Tiếng Việt
中文 (中国)
Schools and training centres use floors in a very different way from factories: the same floor is at once a place where students walk all day, a place for desks, chairs and teaching equipment, and an escape route when people need to move quickly. Floors here do not need to carry heavy machinery loads, but they must be clean, easy to clean, low-slip, clearly coloured, and durable under high foot traffic, dragged furniture and daily cleaning. Epoxy floor coating meets part of these requirements thanks to its seamless surface, but it is not the answer for every area in a school; each area needs to be looked at separately before a coating system is chosen.
Different areas, different requirements
Classrooms need a stable floor surface that is easy to wipe after lessons and does not trap dust in joints. Corridors and halls have the highest foot traffic and are shared circulation routes, so wear resistance and slip resistance should come first, while colour should be kept so routes can be marked out. Practical rooms, school workshops and computer rooms add requirements for stain resistance, resistance to light impact, and easy cleaning when ordinary cleaning chemicals are used. Wet areas such as school toilets and school kitchen areas place greater weight on slip resistance when wet and on drainage, and cannot be thought of in the same way as dry classrooms. Dividing the floor plan by actual use is the first step, before discussing the type of coating or its colour.
Safe movement and hygiene come first
- Slip resistance: an epoxy surface can be given a suitable level of texture for walkways, especially in halls, on stairs and in areas that are easily wet. The level of texture must be balanced against cleanability: a surface that is too rough will hold dust and be hard to mop, while a surface that is too smooth will be dangerous when wet. See also: Anti-Slip Epoxy Floors: Quartz Sand or Aluminium Oxide Grit?
- Seamless and easy to clean: a seamless epoxy floor with few joints makes daily mopping faster and limits places where dust, chalk and stains can build up. This matters in practice for schools, where cleaning takes place frequently and a whole area cannot be closed just to clean one room.
- Light and colour: light colours help classrooms and corridors look brighter and support recognition of walkways and signs. Colour can also be used to mark zones: different colours for the teaching block, the administration block and escape routes, but the number of colours should be kept moderate so the result is not visually confusing.
One limit to state plainly: footstep noise
Epoxy is a hard, seamless coating, not a sound-absorbing material. An epoxy floor does not by itself reduce the sound of footsteps, dragged chairs or echo in corridors. If a school has a noise-reduction requirement, it needs to be addressed with accompanying measures such as acoustic ceilings, pads on chair and desk legs, carpet in areas that need quiet, and rules on movement during lessons. Choosing epoxy for hygiene and durability is reasonable; choosing epoxy in the expectation of sound insulation does not match the nature of the material.
Work in schools must be planned around the school calendar
Floor work in a school that is in operation cannot be done the way it is done in a factory closed in full. The approach usually considered is to work area by area and floor by floor, outside school hours or during holidays, combined with ventilation and waiting times for drying and for return to use in line with the technical documents of the coating system chosen. Odour and volatile organic compounds (VOC) during application are a matter to take genuinely seriously where children are present: the safety instructions and safety data sheet (SDS) of the specific product must be followed, and work must not be carried out while students are studying immediately beside the work area. See also the general process: Standard Epoxy Flooring Installation Process, from Survey to Handover and Odor and VOC During Epoxy Application: Ventilation Measures.
Choose the coating system by area, not one system for the whole school
As a general principle, ordinary circulation areas in a school may be considered for a roller-applied system, large halls and corridors that need an even surface may be considered for a self-levelling system, and areas where odour during application needs to be limited may be considered for a water-based system. The Kadier systems are RollCoat, LevelFlow and AquaBase; which system suits a particular area must be checked against the official technical data sheet (TDS) of that system, not inferred from its name. Choosing a system by industry and function in general is covered at: How to Choose an Epoxy Floor System by Industry and Use.
Maintenance after handover
School floors usually deteriorate not from one major incident but from accumulated wear: the main walkway wears first, room corners peel at the edges from dragged desks and chairs, and dirt builds up at entrance areas. A maintenance plan should therefore include daily cleaning by a method suited to the coating, regular inspection of worn spots, and early local repair instead of waiting for damage to spread. See also: Epoxy Floor Maintenance and Cleaning Done Right and Localized Epoxy Floor Repair: Patching and Recoating Individual Areas.
Scope note: the content above describes the general properties of epoxy floor materials and systems, with reference to TCVN 9014:2011 and TCVN 12574-2018 where relevant. This article does not publish technical specifications, VOC levels, drying times or test results specific to any particular Kadier system; those figures apply only where there is an official technical data sheet (TDS) and safety data sheet (SDS) for the specific product and project.
Featured image: Monstera Production on Pexels.
