Flowcrete flooring features in flour mill renovation

When US$800 million food producer Bakhresa Group renovated its ageing flour mill in Durban, South Africa, it specified a hardwearing epoxy floor.

Bakhresa knew that the floor coating would need to maintain a hygienic surface despite the challenging working conditions that are unavoidable within large-scale food production facilities, including heavy equipment, intense cleaning regimes, corrosive by-products, thermal shock and frequent foot traffic.

To ensure the floor was up to the task, a combination of high-performance resin solutions from Flowcrete was chosen for the revitalised flour mill.

The resilient, self-smoothing epoxy flooring system Flowshield SL was applied within the mill’s critical production area. The ability of Flowshield SL to withstand high mechanical and chemical stress made it the right fit for this part of the site, as it will be able to maintain a seamless finish in the face of Bakhresa’s busy daily workload.

The joint-free, impervious nature of the system leaves no hard-to-clean gaps for bacteria, mould, mildew and fungi to get trapped within. Instead, any dirt or grime can be quickly and easily washed away by the site’s cleaning routine, minimising the risk of contamination incidents.

The non-critical areas of the site, such as the warehouse, packaging and logistics spaces, were coated with the epoxy resin finish Flowshield SL 1000. This system provides the same hygienic and aesthetic properties as the production room floor, but it could be thinner in these areas as it would not have to endure such rigorous conditions.

In total, 11,000 m² of resin materials were required to bring the facility’s floor up to the desired standard. Flowcrete supplied all the systems in a custom ‘sand yellow’ colour to meet the client’s aesthetic requirements.

Bakhresa chose Flowcrete in recognition of the resin specialist’s long history of supplying food and beverage producers, and its ability to meet the tight deadline required.

Flowshield SL is suitable for businesses that want to limit the time required to complete a flooring project, as it can be quickly installed and its fast cure formulation avoids long waiting periods where it is impossible to walk across the site or send in follow-on trades.