Sika serves new Fuddruckers restaurant with fresh ideas for kitchen flooring

Customers choose Fuddruckers restaurants for plenty of fun and great food.  Now with over 200 locations around the world, Fuddruckers offers a laidback atmosphere of a 1950’s diner combined with a rock and roll motif where guests can enjoy the “World’s Greatest Hamburgers” topped with everything from guacamole to nacho cheese. Fuddruckers is also home to the world’s largest commercially available hamburger — weighing in just shy of 30 lbs.

One of the most recent Fuddruckers to be established is in Denton, Texas.  Being new construction, owner Dal-Tex Restaurant Management, Inc. was able to specify the exact materials it required for the building to ensure the best dining experience for its patrons. Of course, hygiene and durability were important, too, so when it came to a flooring system for its new 1,425 square foot kitchen, Dal-Tex chose Sikafloor® PurCem® urethane cement, cove mortar and coating from Sika Industrial Flooring.

“I get to sleep at night knowing Sika’s PurCem product is on my kitchen floor,” explained Ernest Crawford of Dal-Tex, who noted that prior to switching over to Sika PurCem flooring in Dal-Tex kitchens in 2001, he’d had to regularly replace tiles and re-grout areas where tile floors had been installed.

“Restaurants have installed tile floors in kitchens for decades,” explains Lysa Young, marketing communications manager for Sika Industrial Flooring. “However, these floors are prone to failure due to cracked tiles and grout line joints, especially at the wall/floor interface. Water and grease penetrate the failures resulting in a pungent odor and bacteria issues. Fixing such problems can typically only be accomplished after-hours, potentially resulting in substantial labor costs.”

Purcem meets high service standards

To get the new kitchen flooring done right, flooring contractor Southwest Industrial Surfaces, Inc. of Grand Prairie, Texas, first installed Sikafloor PurCem 22N SLB urethane cement on the green concrete to provide a front line of defense against abrasions, impact, aggressive chemical degreasers, and thermal shock. Sikafloor Purcem systems have also scored the best possible ratings in standardized tests for resistance of mold and fungus growth. “These performance benefits,” notes Young, “coupled with the systems’ odorless installation and quick turnaround make Purcem a natural choice for food and beverage facilities.” The self-leveling, heavy-duty surfacer had a quartz aggregate broadcast over it to increase the surface structure and assure slip resistance.

Next, Southwest installed 350 linear feet of 4-inch PurCem 29N V to produce coved mortar floor-to-wall transitions. To provide a stronger, more durable substrate for the integral cove base, the contractor used Durock hardy board as the base substrate on the walls instead of traditional drywall.

Finally, Southwest sealed the flooring and cove with Sikafloor PurCem 31N Coating, a three-component, solvent-free matte finish coating.

On queue with Sikafloor flake system

For the restaurant’s 500-square-foot entrance and queue lines -- both subject to heavy foot traffic and daily cleaning -- Dal-Tex went with the same low-maintenance approach and opted for a decorative resinous floor system. With the availability of custom color resins and vinyl flakes, the Fuddruckers company colors and logo were incorporated into the floor system.

“The logo and decorative flake system was recommended by Sika and Southwest Industrial Surfaces, Inc., so we decided to give it a try and we love it,” commented Dal-Tex’s Crawford.
The entrance has a 9-foot Fuddruckers logo in the middle of a solid yellow flake floor. Sika’s custom color Sikafloor 261 was used as the basecoat, and then broadcast to refusal with yellow vinyl flakes. The queue line also used Sikafloor 261 custom yellow epoxy system broadcast with a multi-colored flake blend done in equal parts of Fuddruckers red, blue and yellow. Both floors were sealed with Sikafloor 2002 clear UV resistant epoxy topcoat and Sikafloor Polythane UV clear aliphatic urethane.

FACILITY:

• Fuddruckers
  Dal-Tex Restaurant Management, Inc.
  Denton, TX

• PURCEM 22N SLB
  Hygienic Polyurethane Concrete Flooring - Heavy Duty, Slip Resistant
• PURCEM 29N V
  Vertical Grade Polyurethane Concrete, for coving
• PURCEM 31N Coating
  Hygienic Polyurethane Concrete Flooring Coating
• SIKAFLOOR 261
  Hygienic Polyurethane Concrete Flooring Coating

PROJECT TEAM:

• Southwest Industrial Services, Inc.