We talk about our animal projects a LOT! It’s because we love animals. Let me tell you about one of our most unique, challenging projects to date - Stay Pet Resort. Located very near the BWI airport in Hanover, this canine facility challenged us like no other animal facility project so far.
Challenge #1 – Determine the proper coatings
When we first met with Stay Pet Resort’s owner, Jodi, she had a vision. She was going to bring the high end, ultra-modern dog hotel and salon to the Baltimore Area. She knew she wanted epoxy coatings to seal the concrete and enhance the look. She knew she wanted floor surfaces that would mop up easily and allow her to use her walk behind, auto-scrubber multiple times a day without issue. The only thing she didn’t know was what coating would meet all of her needs.
Dave and I really clicked with Jodi. Both of us love dogs. Our company has a good amount of experience coating animal facilities (boarding kennels, animal hospitals, feline hospices, adoption kennels, etc.). Talking with Jodi, we realized that we needed to do more than just quote an epoxy system. We needed to create large sample pads to allow her team to conduct realistic wear and cleaning tests.
Solution #1 – Create large Test Pads of different Epoxy & Urethane Systems
Jason, our Maryland Operations Manager, quickly came in and created 4 samples pads – each approximately 4’ by 4’. The pads varied by chemical composition and also the amount & type of non-skid materials in the topcoat. Some samples had larger grit to increase wet & dry slip resistance and some had higher amounts of tabular aluminum to create extremely scratch resistant surfaces.
Jodi and her staff put them through the paces. They dumped coffee on the samples. They put different cleaners on the samples. They repeated ran their auto scrubber and vacuum over the samples. We even caught Jodi rubbing a steel screw across the high-wear urethane sample pads to see how they would hold up.
After about 3 days of testing, we had our solution for roughly 16,500 square feet of the Hanover facility and Jodi had chosen Stronghold Floors for her project (we beat out several competitors, including a larger, commercial coatings company – Yay!).
Descriptions of the installed coating systems are available in our Project Portfolio section.