The Complete Guide To Restaurant Kitchen Resin Floors
26 February 2021
Restaurant kitchen floors go through a lot on a daily basis: constant spills, steady streams of water, heavy industrial cooking equipment, to name a few. It’s safe to say that when specifying flooring for your restaurant kitchen project it needs to tick many boxes to ensure it maintains optimal performance, that's where Acrylicon are here to help.
Minimising Shutdown With Your Resin Kitchen Floor
Restaurants are businesses that require a consistent and steady stream of customers in order to maintain a profit. This has been exacerbated in recent times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen catastrophic upheaval for the restaurant industry. The bottom line: restaurants can’t afford to close for too long.
When discussing how one can minimise shutdown, what we’re really asking is:
How long does it take to replace a resin floor?
And as you might have guessed, this answer isn’t a simple one. Completion time will vary depending on the size of the kitchen and other unique requirements.
However, one of the main impacts on time is the type of resin you use.
If you choose a Polyurethane (PU) resin – which comes from the thermoset family of plastics – it can usually take around 3-5 hours to dry and a further 3-5 days to fully cure, depending on the temperature. In lower temperatures, this could take even longer.
Interestingly, PU resin is one of the most widely used resins for a range of applications, including restaurant kitchens, despite the lengthy shutdown time it brings with it.
Shutdown Time With PU Resin
PU is applied in two layers in the form of a primer and a body coat or screed. When you consider the removal of current flooring, drying out the area, preparing the substrate for priming and then waiting for the primer to dry before installing the screed or body coat, we’re talking nearly a week before the floor will be ready to use.
Acrylicon Cure Time
One of the key benefits to Acrylicon resin floors is its cure time. As it is a Thermoset plastic, it only needs to cure once, meaning shutdown time is greatly reduced.
To put this into context, you can read their case study, where they completed an Acrylic resin floor in the kitchen at the prestigious Shangri-La at The Shard. Within 2 hours of this final coat being applied, the equipment was returned to the kitchen and re-commissioned for immediate use. Also, as the kitchen was divided into 4 areas and shifts were structured so that Acrylicon were working 24 hours a day, the kitchen was able to remain operating throughout the works with minimal disruption.
To read the full article on how you can minimise shutdown with your restaurant kitchen project, click here.
The Importance Of Hygienic Flooring In Restaurant Kitchens
Whilst food preparation areas are at the top of everyone’s mind when it comes to restaurant kitchen hygiene, the flooring areas is one of the most commonly used surfaces and as such, should not go unnoticed.
In fact, a poorly cleaned resin floor is not only unhygienic, but it can affect the longevity of the floor, as a build up of dirt and bacteria will lead to repairs and replacement over time.
As kitchen floors undergo a strict cleaning regime, it can be easy to think that a floor is perfectly clean, when in fact, it’s the bacteria that builds up in delamination and pinholes in the floor that can cause issues.
Gas bubbles are formed during the curing process of PU resin. These gas bubbles, when penetrated, will cause dirt and bacteria to build up below the top layer of the floor.
How To Optimise Your Kitchen Floors Hygiene With Acrylicon
Unlike a PU floor, when cured, an Acrylicon floor doesn’t leave pinholes or have mechanical bonding between the layers. As part of its unique formulation, the layers chemically bond, creating a monolithic floor. It also has the highest compressive strength, meaning it is the most easily cleanable.
As a result, the floors are more hygienic as bacteria and moisture can’t get in between layers, as there are no mechanical joints.
The hygiene of your kitchen floor is very important to your restaurant and not maintaining it properly can have consequences, leaving you or your client out of pocket and potentially out of business.
In Conclusion
There are many things to consider when choosing a resin flooring system for your restaurant kitchen project.
Acrylicon strongly advise their clients to closely consider the cost of a resin flooring in the long-term, as frequent repairs and shutdown time will quickly add up. It’s therefore crucial that you choose a system that is less likely to require constant repairs and disruptions to business.
Acrylicon provides clients in the kitchen and food service industry with tailored resin flooring systems ideal for all areas of their premises. Both kitchen and front of house solutions come with a hygiene and performance warranty.
They recognise that any form of renovation work can impact daily trade, particularly in a customer-facing industry. With this in mind, Acrylicon creates a bespoke installation plan that is not only outside of opening hours but also to suit you, to cause as little disruption as possible. Thanks to their minimal flooring downtime, even when opting for kitchen and food service resin flooring repairs, you will not have to close your premises.