One of the primary concerns when it comes to your facility’s bathrooms is cleanliness. Maintaining clean bathrooms can be a challenge, and nearly a full-time job, depending on the size of your facility. One of the biggest issues relating to bathroom cleanliness is the possibility of mold and mildew. Being an area prone to moisture, bathrooms are notorious for mold and mildew growth. In addition to being unattractive and having an unpleasant musty smell, mold and mildew pose numerous health concerns. They can cause sneezing, coughing, wheezing, asthma attacks and other upper respiratory issues and infections, as well as more serious health issues, such as allergic reactions, headaches, nausea, rashes and more. Mold and mildew also have other hidden negative health effects. They can sometimes make surfaces slippery, which can increase risks of residents falling.
Mold and mildew often hide in plain sight, underneath floors or behind walls. Moisture finds its way under floors or inside walls through cracks, seams or gaps in the covering and then grows in its preferred environment: a place that’s dark, damp and warm. When you do finally discover mold, it’s likely already reached the point where it’s become a huge problem that requires equipment and personnel beyond what your facility has access to. In these cases, you usually have to bring in a professional team for mold removal, which can be costly and time consuming in a number of ways. Not only will you have to hire a professional team to do the removal, residents in infected rooms will either be displaced or you’ll have rooms that you won’t be able to fill, costing your facility money and possibly resulting in some unhappy residents. News of a mold outbreak can also risk damage to your facility’s reputation, which could threaten your ability to attract new residents and/or retain your current residents for an indefinite period of time.
Keeping bathrooms clean regularly will help with the prevention and reduction of issues related to mold and mildew. The right flooring material can also help mitigate these issues. Epoxy flooring can help control mold and mildew growth in a few different ways. For instance, epoxy flooring is a trowel-applied flooring system, meaning there are no seams or gaps in the flooring like there is with tile or vinyl. Tile and vinyl can have seams, caulk and grout, all of which are susceptible to water retention and mold growth. These seams and gaps can be difficult to clean, allowing mold and mildew to grow uninhibited in these often very small, hard to reach areas.
Because there are no seams or gaps, epoxy flooring creates a waterproof flooring environment, which means you don’t have to worry about water or moisture getting underneath the flooring or behind the walls, where mold and mildew can grow unbeknownst to you, your residents or your janitors, saving you money and time (and face) by reducing the work they have to do to keep your residents’ bathrooms clean and mold free or, better yet, preventing an inevitable undertaking in ridding your facility of a huge mold issue.