AURORA, IL… In 2011, a tornado seriously damaged St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri. The city’s new hospital, which opens in March 2015, is designed to withstand powerful tornados, and TEC® products were specified to help protect its floor from more day-to-day occurrences. The TEC® total system helps the hospital prevent excessive moisture vapor emissions and withstand heavy use by doctors, hospital employees and patients. 

After it took a direct hit from the 2011 tornado, St. John’s Regional Medical Center’s nine-story building was deemed structurally compromised and later torn down. As part of the rebuilding process, construction manager McCarthy Building Companies, Mercy health system, flooring contractor Flooring Systems Inc. and tile contractor Zickel Flooring decided that the TEC® system was the best choice for the new hospital’s subfloor. Flooring Systems Inc. was familiar with TEC® products and TEC® offered a 25-year warranty for their system. 

“From a general contractors point of view, technical support is incredibly important,” says Jeremy Witts, project manager with McCarthy Building Companies. “TEC® sends support directly to the job site.” 

The TEC® technical team has been involved in the project since its foundation was laid – literally. TEC® experts first visited the hospital, located at Interstate 44 and Hearnes Boulevard, in November 2012. They met the flatwork contractor, McCarthy and Mercy to discuss the appropriate concrete surface profiles for their line of surface preparation products and adhesives, and observed the initial concrete pours. 

Moisture mitigation

Mercy Hospital Joplin was constructed with special attention to longevity and durability – from floor to ceiling. Hospitals increasingly recognize the risk to both flooring and tile posed by moisture vapor emissions from concrete slabs. Moisture problems cause more than $1 billion in flooring installation failures annually. Hospitals are higher-stakes environments than most, since a flooring failure in a hospital can cause costly temporary shutdowns. For that reason, McCarthy, Flooring Systems, Zickel Flooring and Mercy opted to mitigate 400,000 square feet of the hospital with TEC® The LiquiDAM® Penetrating Moisture Barrier, which exceeds the ASTM F3010-13 standard for moisture vapor barriers, and doesn’t require shot blasting on green, sound concrete.

“TEC® provides cost-efficient moisture mitigation. Their system saves labor hours, which minimizes costs,” says Witts. 

TEC® The LiquiDAM® allows for efficient and effective surface preparation – which was essential for this massive project. Its one-coat, fast-drying formula cures in just four to five hours– allowing installers with Flooring Systems and Zickel Flooring to quickly move onto other aspects of the installation. TEC® experts worked with the Flooring Systems and Zickel Flooring crews in Joplin as they familiarized themselves with the product.

“The LiquiDAM® requires fewer steps than other products and is much more user-friendly,” says Don Robinson, foreman with Flooring Systems. “It gives us a smooth finish, which allows for less work down the road.”  

Surface preparation

After priming the floor with TEC® Multipurpose Primer, Flooring Systems and Zickel Flooring provided a smooth foundation for the future patients of Joplin Mercy Hospital. They used TEC® Fast-Set Deep Patch for fills up to 1 1/2” in a single pour. Since this product dries to a walkable hardness in just 60 minutes, it made it easy for the various crews to move around the busy job site. 

Although self-leveling was not initially built into the installation schedule, the presence of birdbaths in the subfloor necessitated it. Sheet vinyl, like that used in Mercy Hospital, is unforgiving of imperfections, so Flooring Systems needed to make up for flooring deflections. TEC® Smooth Start™ Self-Leveling Underlayment allowed Flooring Systems to quickly correct imperfections, as it cures quickly and corrects up to 1” in a single pour, or up to 5” in a single aggregate. 

“TEC® Smooth Start™ is easy to work with and has a strength of 4,000 PSI,” says Robinson. “That strength was important for this hospital, where the subfloor will experience heavy wheel loads from hospital beds and equipment.”

Zickel Flooring opted for another TEC® self-leveler, TEC® EZ Level® Premium Self Leveling Underlayment, to prepare the substrate for large format tile. This fast-curing product is walkable in just two to four hours and accepts tile installation in six hours, which allowed Zickel to quickly install the large-format tile used at Mercy Hospital Joplin.

“We used tile as large as 12” by 24”. Because of its size, the tile has a tighter surface tolerance,” says Justin Kilmer of Zickel Flooring. “TEC® EZ Level® helped us make sure the substrate was within its tolerance.”

TEC® PerfectFinish™ allows for floor installation in just 30 to 60 minutes and was the final step in preparing the hospital’s substrate. TEC® surface preparation products laid a smooth foundation for easy installation of a variety of materials – including carpet tile, which was installed with TEC® Releasable Pressure Sensitive Adhesive. This product is durable, yet releasable, which allows for easy carpet tile replacement in the busy hospital environment.

Tile installation

Tile in the hospital was also installed with TEC® products, which help create beautiful, comforting spaces. Mercy aims to bring dignity to the patient and the beauty of tile elevates the health care experience. After waterproofing with fast-drying TEC® HydraFlex™ Waterproofing Crack Isolation Membrane, Zickel Flooring used TEC® mortars and grouts to install 24,000-square-feet of floor tile and 60,000 square feet of stone, glass and tile on walls and columns. They used TEC® AccuColor EFX® Epoxy Special Effects Grout, which provides the strength and stain and chemical resistance essential for hospitals like Mercy Hospital Joplin. 

“TEC® HydraFlex™ dries quickly. It’s a time saver, because we can apply it over 3-day-old concrete,” says Kilmer.

For more information about TEC® visit tecspecialty.com.

The TEC® brand is offered by H.B. Fuller Construction Products Inc. – a leading provider of technologically advanced construction materials and solutions to the commercial, industrial and residential construction industry. Headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, the company's recognized and trusted brands – TEC®, CHAPCO®, Grout Boost®, Foster®, ProSpec® and others – are available through an extensive network of distributors and dealers, as well as home improvement retailers. For more information, visit www.hbfuller-cp.com.

TEC®, The LiquiDAM®, Smooth Start™, EZ Level™, PerfectFinish™, HydraFlexTM and AccuColor EFX® are trademarks of H.B. Fuller Construction Products Inc.