Children’s dreams on 4,000 square metres

In the course of refurbishment, new flooring was installed on 4,000 m² in order to lend the enormous toy market an appealing ambience. The special challenge: The work had to be finished as quickly as possible to minimize loss of use. Thanks to the switchTec® bonding technology from the UZIN brand, the flooring work was able to be completed in just one week. Shop fitters and electricians were working in tandem in already completed sections during this time, without to stop for drying times.

In 2009, the time had come to expand the 3,200 m² Vedes Fachmarkt Spiel + Freizeit by reorganising and installing a warehouse area downstairs on an impressive 4,000 m². Since everyday operations had left obvious marks on the existing rubber flooring and a new sales area was appearing, the floor covering would be renewed as well.

Because a company lives off the turnover from selling their wares, all the planned renovation measures had to be carried out in record time. In particular, the enormous floor area, the size of fifteen tennis courts, needed to be quickly ready for foot traffic again so that the shop fitters could set up shelves, counters, and cash registers, and put away goods. The company responsible for the floor, AAF Geretshauser oHG, thus relied on the switchTec® bonding technology from the floor specialists, UZIN. It allowed the existing floor covering to be retained as a substrate, and the new decorative floor covering to be installed quickly.

An essential component of the switchTec® technology is Sigan®, a micro-perforated polyethylene sheet 75 centimetres wide that is coated with special acrylate adhesive on both sides and comes in rolls. One side is covered with a protective paper so that Sigan® can be easily applied to the floor from the roll. After peeling off the protective paper, the new floor covering can be stuck directly on. As with liquid adhesives, there is no drying time, and the same goes for removing the old floor covering, sanding, and priming. Along with saving time, the system has another advantage: Sigan® can be removed without leaving residues, if needed, for instance after a tenant has used a room. The old floor covering remains flawlessly preserved.

Preparation

Since the existing rubber flooring in the department store does show distinct signs of wear and tear, while a good substrate to use for the new floor, in most cases only the pressure dents in the shelves had to be smoothed out to attain an even substrate for Sigan®. The fine-grain repair compound UZIN NC 880 was used to attain a feather edge, which is ready for covering after just half an hour. There were originally tiles installed in the cash register area, which caused an incorrect floor level between the checkout area and the sales floor, with rubber flooring about seven millimetres thick. This was evened out by applying a wedge 1.5 metres in width. The low-slump, fast-hardening cement smoothing compound UZIN NC 182 was used here. But a part of the rubber flooring had to be removed with a Wolff Duro-Stripper beforehand, to create a firm substrate for the wedge. This step was necessary for preventing the formation of cracks due to strain on the wedge, for instance, from loaded pallet trucks.

Parallel to this, the tiles that remained in place along with most of the rubber flooring were furnished with the 2-component trowel-applied primer UZIN PE 630, which fills and primes substrates with a lot of gaps in one work step. Then the self-levelling compound UZIN NC 170 LevelStar could be spread, which meant that a surface with ideal flatness could be achieved quickly. Unlike on the rubber flooring, the special primer Planus was also applied to the levelled base. This ensured an optimum hold for the Sigan® 1 used in this area, which was designed for substrates like levelling compounds, calcium sulphate screed, or chipboard.

The new on the old

After preparing the substrate and damp cleaning the area, the switchTec® bonding technology can be put to use. The first step consisted of attaching the edge tape to all edge areas, expansion joints, and columns in the room. The first Sigan® sheets were used on it to smooth uneven transitions on the walls, which allowed for a perfectly straight edge-to-edge installation of the sheets and guaranteed a secure hold in corners and edges. Sigan® 2 was used for the area overlaid with rubber. It differs from Sigan® 1 only by its adhesive formula, and is suited for substrates like existing PVC or cushioned vinyl floor coverings, as well as linoleum. While the Sigan® adhesive was applied, the protective paper at the beginning of the sheet could be removed at the same time, and the new PVC luxury floor covering was able to be installed. Thanks to the paper, every area in the store was ready for foot traffic during work. This meant the contractors could move freely about the area and even transport materials over the spots that had just been processed. With conventional adhesives, on the other hand, it would have been necessary to take special care and wait for long setting times. Since Sigan® is transparent after removing the protective paper, predetermined patterns or markings from marking strings are once again visible, making it especially easy to install the floor with precision. All that was left was to roll on the new luxury floor covering with a suitable pressure roller.

The work could be started or continued without delays in the finished areas during this. For example, shop fitters immediately put out their material and began arranging the shelves. Even pallet trucks and work platforms drove on the new floor right after installing the floor covering. Thus the work was completed after just one week, which is a remarkable accomplishment on the part of the contractors and the product used, given the area of 4,000 m².

Installation company AAF Geretshauser oHG, Markt Indersdorf

The family-owned business Adolf Geretshauser was founded over forty years ago. As a master workshop, it has a long-standing, qualified employee base. Their main operation is installing all floor coverings, such as carpet, PVC, laminate, wood flooring, and linoleum for private residences and industrial and commercial buildings. Their references include various E.ON office buildings in Munich, Hypo-Vereinsbank in Munich’s Fünf Höfe, and the headquarters and all regional sites for Isar-Amperwerke.