Most durable flooring for Dentist office cubicles

[highup]

The carpet one shop has been asked to do an estimate to redo a two-year-old installation that was a click-lock product. A builder installed it not the shop. I don't think they did any leveling or prep and the entire job is failing at just 2 years.
I stopped by for a look see and I will measure tomorrow. 15 cubicles, a boardroom, a lab, and a couple other smaller rooms.
The question I have is what is the most durable flooring to put in a dentist office? I've never heard of one in ceramic tile so obviously that's not going to happen.
The office is looking at a product called Drop-n-Done. I believe it's made by Excel flooring and it extremely durable. All the products like this that I've seen are made in Canada at the same plant but they have different names and some indicate their quality level. These are solid vinyl planks without a tongue and groove or click lock.
Hense the name "Drop-n-Done"
The products I believe are all made by XL flooring.
I'm curious if any of you have observed a product that holds up in a dentist office in the cubicles were work is done. The dentist OR technician is constantly shooting back and forth between the patient and a cabinet all day long using a swivel chair. That's a tremendous amount of twisting force being applied to the floor surface and until they make chairs that levitate...... The flooring you'll need to be durable.
Drop-n-Done is the choice they've made to replace this two year old flooring. I'm just looking to see if anyone makes a better product for this situation, and I'm not saying that Drop-n-Done is a bad product, it's extremely durable.
$1.50 for your thoughts...
... 2 years ago it was a penny.

 

[JPfloor]

I’ve done a lot of dentists’ and doctors’ offices over the years. Hospitals too. Alway commercial tile glued down in the exam rooms. Either VCT or solid vinyl, or now a days vinyl plank. I’ve seen sheet vinyl and Lino coved up the walls too… Never anything floating or loose layed. I gotta imagine that’s a bacteria issue.

Personally I don’t think any floating floor has any business being in any commercial space. Just asking for trouble.

 

[Incognito]

100% agree that these "click" floors are inappropriate for commercial use--------even what the industry call light commercial use. And ESPECIALLY in a room/area where medical procedures are taking place I always assumed there were Health Department reasons we were coving PVC or rubber--------non-porous flooring especially resistant to blood, iodine and other chemicals being splashed around.

VCT would be in EXAM rooms and waiting areas. Procedure rooms got sheet vinyl or rubber coved 6".

 

[highup]

When IVC became the hot thing it was going everywhere and I was asked to do replace a section in a small dentist office
The dentist weighed probably 300 pounds. The foam core of this soft product was being destroyed and the floor is getting bubbles in it.
They actually had me replace a section where his chair rolled back and forth. I think the sales rep overstated the durability of the product.
I replaced some vinyl core line at a reception desk in a doctor's office. The vinyl layer had separated from the paper. They had a very large lady at the reception desk. We replaced it with finger parquet boat flooring and that got damaged too.
Like all of them, the failure point is between the patient's chair and one of the two counters where they constantly roll back and forth as they're torturing people. Too bad somebody hasn't come out with a hover chair instead of swivel rollers.
The vinyl plank that I'm talking about it's almost a quarter inch thick and it can be loose laid and fit tight or it can be glued with pressure sensitive adhesive. I asked one of the reps about putting it in a garage and they said no problem. They did say they would not guarantee against tire staining.
In this particular situation, a building was totally renovated over a period of a year and I believe the contractor or contracting firm installed the new flooring. I have no idea the quality of this click lock that's down now but I'm going to measure everything today and I'll take a closer look at the places where I can see joint failure or edge peeling. I didn't take a close look because they were patients over there yesterday. I just stopped by for a few minutes to get a quick look over to wrap my head around how much I was going to be measuring.
XL flooring products such as Drop m Done are not click products, they're a dense fiberglass reinforced vinyl product

 

[Floorist]

Ceramic is too hard to keep germs from getting in the grout. VCT can have the same issue if not properly maintained. I would go with coved vinyl, at least anywhere that must be germ free.

 

[C.J.]

I’ve heard a few installers rave about XL flooring so it can’t be that bad. Will it hold up to the constant swiveling wheels? Will you have to glue it down or at least glue sections? I’m sure price factors into the mix one way or another. No need to buy adhesive? Less prep? Something. Looks like somebody better pad the job a little just in case you have a callback due to a learning curve.

 

[Floorist]

Put VCT throughout a local medical clinic. Did not think it was the best idea, but that is what they wanted.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

I've had a lot of success with 3 different product types in these applications over the past 25 years.

1. Heat welded homeogeneous sheet vinyl (Mannington Biospec MD or Biospec Armor).
2. Heat welded 12' heavy heterogeneous sheet vinyl (Mannington Entwined, Discovery Collection or Paradigm),
3. Commercial glue-down LVT (Minimum 20 mil urethane wear layer with modification (preferably aluminum oxide) such as Mannington Nature's Paths or Color Anchor.

Commercial sheet is a "Best" option because it provides a seamless installation that will hold up to rolling loads, abrasives (all of the crap that flies out of your mouth when they are grinding away turns into sandpaper on the floor, it provides the best protection for infection control since it's seamless. Body fluids and maintenance products can't get to the adhesive layer and become an issue. If it's more of a dental operatory (requires a sterile environment) then homogeneous sheet is really the only choice. An added advantage with the Biospec MD or armor is that there's an anti-microbial built into the surface to help with infection control as well.

If they don't want that "institutional" look of homogeneous inlaid vinyl then heavy heterogeneous vinyl is a great "better" alternate. However, you shouldn't use an embossed (textured) product in an operatory environment as it becomes very difficult to clean properly and disinfect.

LVT would be a good option because it will hold up to rolling loads and is very scratch resistant. The drawback to it is the joints around the pieces can be less desirable if infection control is a concern. Definitely not usable in a sterile environment situation but a standard dental procedure room would be fine.

Hope that helps.

PS...
CCA global (Carpet One) has a good relationship with Mannington and as a result they have 'National Account" pricing with Mannington so that should keep the costs competitive if it goes to a bid situation. I've done a ton of commercial business over the years with our CCA global dealers.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

....Also, never ever ever, ever, use a floating product in any healthcare related application. They CANNOT handle any rolling loads over time, the locking mechanism WILL break down and they also are a huge infection control problem waiting to happen. You can get bodily fluids or maintenance water under them and grow all sorts of cool stuff.

 

[JPfloor]

Put VCT throughout a local medical clinic. Did not think it was the best idea, but that is what they wanted

The main problem with VCT is the required maintenance. IF properly maintained that stuff will last forever and be pretty well sealed. Wax is key. Gotta strip it down every once in a while. Burnishing is a bonus.

 

[Incognito]

XL flooring products such as Drop m Done are not click products, they're a dense fiberglass reinforced vinyl product

So it's GLUED down???

I don't care as much about the assembly as the floating.

Of course NEITHER could be viable under 300lbs rolling across the floor in a wheeled chair with cheap, shitty, hard plastic wheels made in China for $5 per 100 ctn.

 

[highup]

....Also, never ever ever, ever, use a floating product in any healthcare related application. They CANNOT handle any rolling loads over time, the locking mechanism WILL break down and they also are a huge infection control problem waiting to happen. You can get bodily fluids or maintenance water under them and grow all sorts of cool stuff.

You're saying that because of this?
(Amongst other things)

 

[highup]

So it's GLUED down???

I don't care as much about the assembly as the floating.

Of course NEITHER could be viable under 300lbs rolling across the floor in a wheeled chair with cheap, shitty, hard plastic wheels made in China for $5 per 100 ctn.

I forgot to look at the wheels. I took a few pictures maybe some wheels are visible. I doubt Ultra cheap Walmart chairs, stools, whatever.

 

[highup]

One other thing about this location, I know the groundwater table is quite high.
The town I live in used to be called Marshfield..... There's a reason for that. It's now called Coos Bay.
We live on a bay and much of the downtown area including this was filled over a century ago. There used to be coal barges or small ships coming near or at this location. Currently, our bay is 10 blocks away.
I'm trying to wrap my head around what's been done to this building during this renovation 2 years ago.
There is a mechanical room that's probably 14x15 that has a monster compressor on one side and a huge expensive looking air filtration system on the other side. From this room it feeds filtered air, water, drain water and electricity to fifteen, 9 by 13 rooms. This means the buildings slab was cut into a jigsaw puzzle......a geometric one of course.
If this XL flooring is installed, it definitely will be glued down.
My concern right now is waterproofing the slab and it's hard for me to give advice because without seeing how the slab was cut into....... it's a crapshoot guessing what it looks like under this flooring.

 

[highup]

This is the product.
Nothing thinner on the market. It's close to 3/16" thick. The locks on these skinny planks break if you simply look at them wrong.
I don't know why this product was used. Any reputable shop should have told them No!

 

[highup]

My brother just mentioned all those hoses, electrical etc are probably dropped in from the topside, down the walls then to their locations on the floor. If so, that would only mean a two foot cut in the slab from the outside walls.

 

[highup]

One would think the architect would have thrown his two cents into the conversation because of how elaborate the conversion was from office space to a large dentists office.

 

[highup]

Hey CJ, the new product, the XL vinyl plank is what I installed on that guy's wall months ago.

 

[JPfloor]

One would think the architect would have thrown his two cents into the conversation because of how elaborate the conversion was from office space to a large dentists office.

What a shame. Was such an easy job before all the chairs, equipment and spit sinks were installed. Now it’s a nightmare. If an architect was involved in the selection of that floor he should be shot!

Or at least sued…