2014
Sydney, Australia
The Direct Factory Outlet shopping center, located in Homebush in Sydney, is a popular shopping destination for tourists and locals alike with over 80 specialty stores. DFO Homebush is open to the public 7 days, attracting tens of thousands of shoppers each week making the shopping center a busy area. Years of constant foot traffic resulted in the entire center requiring renovations.
Project Requirements
The unique project required a complete revamp of approximately 1200 m² worth of flooring within the center. Given the flooring would be located directly in premium and high end shop fronts, a durable yet very aesthetically appealing solution, that tied in with the decorative theme of the surrounding store fascias, was needed.
A key requirement for this project was that the same finish and effect that was applied to the flooring would also need to be applied to a 40 m long ramp at a slope of 1:40 leading into the center. This required special attention during the planning stages of the project. A challenge for this project was the application of the flooring while the center was still trading as well as having renovations carried out to other areas.
Sika Solutions
Firmstone Flooring Specialists, with their extensive experience were sub-contracted by Mainbrace for this project. Before construction began, a timber mock-up of the flooring was made to ensure that the finish matched the architect’s artists impression. Once this was approved, Sika and Firmstone began work on the floor.
Working in areas of 300 m², the floor was vacuum ground before being primed with Sikafloor®-160, a 2-part solvent free, epoxy primer and binder used in past flooring systems such as the MCG and Perth Arena. Once mixed, Sikafloor®-160 was put down as a self-leveller at 3 – 4 mm in thickness. Sikafloor®-160 was then mixed with the silver and grey metallic shards which would ultimately give the floor the desired metallic effect. As the epoxy flowed and the 40-minute curing process began the shards settled and created the desired metallic cloud patterns with a translucent 3D effect.
Given the renovations were taking place during the busy Christmas period, the application of the flooring solution occured during the evening after the center was closed. Despite this scheduling limitation, Firmstone were able to succesfully complete this project within the set time frame and to the exact specification set out by the architect resulting in an extremely happy customer and a one of a kind shopping center floor.
Products Used
Sikafloor®-160
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Project Participants
Owner
Direct Factory Outlets Shopping Center
Architect
The Buchan Group
Contractors
Firmstone
Sika Organization
Sika Australia