The End Of Iodine Stains?

Smooth Operation: The End Of Iodine Stains?

By Jen Kramer

Vendor Team

KEY EQUIPMENT INC.
Albany, New York
www.keyflooringsystems.com

BLASTRAC
Surface prep equipment
13201 North Santa Fe Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73114
(800) 256-3440
www.blastrac.com

CABOT CORPORATION
Cab-O-Sil
1095 Windward Ridge Parkway, Ste 200
Alpharetta, GA 30005
(678) 297-1300
www.cabot-corp.com

CLARKE
Surface prep equipment
14600 21st Avenue N
Plymouth, MN 55447
(800) 253-0367
www.clarkeus.com

DUR-A-FLEX
Coatings
95 Goodwin Street
East Hartford, CT 06108
(800) 253-3539
www.dur-a-flex.com

Iodine. A chemical element commonly used in hospitals as a disinfectant and as an X-ray radiocontrasting agent for medical procedures including CT scans and angiographs. Unfortunately, in addition to iodine’s many uses, it is also incredibly staining. In fact, in the 1800s, artists seeking a cheaper alternative to expensive red paints, used mercury iodide instead. But what translates on canvas to a flaming red William Turner sunset becomes an ugly, disconcerting stain on an operating room floor.

This was a major concern for St. Peter’s Health Care Services of Albany, New York. The new, state-of-the-art Cardiology Patient Care Center at their Cardiac and Vascular Center features completely sterile operating rooms and stained floor coatings—whether they be from iodine or any other chemical would not be tolerated.

Designed to house all the monitors and equipment necessary for open-heart procedures, the hybrid operating room (OR) also holds the equipment to perform other life-saving procedures including angioplasty and stenting. Because a hybrid OR is also a fully-equipped surgical suite, surgeons can immediately convert from minimally invasive to an open surgical procedure in an emergency. There is no need to relocate the patient or refer the case to a new surgical team. Speed, in such instances, can be life-saving. And high-tech meets hybrid with the fact that the specialized OR is also equipped with numerous large high-definition, flat-screen monitors on which images from “Artis Zeego” surgical angiography equipment, as well as information on the patient’s vital signs, can be viewed. St. Peter’s is one of 29 hybrid OR systems worldwide, and the floor coatings had to live up to the rest of the surroundings. The hospital turned to Dur-A-Flex, a company known for their stain-, slip-, and chemical-resistant floors—an absolute necessity.

Heart-Stopping Cracks

With 12,000 square feet (1,114.84m²) of concrete divided into 500 square-foot (46.45m²) operating rooms, the coatings crew from Key Equipment, Inc., led by Dave Donlon and Mike Kilcullen, had their work cut out for them. “The existing hospital was open,” Sacks says. “But the Cardiac and Vascular Center addition was closed since it was new construction.”

With new concrete that meant that the coatings crew would have an easy start, right? Wrong.

“The concrete was new, but it was in terrible condition,” Sacks recounts. “There were shrinkage cracks and hairline cracks. It was awful. Working one room at a time, we blasted it using a 10" (25.4cm) Blastrac. Then the crew sealed the concrete with Dur-A-Flex’s Dur-A-Glaze MVP green concrete primer.” They used 3/16" (0.48cm) V-notched squeegees to apply the moisture mitigating, 100% solids epoxy at 16 mils (0.41mm) DFT.

“To make sure that any and all cracks were sealed,” Sacks states, “We did a parge coat.” They mixed the Dur-A-Glaze MVP with Cab-O-Sil to create a “flat, tight coat that we squeegeed and backrolled to fill in any cracks making the floor absolutely smooth.”

The parge coat was followed by the installation of an epoxy waterproof membrane system—Elast-O-Coat, a two-part, elastomer-modified, high-build epoxy. “We used notched squeegees to apply and backroll the Elast-O-Coat to 20 mils (0.51mm) DFT,” says Sacks.

“Then, working one room at a time, the Key Equipment crew installed the 4" (10.16cm) cove base around the perimeter. First we mixed Dur-A-Glaze #4 “Water Clear” Hardener with Dur-A-Glaze Cove-Rez and Dur-A-Quartz 228 aggregate in a special dark green blend. Next, using flat trowels, we trowel-applied the mixed system 4" (10.16cm) up onto the wall and 4' (1.22m) out toward the center of the room.”

Sacks continues, “Ultimately, each room would look like a large postage stamp with a beige center and a dark green border running along the outer edge.”

Hybrid OR Meets State-Of-The-Art Coating

To create that dark green border, the crew taped a line 4' (1.22m) out from the wall. Then, they mixed the Dur-A-Quartz Floor system which combined Dur-A-Glaze #4 “Water Clear” Hardener with Dur-A-Glaze #4 Resin and New Jersey ½ sand, Dur-A-Quartz 228, and 290 Flour to make a slurry. This was troweled at 3/16" (0.48cm) on top of the Elast-O-Quartz coated floor. Beige-colored quartz was hand-broadcast into the slurry to the point of rejection.

“We reversed the tape and did the same process for the green 4' (1.22m) perimeters. Then we taped the green to protect the straight edge and did one more quartz broadcast to rejection to build up the main floor,” Sacks explains.

This broadcast was followed by a seal coat of Dur-A-Quartz backrolled at 16 mils (0.41mm) and given another broadcast onto the beige. Then the beige was taped and the process was repeated on the green.

Clarke floor buffers equipped with 150 mesh screens were used to knock down any high spots, but left the surface with a durable orange peel texture. After the debris had been vacuumed, the crew installed the second top coat of Dur-A-Glaze #4 Hardener and #4 Resin over the entire floor—green and beige. “The second top coat was installed at 8 mils (0.20mm) DFT using a flat squeegee and backrolled,” says Sacks.

The final top coat was a 3 mil (0.08mm) crossroll application of Armor Top. Armor Top is a two, three, or four component aliphatic urethane designed for high traffic areas—as well as to withstand chemical attack and staining.

And with that, St. Peter’s Cardiac and Vascular Center had new state-of-the-art floors to match their high-tech medical equipment. “The facility opened in March of 2011 and I was there for a site visit in December 2011. The floors looked great. No stains. No problems,” Sacks says proudly.

Now thanks to coatings innovation—and a hard working crew—those flaming iodine “sunsets” stay where they belong, on artists’ canvases and not on St. Peter’s pristine beige floors. In the flooring arena it looks as if iodine stains are no longer a cause for heartache.

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