The major challenge when renovating floors in large retail areas is to disrupt ongoing sales operations as little as possible. In furniture stores in particular, there is also the major challenge of working with as little dust as possible. With this particular example, Schwamborn shows how this was achieved with great success at Möbel Roller in Offenburg, Germany.

Schwamborn, one of the leading manufacturers of state of the art floor grinding machines, has been delivering to its customer systematic floor processing for over 85years. The company says that during this time it has perfected a system that ranges from covering removal and substrate preparation to almost perfect dust reduction. This made Schwamborn the first choice for the renovation of 6,000m2 of retail space in the furniture store.

The work steps

In the first step, the floor covering consisting of PVC, linoleum and carpet was removed with a ride on floor stripper. After that, the remaining filler and the epoxy resin coating had to be removed and the floor prepared for the new covering at the same time. With the Schwamborn DSM 800RC, a three disc grinding machine that can be operated with remote control, this heavy work can be carried out with the greatest possible comfort for the operator. According to the motto of Schwamborn application technology, ‘hard soils, soft binding - soft soils, hard binding’ - the DSM 800RC was equipped with the new Schwamborn ‘Giants C-SSC’ with a 20 grain. These powerful grinding diamonds of the ‘TripleA class’ aim to impress with their durability and thor-oughness on large surfaces.

“A set of grinding diamonds each had a tool life of 1,200m2. The preparation of the substrate, including the removal of filler and epoxy resin, was carried out so efficiently in one grinding operation that the floor was prepared to mineral purity at the same time,” explains Ewald Wohlfart from Schwamborn Application Technology. In this way, the furniture store was able to be fitted section by section with a floor covering made of polyolefin (wood look) in the shortest possible time while operations continued.

Perfected dust reduction

“The full strength of the ‘Schwamborn system’ is particularly evident in furniture stores with dust sensitive exhibits, in which machines, diamond tools and the integrated dust extraction system are so perfectly coordinated that not only the floor can be renovated extremely efficiently, but also people and material remains largely dust free. Thanks to high performance dust separators, such as the STA 550 in this case in combination with the Schwamborn STS 750 industrial vacuum cleaner, this can be disposed of cleanly and without any problems with the least possible amount of waste,” says the experienced application engineer Wohlfart happily.

After the grinding, the floor was primed and the cracks in the subsoil were repaired with epoxy resin in accordance with the standards. Möbel Roller in Offenburg was able to enjoy a new, attractive and durable floor on its large sales area in a very short time.