All of the F. Ball products used in the project were Marine Certified Tested to the standards of the International Marine Organisation and approved for use in marine floor installations.
Preparing the decks
To begin with, contractors prepared the deck floors, where necessary, with Stopgap 1200 Pro floor levelling compound, which is specially formulated for use over old adhesive residues, without the need for mechanical removal of the residue or priming. It is also low-odour, self-smoothing and fast drying – applied at a thickness of 2-5mm, the compound is dry enough to receive floorcoverings from as little as four hours.
Styccobond F46 pressure sensitive adhesive was then used to install vinyl floorcoverings. Tarkett iQ Granit vinyl was installed in the main corridors of the drivers’ deck, as well as in the crew’s mess. Polyflor Voyager vinyl planks were installed in one of the ship’s restaurants, over areas of 220m2 on each side of a central buffet.
Styccobond F46 is a solvent-free adhesive that dries to a permanent tacky film. It is used to reduce the incidence of trowel serrations shadowing through thin vinyl flooring and is designed to give strong initial tack and a high bond strength, which continues to build as the area is trafficked.
Dual bond system
Heavy contract broadloom carpet was also installed in the ship’s brasserie restaurant and the crew and drivers’ bars using Styccobond F3 water based rubber/resin flooring adhesive and Styccobond F40 High Tack adhesive as part of a dual bond system.
Styccobond F40 is a synthetic polymer emulsion, which can be used to create a permanent or removable bond. Solvent-free and water based, the adhesive dries to form a transparent, permanently tacky coating.
By laying a floorcovering into the adhesive whilst still wet, a permanent bond is achieved. However, in this instance, the adhesive was allowed to completely dry before laying the underlay, creating a peelable bond between the underlay and the subfloor, so that the underlay may be removed in the future without damaging the subfloor.
Finishing steps
Finally, Styccobond F3 was used to adhere the carpet to the underlay. This adhesive has excellent wet grab with an early build-up of strength. It can be used for securing fibre-bonded carpets, hessian, felt, secondary latex and rubber foam backed carpets and cork tiles up to 3.2mm thick.
Commenting on the project, Neil Polson, managing director of Total Flooring, said: “All of the F. Ball products worked a treat on this refurbishment, which is important when you’re working so far away from home. It’s also good that the F. Ball range includes so many products certified for marine applications.”