Floors: The First Impression in Corrections

By John Rees

Wardens are no different than anyone else when it comes to trying to make a good first impression. The condition of your sanitation and security are the first things one encounters when visiting a prison or jail. We all want to make the best impression possible on staff, inmates, family members and attorneys, and the condition of the floors is the first clue to how well the facility is maintained and run.

Early in my career, I was taught to make sure the floors looked great before a visit from the grand jury, legislators or the brass from the central office. We had plenty of manpower and most of the correctional officers learned to clean floors in the military. We made the wax in prison industries, so we always had plenty on hand and never worried about the cost.

The tools and the way we clean floors are now a little different. Wax is not wax anymore, it is acrylic. And you don’t reach your goal by a continuous pattern of stripping and waxing. New technology makes the job easier, more economical and more effective.

According to Mark Samios, national education director for PortionPac Chemical Corporation, a new era in floor care technology began in 1959 when plastic, non-wax coatings became available, remaining in use through the mid-1990s as the predominant form of protecting floors.

“In a simplified explanation, plastic floor finishes are made by placing a molecule of metal between molecules of plastic,” says Samios. “Like sticks of Tinker Toys that are fastened together by round connectors, the molecules of metal allow the molecules of plastic to be held together to form what became known as metal-interlock floor finish.” Over the years, the industry experimented with a number of heavy metals, including aluminum, zinc and copper, among others.

Metal Interlock

Metal-interlock floor finishes form a tremendous protective coating for floors of all types. These finishes were fast and efficient to apply, dried to a naturally shiny gloss and could be buffed to repair scratches. They did, however, have some built-in problems. “Over a period of time, the ultra-violet rays of the sun deteriorated the plastic, turning it yellow or brown. The molecules of heavy metal also oxidize,” says Samios.

In layman's terms, they began to rust. The floor finish turned from clear to yellow to brown. It was necessary to periodically remove the old finish, or strip the floor. Although technological advances extended the life of the floor finish, eventually the floor finish would chemically break down and have to be removed. The practice of strip and recoat now seems so inherent to floor maintenance that many forget why this process was needed in the first place.

“Stripping the floor created a second set of problems that made the practice increasingly less desirable over the years,” says Samios. “Stripping a metal-interlock floor finish also breaks apart the polymer and heavy metal molecules in the old finish, creating a slurry of heavy waste product in the stripping process. Disposing of heavy metal waste material into the regular sewer system has become less acceptable under current water standards, and is now illegal in some states.”

Acrylic floor finish appeared in its earliest forms in the early 1980s. Acrylic is an extremely hard and brittle plastic. In its early forms, acrylic floor finishes dried to a brilliant shine but, unfortunately, they scratched rather easily. Adding styrene to the acrylic gives the beautiful shine we have all come to want and expect, and the styrene permits the floor to be restored when scratched or worn.

Styrenated Acrylic

Today, styrenated acrylic floor finishes are the standard of the industry. They give us the “wet-look floor,” are easy to apply and maintain, and can be repaired by buffing. They can be cleaned using a neutral cleaner and surface-scrubbed to remove any dirt embedded in the plastic prior to recoating. When recoating, the new finish softens and permanently bonds to the existing finish.

Since acrylic does not appreciably yellow or deteriorate, it is not necessary to strip the floor because each coat bonds with the one below. The finish never yellows, and you can create a continuous block of plastic on top of your floor. The more finish you apply, the thicker the block of plastic becomes and the deeper the shine.

The starting point in creating a beautiful floor is to remove any existing non-acrylic finish and make sure the floor is free of dust and dirt. Samios recommends applying three to five thin coats of acrylic finish. Acrylic dries fast, allowing you to put down a number of thin coats in a minimum amount of time. Allow the floor to completely dry between coats and let the finish “cure” for at least 24 hours before buffing.

Surface scrub the floor using an appropriate chemical designed for this purpose. After scrubbing, make sure the floor is clean and rescrub areas as needed and rinse the floor with clean water. Next, use a floor neutralizer to bring the floor back to “neutral” and ensure that the floor is properly rinsed and ready to accept and adhere finish. Allow the floor to dry completely and recoat with two to three thin coats of new acrylic finish.

Unfortunately, just about the time you have your floors looking just the way you want them to, someone mars or even harms your floor. A pallet is dragged across the floor, leaving gouges in the finish, or someone spills a container of a chemical that leaves a spot, discoloring the floor material itself. Resist the temptation to strip the floors and start over. Acrylic finish is easy to fix.

For gouges and deep scratches, Samios recommends feathering out the edges by surface scrubbing just the scratched area for the length of the scratch. If you simply recoat over the top of the scratch, the difference in the thickness of the plastic will show up as a mar in your floor. However, by feathering out the edges of the scratch, you can build back the scrubbed area with several coats of finish in the repair area only. With a little effort, most ground floor crews can eliminate the scratch completely. You might also find the guys who scratched or stained the floor. Explain what has happened, and ask them not to do it again.

What I have learned from studying this topic with Mark Samios is that maintaining a floor is a lot more complicated than when I started in this business in the days of “strip and wax.” Like many of the tools we use in today's prisons, we must adapt to changing technology, even when it comes maintaining a clean and shiny floor.

Over the past 20 years, John Rees served as warden at four correctional facilities. He was later vice president of business development at Corrections Corporation of America and wrote this article while he was self-employed as a consultant for corrections and criminal justice administration. In January 2004, he was appointed commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Corrections.