How Much Do You Know about Floating ESD Floor Tiles? They Offer Several Unique Benefits

We were recent­ly con­tact­ed by a com­pa­ny locat­ed in Andover, MA, that had a unique set of indus­tri­al floor­ing needs.

This par­tic­u­lar com­pa­ny pro­duces high-per­for­mance mod­u­lar com­po­nents that are designed to man­age elec­tri­cal pow­er from the wall to their point of con­nec­tion. We’ll leave the tech­ni­cal details of their work to them, and focus on the fact that they cre­ate these elec­tri­cal com­po­nents for a wide vari­ety of indus­tri­al and com­mer­cial fields.

Because of the nature of their work, their first pri­or­i­ty was to install an ESD con­trol floor sys­tem that would meet their par­tic­u­lar needs. Their search for ESD floor­ing exper­tise end­ed with the team here at Kaloutas.

Can You Have Both Func­tion and Style When It Comes to Your Indus­tri­al Floor­ing? We Say, Why Not?

Our client not only need­ed a pow­er­ful, effec­tive ESD floor­ing sys­tem, but they also need­ed it to look, as they put it, ​“world class.” This is an impor­tant fac­tor in the equa­tion for many prop­er­ty own­ers and man­agers, espe­cial­ly when you work in an indus­try where you need to be able to give tours, show­case prod­ucts, and impress your own clients.

Work­ing hard and look­ing fan­tas­tic don’t need to be mutu­al­ly exclusive.

Let’s Back Up: What Exact­ly Is an ESD Floor Sys­tem, and Why Is It Important?

In short, ESD stands for elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charge. We build up this poten­tial charge (a process called tri­bocharg­ing) sim­ply by exist­ing: walk­ing, wear­ing clothes, putting a coat on or tak­ing it off. The elec­tri­cal charge then waits until you come in con­tact with a sur­face that com­pletes the cir­cuit and allows the ener­gy to pass from us to the object in a very tiny, but very hot, flash.

In some cas­es this dis­charge is as harm­less as a sta­t­ic shock when you touch your car door. In indus­tries that involve volatile chem­i­cals, com­bustible mate­ri­als, or sen­si­tive elec­tron­ic com­po­nents, how­ev­er, an ESD event can cause mas­sive dam­age, both imme­di­ate and latent.

We recent­ly wrote an in-depth arti­cle that out­lines your ESD con­trol options; be sure to take a look for more details!

Build­ing a Plan for a Suc­cess­ful ESD Floor System

With the dual goals of obtain­ing effec­tive ESD con­trol and an aes­thet­i­cal­ly-pleas­ing appear­ance, we met at our client’s facil­i­ty with our ven­dor to col­lab­o­rate and dis­cuss the pos­si­bil­i­ties in per­son. We want­ed to hear our customer’s goals per­son­al­ly, and explore options in a time­ly, effi­cient way. Keep­ing an effi­cient time­line was espe­cial­ly impor­tant in this case; with new pro­duc­tion equip­ment wait­ing to be installed, the floor­ing need­ed to be com­plete as soon as possible.

Floor Repair, Float­ing Tiles, and Meet­ing an Aggres­sive Timeline

With our plan in place, we expe­dit­ed the ship­ping of our new ESD floor tiles (more on the tiles below!), then got to work.

• First, we removed the exist­ing floor with our ride-on Ter­mi­na­tor floor scraper.
• Using dia­mond grinders to remove the mas­tic (adhe­sive), we ground the floor.
• Next we repaired the con­crete slab wher­ev­er necessary.
• We then applied a water-based epoxy primer from Pro­tec­tive Indus­tri­al Poly­mers that, in addi­tion to seal­ing and pro­tect­ing the sur­face, also pro­vides a dust-proof barrier.
• Final­ly, it was time to install the ESD floor tiles.

Can You Put ESD Tiles on a Floor With High Mois­ture Levels?

One major point of con­cern was a high mois­ture con­tent in our client’s con­crete floor. This can be caused by a num­ber of fac­tors, but often is traced back to a fail­ing (or nonex­is­tent) mois­ture bar­ri­er. When the bar­ri­er isn’t present, mois­ture seeps right through the per­me­able slab and can cause stains, blis­ter­ing, floor dam­age, and more on the surface.

Excess mois­ture had caused our client’s pre­vi­ous floor tiles to fail (wet glue sim­ply doesn’t stick). With this prob­lem in mind, we chose a float­ing, inter­lock­ing ESD floor tile that requires no adhe­sives. On top of that, it offers fan­tas­tic con­duc­tiv­i­ty for supe­ri­or ESD control.

For increased dura­bil­i­ty and func­tion, these ESD tiles also came with a fac­to­ry-installed, high-wear ure­thane top layer.

Mis­sion Accomplished!

All of our col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts came togeth­er to yield an effec­tive, attrac­tive ESD floor­ing solu­tion for our client that lined up with their tight time-table.

Can we answer your indus­tri­al floor­ing or paint­ing ques­tions? The Kaloutas team is here and ready to serve. Let’s get started!

Kaloutas is New Eng­land’s pre­mier con­trac­tor for com­mer­cial & indus­tri­al paint­ing, floor­ing, and relat­ed ser­vices. Estab­lished in 1987, Kaloutas has become a trust­ed resource for gen­er­al con­trac­tors, facil­i­ties man­agers, and build­ing own­ers from Con­necti­cut to Maine. Our team prides itself on high qual­i­ty work­man­ship, jobs done on time & bud­get, and tack­ling com­plex projects that oth­er con­trac­tors don’t have the expe­ri­ence or resources to han­dle. Con­tact us today for a paint­ing or floor­ing esti­mate, or give us a call at 978−532−1414 to learn more.