Operating Room Wall & Ceiling Finish?...

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Author Message Bob Woodburn Senior Member Username: bwoodburn Post Number: 177 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Friday, April 06, 2007 - 05:16 pm:    What's the best finish for gyp board operating room walls and ceilings--High-gloss, low-VOC, anti-microbial, waterborne epoxy? Something else? A particular brand and product (and primer)? Thanks! Anne Whitacre, FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: awhitacre Post Number: 508 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Friday, April 06, 2007 - 06:23 pm:    first task is to speak to the Owner's maintenance people. I've done work in hospitals that had a variety of requirements ranging from glazed type finishes to simply a low gloss paint. In some health care environments, they are on such a regular repaint schedule that they don't need anything particularly scrubbable -- and your normal low-odor latex will do just fine because they will do maintenance and repaint in two years. you probably don't want high gloss anything -- too much reflectivity, especially for all the imaging equipment and the use of scopes and lights. anti-microbial doesn't matter, again because the surfaces will be washed down. epoxy is probably overkill and I haven't specified it in at least 2 decades. John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 697 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 08:42 am:    Plus, according to a recent conversation I had with a paint chemist at MPI, most water-borne epoxies on the market do not perform as well as the high performance latex systems. Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wyancey Post Number: 344 Registered: 05-2005 Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 12:22 pm:    Bob, I agree with Anne. You should first ask the facilities maintenance staff. Last surgical suites I did used a seamless sheet goods on floor/base and walls to hard lid ceiling. The seams were heat welded with color matching welding rod for seamless end result. Product was made for clean room type environments. In my project all was white. I cannot remember the brand name of the product but will attempt to find out. Tarkett comes to mind but I cannot be sure. Steven Bruneel, AIA, CSI-CDT, LEED-AP Senior Member Username: redseca2 Post Number: 47 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 - 12:51 pm:    A majority of our work is in healthcare. As previous posters have noted, there is a range of finish options out there, from washable latex finishes up to very high build multi-part products from companies like General Polymers that form soft radius inside corners at wall to ceiling (and floor) joints. The latter come into play where the possibility of infection needs to be kept at an absolute minimum, and would be typical for open heart surgery and transplant surgery environments. In any case, you will need a scrubable surface. Some posters note that a simple finish may be acceptable because the hospital will frequently repaint. This may or may not be true. Hospital real estate is so valuable that each organization needs to weigh the pros and cons of different life cycle cost options. Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wyancey Post Number: 349 Registered: 05-2005 Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 - 02:18 pm:    Bob, Eureka, I've found it. Product on the floor/base is Tarkett Optima; the walls are Altro Whiterock in color white, all heat welded (floor to base; base to walls). Internal corners in Whiterock are thermal moulded on site for form a radius; external corners are thermal molded over a bullnose drywall trim. Not many external corners. Some planning required to control joint locations in close proximity to corners. I hope this is not to late. Wayne P.S. Altro is the same company that makes safety flooring. Steve Pirozzi, CSI, CDT Advanced Member Username: spirozzi Post Number: 5 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 - 07:53 pm:    Bob, As an approved equal to the Altro system, you may also want to consider Isoltech's product line: http://www.techtonics.com/isoltech.html Bob Woodburn Senior Member Username: bwoodburn Post Number: 178 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 03:49 pm:    Thank you all for your suggestions, though there appears to be no consensus, and the list of viable options appears to be longer and more varied than I might have guessed. I'll mull them over...