Jason Yip, the General Manager of Kwong Man Kee (KMK) Group Ltd., took a moment out of his schedule to answer some of our questions about the art of applying a resin floor and to give us some of his top industry tips.
1. What is the stand out flooring project you’ve worked on and what made it special?
My stand out flooring project was a renovation project completed in 2015 called “Discovery Park” – a 26,000 m2 shopping arcade car park. The car park was over 30 years old and the floor condition was badly degraded with leakage found on the lower decks of the car park as well as in the shops below.
Heavy repairs were carried out using epoxy resin repair mortar and large uneven areas were overlaid with K-Screed as a levelling compound. We worked to a very tight schedule which required working simultaneously with the painting contractor in order to complete one car park level (of 4,000 m2) in just 10 days!
This was the state Discovery Park’s car park was in before KMK refurbished the floor.
This was Discovery Park’s car park after KMK gave the floor a new lease of life – what a difference it makes!
2. Are there any flooring solutions that are particularly in demand at the moment? If so, why do you think this is?
Yes, it’s essential to have a good damp-proof system applied in a car park’s lowest basement floor before over coating a flooring system. Most car park projects in Hong Kong are located in the basement and are usually several storeys deep, which means that the lowest basement floor is always saturated with moisture thanks to the high ground water-table pressure and high relative humidity in the region.
Due to the above, the residual or rising moisture from below ground is a hazard that can easily cause a resin flooring system to fail in Hong Kong. (In fact this was one of the reasons that Flowcrete Asia introduced Deckshield LBD – Ed.)
3. What is your number one tip for a successful project?
The use of the correct system applied by an experienced team.
4. What is the most common cause of floor failure that you see in the resin flooring industry? What’s the best way to avoid this issue?
I’d say three things:
- Poor workmanship (poor mixing, inexperienced workforce etc.)
- Inadequate/improper substrate preparations (little or no shot-blasting treatment, substrate too wet, etc.)
- Not using the right system, for example not using a damp-proof primer in a basement where the relative humidity is greater than 75% or not applying a UV topcoat in an exposed area.
These factors underline why it is important to select a credible applicator who has experience working on relevant flooring installation projects.
5. Complete the sentence: “The most important item in my application toolkit is….
… Substrate preparation/treatment such as a shot-blasting machine”.
Without a well-prepared substrate using such machines, even the most expensive material will not bond and perform properly.
