Decorative concrete is going to the dogs. Or at least that’s the impression visitors are getting at Paws by the Lake, a pet boarding facility that opened recently in Avon Lake, Ohio.
Paws owner and licensed veterinarian Jim Haddad hired decorative concrete contractor BodyTek Coatings Group of Valparaiso, Ind., to finish floors indoors and out at the 30,000-square-foot building. The results have given everybody involved something to woof about.
BodyTek used a number of products from Crown Polymers LLC on the job, which included decking out two wings with Bourbon Street and Spanish villa themes.
Why decorative concrete? First and foremost, because concrete coated with polyurea and epoxy is easy to clean, a big plus at a high-end resort where guests poop on the floor. “Cleanability was a big driving force,” says BodyTek sales representative Mark Elijah. His company has installed wall and floor systems at veterinary facilities throughout the Midwest, he says, which helped it land the Paws by the Lake job.
The color scheme for the building features tans, browns and beiges, says Crown Polymers technical director Floyd Dimmick. The scheme was chosen to help Paws staff with housekeeping and maintenance. “Dirt doesn’t show as much,” he says. “Also, you can put bright colors on them and they contrast well.”
Interior floors at the resort were treated with three different overlays, Dimmick reports. About 11,000 square feet of floor area was overlayed with CrownFlake epoxy and CrownHybrid vinyl flakes. Roughly 700 square feet — the Spanish villa wing — was given a cementitious overlay with a Mediterranean stencil and Venetian pink wash, while in the Bourbon Street area, BodyTek installed a cementitious herringbone brick system. CrownPro 4 clear polyurea was used as a topcoat throughout the building.
The systems that were installed don’t absorb moisture or fatty acids, Dimmick notes, which means dog urine washes right off. What’s more, each floor overlay provides a slip-resistant surface profile that’s safe for walking.
To hide and protect concrete blocks on the back walls of the kennel, BodyTek sprayed its own TEK Crete to create a textured surface, then applied CrownCote, a two-component Sand Beige epoxy wall coating.
Outside, dogs take dips in three bone-shaped pools, each 8 feet long by 5 feet wide. The concrete pool surfaces were coated with CrownCote white epoxy and CrownCote 6, a polyaspartic wall coating that is UV-resistant. White sand was broadcast into the wet topcoat to suggest the color of bone.
The walking decks surrounding the doggie pools were topped with green CrownQuartz epoxy and pigmented aggregates to help them blend with surrounding field turf. They were then topcoated with UV-resistant CrownPro 4 clear polyurea.
As extra protection against waste matter, wash water, mold and bacteria in some parts of the building, workers turned to CrownCove, a precast polymer wall-to-floor coving system. When the CrownHybrid system was installed vertically on top of CrownCove, the results looked seamless.
The ritzy floors and walls complement the other flashy features of Paws by the Lake. The building is wired with Web cams that allow owners to communicate with pets. Other pet-pampering options at the resort include minisofas for dogs, televisions tuned to Animal Planet, and a menu from which pet owners can order “room service.”
