Performance flooring company Flowcrete is working with top name auto dealers and workshop owners to bring that essential touch of class to their facilities, transforming the floor to become as sleek as the cars that roll across it.
In Australia, many of the top brand name dealerships are selecting the hard-wearing, seamless Flowcoat system for their workshops.
Mazda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, VW, Subaru, Lexus and Holden/Vauxhall are among Flowcrete’s recent customers.
Flowcrete Australia Regional Manager Sean Tinsley says, “Aside from the technical advantages of these seamless systems such as durability and chemical resistance, they go a long way to helping the automotive dealers keep their facilities looking up to the mark.”
At the new Toyota dealership in Brisbane, some 1,500sqm of the Flowcoat system was installed providing a hard-wearing, abrasion resistant, aesthetically pleasing surface. High resistance against chemical attack is a further benefit.
Based in Sydney, bodywork specialist Scientific Auto Body was looking for a suitable flooring to smooth over the worn-out concrete in its recently purchased property.
Technically, the new floor needed to withstand the harsh conditions of a workshop environment, but aesthetically had to be in keeping with the high-class image of the luxury marques the company handles - Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche among them.
Flowcrete Australia Area Manager Tony Di Girolamo says, “The original floor was very uneven with potholes, cracks and worn concrete that exposed aggregate in many places.”
Flowcrete and four other companies were called in to lay a sample of what each considered to be a appropriate system for the specification. Each sample was then monitored over a six-month period during which it was put to the test by a daily pounding of trailers, trolleys and trucks. Ease of cleaning and maintenance requirements were also evaluated.
Flowcrete proposed Flowfresh, a polyurethane resin system that is installed in one seamless application.
“As well as being durable and abrasion resistant, Flowfresh offers ultra-smoothing qualities that enabled the existing floor to be levelled out better than any other product. The other samples installed were all epoxy-based flooring which, due to its high gloss finish, actually highlighted the defects in the concrete and did not even-up the floor like the Flowfresh,” says Di Girolamo.
Flowcrete’s licensed applicator Dynamic Flooring began work on the project by shot-blasting and priming the original concrete before installing 4mm of Flowfresh in cream and terracotta over the 1,400sqm area. The rapid installation process enabled following trades to begin work quickly.