Polyflor Leads The Way At West Middlesex Hospital

A flagship redevelopment scheme at a leading London hospital features low maintenance sheet vinyl floorcoverings from commercial flooring specialists Polyflor Ltd.

The £50 million private finance initiative (PFI) at West Middlesex Hospital is at the forefront of the second wave of PFI projects and will form the blueprint for those that follow.

Under the scheme, main contractor Bouygues UK is demolishing the oldest buildings on the Isleworth site, some of which date back to the early 19th century and have fallen into disrepair.

A new critical care building constructed at the centre of the site transforms the scattered complex of buildings into a compact, focused development.

The new facility incorporates A and E, intensive care, operating theatres, diagnostic imaging, outpatients and new wards.

Existing maternity, medical and the Marjorie Warren buildings will undergo refurbishment and remodelling to meet modern-day standards.

The new A and E facility alone will treat an extra 5000 patients a year, bringing the number to 70,000 cases.

This will largely be due to the improved site layout, with the creation of a well-equipped and efficiently designed hospital.

Three Polyflor sheet vinyl floorcoverings were specified for the scheme, with 9000m2 of Polyflor Mystique PUR heavy duty sheet in wards and corridors throughout the critical care building and 300m2 and sheet vinyl safety floors Polysafe Astral and Polysafe Design in WCs and wet areas.

Architect Georgia Burt of Nightingale Associates used Polyflor Mystique as a way-finding strategy, creating colour-coded designs to guide patients and visitors to their destinations.

"Colour is very important in today's buildings", she says.

"Not only is it a means of avoiding an arid environment but it can be used as an efficient way-finding technique.

Polyflor Mystique is a very good range of vinyls with a particularly good range of colours.

At Middlesex each department has its own colour identity, with floors, walls and all the signs to that department in a single colour.

Everything concerning the ophthalmology department, for example, is green.' Polyflor Mystique PUR is available in 24 modern colourways and has a polyurethane reinforcement which, combined with its superior closed surface finish, facilitates a low cost, polish-free maintenance regime for the lifetime of the product.

It can provide maintenance savings of up to 48% compared with untreated vinyl floorings and, like all Polyflor sheet vinyls, can be welded at the seams and to coved skirtings to create a continuous, impervious surface which offers no sanctuary to dirt and bacteria.

Flooring contractor Tyndale Carpets (London) also installed Polysafe Astral and its sister product Polysafe Design in areas where extra underfoot safety is required.

As well as proven slip resistance, Astral and Design feature the Supratec system, a unique soil-releasing polymer which makes the products up to 60% cheaper to clean and ensures that even light shades will not yellow after years of wear.

Polyflor Mystique, Polysafe Astral and Polysafe Design all meet the general performance requirements of EN 649:1996 and, fully tested to fire safety standard EN 13501-1, are certified as Class Bfl-Sl, achieving the criteria EN ISO 9239-1 3 8kw/m2 and the mandatory requirement of EN ISO 11925-2 pass.

Catherine Toron of Bouygues UK, which specified Polyflor products for West Middlesex, confirmed that the Polyflor vinyls selected for the scheme were of excellent quality and competitively priced.

In addition, the associated services and the flexible delivery schedule meant that Polyflor could meet the tight deadlines required in such a high-profile project.

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