LATICRETE Concrete Floor Coatings Help Make Dramatic Improvements to the Ascension Anglican School in Trinidad

LATICRETE Concrete Floor Coatings Help Make Dramatic Improvements to the Ascension Anglican School in Trinidad

June 2018

Many schools in Trinidad and Tobago suffer from lack of resources and are trying to execute their missions in less than desirable conditions. Project Care TT, a nonprofit organization in the region, founded in 2010 was founded to execute large scale design/construction projects at schools in need. They’re a coalition of volunteer construction workers, suppliers, clients and friends that have a heartfelt commitment to making a difference in the lives of the less fortunate in our society, with a focus on the YOUTH.

The project for 2018 was to make dramatic improvements to the Ascension Anglican School. This primary school lacked a cafeteria, any shaded area to assemble outside, and the upper level was an open area using blackboards as classroom dividers.

Ascension Anglican School in Trinidad

Over 1,000 volunteers in addition to 230 sponsors provided the materials, equipment and labor to:

• Paint and create beautiful murals on the exterior of the school

• Build a large awning off the side of the building for an assembly area 

• Build a cafeteria (with a playful, Caribbean themed SPARTACOTE™ concrete floor coating)

• Install many play areas

• Add air conditioning in the entire school 

• Install new windows in the upper classrooms

• Build 5 new classrooms on the upper level  

Thanks to Ryan Ali, the SPARTACOTE applicator on this project who got us involved. We were happy to donate LATICRETE products for their floor coating systems to help give this school a fun and durable polyaspartic floor in their cafeteria. We’re committed to being a sponsor for these projects for years to come!

Applying the SPARTACOTE CHIP system (chips) to the concrete floor in the cafeteria

Top coating the floor with SPARTACOTE™ FLEX PURE™ polyurea sealer/finish

Ryan Ali of Sanitation Solutions and Atiba Logan of Badello Contracting finishing the SPARTACOTE resinous flooring system

The products used on this project were: 

• SPARTACOTE™ FLEX SB™ Clear for the primer and body coats. 

• The polyaspartic coating system used was the SPARATACOTE® CHIP™ system. The chips were ¼” decorative vinyl flakes from Torginol in red, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple. 

• The top coat was SPARTACOTE™ FLEX PURE™ polyuria sealer/finish with traction additive.

Learn more about our resinous flooring system

Thanks to our customers, Ryan Ali, Managing Director of Sanitation Solutions, Trinidad and his crew for donating their time and materials and Atibal Logan from Badello Contracting helping with the installation. Special thanks to Wayne Hoerning, LATICRETE International Regional Manager for the Caribbean who also provided his expertise, time and help on the project! 

Organizers of the Project Care TT project after a long day of work.

Left to Right: Matthew Devaux, Marc Grosberg, Ryan Perkins, Joanna Rostant, Natasha Kelshall-Pantin, Anthony James and Nicholas Chandler

Monday morning, the reveal at the Ascension Anglican School

Outdoor cafeteria with SPARTACOTE polyaspartic floor coating system

Somedays You Only Get One Day to Make it Happen…

On November 27, 2017 team LATICRETE and Build Health International partnered to help transform 6,000 s.f. (557 square meters) of floors at St. Boniface Hospital in Fond des Blancs on the Southern Peninsula in Haiti. The center is critical to the community and has completed 106,000 patient visits, 3,000 surgeries, delivered 2,800 babies, and had 800 neonatal intensive care stays so far this year!

Line to get into the hospital

Not only did the surgical center need a quick return to service, they also needed a floor coating that would provide them with antimicrobial protection to help keep the floors cleaner and inhibit growth of bacteria, hold up to high impact and wear and have a low VOC; low odor installation. Our SPARTACOTE™ polyaspartic coating system was the perfect solution!

Given the schedule of the project and the quick return to service needed, we had just 1-day to complete the installation. And the team did just that setting a new record for the most square footage of SPARTACOTE installed in one day! 

SPARTACOTE System:

We coating the floors with the SPARTACOTE™ Chip™ system, used SPARTACOTE™ FLEX PURE™ as the base and then top coated the walls and showers with SPARTACOTE™ FLEX PURE CLINICAL PLUS™.

The LATICRETE team was on point with Anita Hellickson as our Mix Master mixing gallons and gallons to order. And Troy Wicks as our Master Planner always helping install and train the local staff so that they can do future installs on their own.  

Anita Hellickson, aka Mix Master

First we installed the SPARTACOTE Chip multi-coat chip (flake) broadcast concrete coating system. 

Then we top coated the SPARTACOTE Chip with SPARTACOTE FLEX PURE CLINICAL PLUS, a two-part polyaspartic aliphatic polyurea sealer/finish coating specifically formulated for hospitals, vets and pharmaceutical facilities. 

During the entire process LATICRETE team members trained the locals as we coated the floor leaving behind valuable skills.

Wow, 6,000 s.f. (557 square meters) of flooring complete!

We appreciate everyone who has helped make a difference. The surgical center will do hundreds of procedures per day helping to save lives of those living in the community.

Thanks to: Build Health International (BHI) personnel and LATICRETE Team Members: Ron Nash, Troy Wicks, and Anita Hellickson.