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A Floor That Refreshes:
Renovating The World Of Coke
By Jen Kramer
“I’d like to buy the world a Coke…” Who doesn’t remember that classic commercial in which people of all nationalities joined hands over bottles of the ever-popular soda while singing an equally sweet song?
Well, at The World of Coke in Atlanta, Georgia an experience of that nature actually does occur. No. Folks aren’t forced to join hands and sing. However, the factory tours end in the “International Tasting Area” wherein visitors get to sample approximately 75 different flavors of Coca-Cola brand drinks that are marketed around the world. “They even have a celery-root flavored drink in there,” says Paul Patuka, President and owner of Advanced Surfaces Corporation. “It’s pretty wild.” And, after years of untold spills and countless feet, the linoleum-covered floor was also wild—a wild, sticky mess.
 “We have done a lot of work at the Coke syrup facility,” Patuka explains. “And we have developed a great working relationship with them throughout the years at other various facilities. So when they decided to replace the tasting area’s linoleum with a coating system, we had good references and a track record and got the job.” And that job? “To remove 5,100 square feet of old vinyl linoleum, prep and repair the concrete, and install a hybrid coating system that replicated the colors of the linoleum.”
 Working Around A Working Soda Fountain
“We had six days—nights actually,” he says “to complete all work. The facility remained open throughout the course of the job, so we would work from 7pm to 7am, coming in after the facility had closed and leaving in time for them to clean each day.”
Since the facility’s tours end in the tasting area, and they were not interested in closing down for the duration of the project, Patuka and his six-man crew had to do some fancy staging.
But the plan was essentially simple. Divide the 5,100 square foot tasting area in half, allowing the Advanced Surfaces crew to work on one side, and moving the drink dispensing machines to the other, thus allowing the public to continue enjoying the international drinks. “Then, after three days when we finished the first section of floor, we swapped sides” says Patuka.
The facility hung plastic sheeting over the doorway dividing the tasting area from the store. “This kept dust and fumes out, but it was transparent, so that visitors could see the progress of the work,” Patuka explains. “They were open with the public about what was going on.”
 First, the crew removed the linoleum. “It was a real bear. Some of the epoxy mastic backing was so tightly adhered that we had to use diamond blade scrappers to push it up off of the concrete.” Fortunately--for the crew—the soda had affected parts of the linoleum, eating under the seams and making it easier to remove. “We were able to remove parts of those damaged areas using a roller-applied chemical stripper,” recounts Patuka.
Once the concrete substrate was linoleum-free, the crew used 7" cup grinders and 4" wheel grinders to roughen the floor’s surface. “We also made keyway cuts at this time and kept a cold joint to abut to the floor in the next room.” The resulting debris was vacuumed using Ruwac vacuums. Next, the crew taped off a circular area that, Patuka says, “The facility management wanted to have as a red round circle in front of one of the drink machines.”
 With the floor cleaned and prepped, it was time for the coating installation. “We had taken a sample of the linoleum and tried to match it exactly using Dur-A-Flex’s Hybri-Flex coating system,” Patuka recounts. The project specifications called for a base coat of Dur-A-Flex’s Poly-Crete SLB to be followed by a top coat of Dur-A-Flex’s DuraGlaze Ultra Clear.
Using notched squeegees, the crew applied the Poly-Crete SLB at a thickness of 1/8". A self-leveling broadcast, Poly-Crete is a 100% solids, aromatic cementitious urethane system with a quartz aggregate broadcast. Patuka says, “We hand-broadcast an off-white mix of microflake polyvinyl acetate on the majority of the floor—except for the taped off circular area—we broadcast red microflakes in that area to create the red circle.”
 Allowing the floor to cure for a day, the crew returned the next night to apply the top coat. After sweeping off the floor and vacuuming the residual broadcast, the crew used squeegees and 18" nap rollers to apply Dur-A-Flex’s Dur-A Glaze Ultra Clear epoxy top coat at 10 mils WFT. “The microflakes gave the floor an orange peel texture, which provides a lot of traction. These floors are also very easy to clean,” states Patuka.
“Each side of the floor took three nights: one for prep, one to apply the Poly-Crete, and one to apply the Ultra Clear. We handed it back to the facility on the sixth night.”
And while the Advanced Surfaces crew may or may not have celebrated the end of the job with a Coke, they do have reason to smile. “The facility is very happy with their new floor,” Patuka says. That is pretty sweet!
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