Schönox Renotex 3D System Protects Historic Wood Planks While Supporting Heavy-Use Floor Covering
By Britton Watson, Sr. Marketing & Communications Mgr. HPS Schonox
Preserving history while also allowing historic structures to find new life and uses can present challenges. In Simpsonville, South Carolina the Burdette Hardware building, opened in 1899, is undergoing an exciting transformation. The historic property has become Burdette Central, welcoming an eclectic mix of businesses including 1885 Taproom, a new bar with an old soul, focused on respecting the building’s history while making some new.
Renovation and historic preservation plans called for the reuse of the original wood plank flooring throughout the historic property. While full of character and years, the wood flooring was not ideal for certain areas within 1885 Taproom, such as the kitchen and behind-the-bar spaces. Some additional planning and an innovative subfloor system were needed – enter Bonitz, William M. Bird, and Schönox.
“William M. Bird, our flooring distributor working with us on the project, had provided training on a subfloor system from Schönox which allowed an existing floor to stay in place and a new, strong subfloor to be added above it,” explained Chad Fuller, Project Manager with Bonitz. “The 1885 Taproom project was the perfect place to use the Schönox system.”
The flooring planks throughout the building were removed, planed, and reinstalled, providing a beautiful floor covering but not one acceptable for food preparation and wet areas behind the bar. Protect-All ® flooring would be used in those spaces and the Schönox subfloor system between the Protect-All® flooring and the wood planks, meeting both renovation and preservation goals.
“We worked closely with Chad Fuller and the Bonitz team on the project plan, taking care to preserve the wood planks while meeting the performance needs for the project as well,” explained Markus Boppre, Technical Sales Representative with Schönox HPS North America. “The resulting Schönox subfloor has an outstanding compressive strength of 3800 psi after just one day and 6,300 psi at 28 days, while meeting all project requirements.”
Work on the subfloor system began with the spreading of 10 mil poly sheeting over the reinstalled wood plank flooring in the kitchen and bar-back areas. The poly sheeting was loose-laid over the surface. The seams of the sheeting were taped to prevent any liquid subfloor materials from reaching the underlying wood floor covering.
Next, Schönox RS 50 Foam Tape was fitted around the entire active project space, accomplishing several objectives. The tape has a foam surface along its top half and adhesive only along the bottom. The foam portion of RS 50 goes against the wall, making a right angle, and its adhesive-only bottom half attached to the subfloor. The foam surface decouples the self-leveling compounds that come into contact with the project site’s walls, columns and pipe penetrations. The decoupling prevents the sound from foot traffic transmitting up the walls, amplifying those sounds. Schönox RS 50 Foam Tape also creates a dam around the project walls and any drains or structural elements in the floor space, containing the self-leveling compounds to be used and thereby minimizing clean-up of the adjacent surfaces.
Schönox Renotex® 3D, multi-dimensional glass fiber reinforcement fabric, was measured, cut, and put in place across the project surface and carefully laid flat, eliminating any curls or raised areas in the material. The edges of the material are specially made to overlap. Renotex® 3D provides an outstanding reinforcement layer for the subfloor system, while decoupling the self-leveling compound to come from the surface below.
Schönox AP Rapid Plus, hybrid active-dry technology-based, self-leveling compound was then poured over the Schönox Renotex® 3D to a depth of at least 5/8” and distributed around the space using a smoothing trowel. Hybrid active-dry technology allows Schönox AP Rapid Plus to dry quickly and do so independently of the job site’s environmental conditions. The resulting smooth, strong surface was ready for foot traffic in 2 to 3 hours and floor covering in 16 hours. A commercial floor covering was installed, completing the renovation project with a fully decoupled floor covering and subfloor from the historic wood planks below.
“The Schönox Renotex® 3D subfloor system is unlike any other I have seen, making it ideal for the many revitalization, historic preservation efforts, and renovation projects we are seeing now with even greater regularity,” commented Fuller. 1885 Taproom opens soon in Simpsonville, SC.
