain shock absorption performance, the foot feels comfortable, and the soft resilience can eliminate the fatigue during walking, giving people a comfortable and relaxed feeling. And it can well prevent patients from falling and abrading.
Easy to clean and maintain
The hospital has a large flow of people and a lot of dirt on the floor. Easy cleaning and maintenance can save time and effort.
Sound absorption and noise reduction
Patients are trying to sleep and staff like doctors and nurses are trying to concentrate, so your flooring should be able to absorb noise effectively to keep the environment quiet and peaceful.
Visual therapy
No doubt that many patients in hospital are with high pressure. So it is very important to provide them a relax environment.
The flooring design can have visual therapy. The mosaic design replaces the rigid hospital environment to create a safe, comfortable and pleasant rehabilitation environment. The quiet and comfortable environment and pleasant colors virtually eliminate the patient’s resistance to the hospital, reduce the patient’s anxiety and help the patient’s rest and recovery. You can also choose suitable colors according to various wards, which can be matched with children’s wards and simple wards.
ESD (electrostatic discharge) function
No too many hospitals have this, but this is the factor that we hope all the hospital should consider.
There is lots of precision medical equipments in hospital, and there will be static in environment. Anti-static function is very important in hospital, especially in lab and operating room. This can save life and protect equipment. More and more hospital notice this and change to ESD flooring for static sensitive places.
With all above factors that needed to consider when choosing hospital flooring, now we know why vinyl sheet flooring is the best flooring choice for hospital for below advantages:
100% recyclable ( made of PVC resin)
low TVOC & Formaldehyde free & non-toxic (TVOC after 28 days is < 10ug/m3)
Low cost. ( lower cost than rubber flooring, wood, stone, carpet, wood and laminate flooring)
Antibacterial and fungicidal
Fire resistant (BF1-s1)
Water proof
Slip resistant (R9)
Durable, scratch resistant (15 to 30 years life expectancy)
Comfort to walk ( high resilient)
Easy to install
Easy to clean and maintain
Sound absorption and noise reduction (silencing law reaches 15-19 dB)
Visual therapy ( can be with all kinds of colors and patterns)
ESD (electrostatic discharge) (1×104 to 1×109.
Normally are 3 types of vinyl sheet flooring use in hospital:
Vinyl hospital flooring recommendations by locations as follow: ( from healthcare flooring manufacturers)
Entrance:
Both Homogeneous vinyl sheet and Heterogeneous vinyl sheet are good choices here. They are tremendously durable, resilient, spill resistant, and easy to clean and maintain. Additionally, they offer a diverse range of looks and can easily print whatever patterns the design need. This can help a hospital to define the atmosphere of an entrance area and make their own styles.
Even though there are many hospital grade flooring can meet above requirements. But vinyl sheet flooring should be the best choice.
Corridors and clinical rooms
You can think of corridors as the arteries of your hospital. These hallways see heavy amounts of foot traffic at nearly all times of the day and night. In addition to doctors, nurses, patients, their families, and other visitors, corridors experience heavy amounts of rolling loads. These include equipment carts, stretchers, wheelchairs, and med carts.
The flooring also needs to be highly durable for foot and rolling traffic. In addition, it is best to choose flooring that includes evidence-based design schemes that promote stress-free environments while also creating clear paths that identify care areas.
For corridors and clinical areas, we recommend homogeneous vinyl sheet and heterogeneous vinyl sheet. Both hospital flooring options are scratch-resistant and come in a variety of patterns, colors, and textures. Heterogeneous flooring in particular can be created to look like natural textures, such as stone and wood, only with better durability and a more affordable price than traditional materials. Homogeneous flooring is more durable even can reach 30 years expectancy life, and better in antibacterial and fungicidal. This is true hospital grade vinyl flooring.
Nurses’ Stations
Homogeneous sheet vinyl and heterogeneous sheet vinyl are considered resilient flooring. Resilient flooring options are sterile and durable, making them ideal for use in nurses’ stations and widely considered the best hospital flooring. The UV coating on the surface will guarantee scratch resistant and extend the life of the flooring.
Treatment Areas & Emergency Areas
Infection control is the primary factor here. Therefore, homogeneous sheet vinyl flooring is the best choice. It is antibacterial and fungicidal.
Patient Rooms
Heterogeneous vinyl sheet and homogeneous vinyl sheet win here too. The strengths of both floorings are that they are able to be sanitized and evoke more natural looks. Natural materials are too prone to absorbing fluids and retaining microbes, so resilient flooring’s ability to mimic these materials without the risks is unparalleled.
Even though a patient is in the hospital, the patient room should resemble a home-like environment. You can get a variety or textures and colors. These flooring selections are highly durable and come at a lower cost than natural materials.
Operating room
As the technology development, there are more and more precise surgical equipments, normally these equipments are static sensitive, in order to protect these equipment, and make sure the operating process will not be effected by static, ESD function will be very important. So the best flooring option here is ESD vinyl sheet.
Testing Lab
Testing lab will have more or less the same situation as the operating room. So the flooring choice will be ESD vinyl sheet too. The ESD flooring will make sure there is no infect from static and make sure the testing result is correct.
As you may know LVT, LVP, and rubber sheet are also resilient flooring, and meet most of the factors above, why LVT, LVP and rubber sheet are not the best choice for hospital flooring?
LVT & LVP are homogeneous vinyl sheet only, they don’t have some of the advantages from homogeneous flooring, such as antibacterial and fungicidal. LVT & LVP are smaller in size, which will also means they will have more seam during installation, this is not good for hospital grade flooring. And the wear layer normally is not that strong as vinyl sheet.
Regarding rubber sheet, frankly speaking, rubber sheet can meet almost all the hospital flooring requirements above, but there is very big disadvantage for rubber sheet is the cost, it is 50% to 100% higher the price than vinyl sheet. So vinyl sheet flooring is always our number one choice for hospital flooring.
This article is written by Longda Flooring (www.longdaflooring.com), a leading vinyl sheet flooring manufacturer from China.
Please contact Longda flooring for a free quote on your vinyl flooring needs. We have quick response, efficient communication, quality products, on time delivery, and competitive price.
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