Balch Springs Animal Shelter
The role that animal shelters play in our communities is one of great importance. Animal shelter workers and volunteers spend many hours working to find loving, permanent homes for animals that are lost or have been abandoned. To house the many animals that come through their doors, animal shelters need adequate space for comfortable conditions and to coordinate the many logistics and functions that take place at a shelter, such as pet adoptions and developing campaigns. Some characteristics of a good animal shelter are that it is spacious and open, protects animals from the elements, and has a proper arrangement of light, air, and hygienic disposal. T.W. Hicks, Inc. sought to help Balch Springs Animal Shelter provide its animals with just that in one of their most recent projects.
Project Processes, Materials, and Equipment
T.W. Hicks, Inc. was contracted by the Balch Springs Animal Shelter in the city of Balch Springs, Texas to provide a resinous flooring system with integral cove tying into the interior and exterior wall systems. The project included 3,500 sq. ft of resinous flooring as well as 1,400 LF. of 4” integral cove base and 4,000 sq. ft of wall systems (3’ in height) in the kennel areas. Balch Springs needed the floor and walls to have chemical resistance, slip resistance, and durability to maintain a hygienic and safe environment for both people and pets. This project was completed on September 20, 2022, with a five-man crew after fifteen days on-site. The removal of the old failing flooring system was completed before our arrival on the job site, leaving us with a slab in good shape for profile preparation and adhesion.
Using a Diamatic Concrete Grinder with attached HEPA industrial vacuum system, our team mechanically prepared the concrete substrate. We used hand-held grinders with attached HEPA industrial vacuums to provide the proper profile around the perimeters, trench drains, and walls. Once the existing rubber cove was removed and proper profile preparation and key-ins for drains were complete, our team thoroughly vacuumed the area before applying the wall system.
The installation of the resinous flooring system began with taping off the wall areas to be coated at approximately 3’ in height. Our team then vertically applied a pigmented epoxy primer at six mils to the interior and exterior walls, followed by a pigmented topcoat of chemical-resistant urethane with anti-microbial additives at four mils. Once the wall systems were completed and cured, the crew applied the first coat of a cementitious polyurethane overlay with anti-microbial additives, immediately broadcasting to rejection with the decorative blend of colored quartz. Following the first coat and broadcast, the team swept and vacuumed the excess quartz before vertically hand-troweling the 4” integral epoxy cove with a ½” radius at the base using the same decorative blend colored quartz to match the flooring system.
As the cove cured, the focus was put on the trench drains, where we applied two coats of pigmented Novolac epoxy at eight mils each, making up 16 mils in total. The crew returned to the floor surface to apply a clear receiver coat, broadcasting to rejection with another round of the same decorative blended color quartz and repeating the process once cured of detailing the floor to remove any excess quartz. Lastly, we applied a clear finish coat of chemical-resistant aliphatic urethane with anti-microbial additives to the floor and cove base.
All expansion joints were honored through the new flooring system and filled with a pigmented polyurethane joint sealant to match the new floor, providing Balch Springs Animal Shelter with a seamless, sanitary resinous flooring system and walls that will remain UV stable and chemical resistant.
Challenges or Unique Factors to Overcome
One of the main challenges on this resinous flooring system project was the cricket infiltration the space had been experiencing. To protect the animals and the floor throughout this process, the animals were moved to a separate location for the duration of the project. The team bombed the designated building, then sealed and taped all holes to fumigate the area of any remaining crickets to avoid any entering during the installation process.