Flooring

Flooring for storage areas in healthcare facilities: shelving, trolleys and seamless hygiene

Last updated: 2 November 2026

Sterilised materials, equipment, logistics, clothing: which flooring for each healthcare warehouse, how to inspect shelving and why not use an acoustic base.

The system at a glance

Solutions & Applications · Health & Care for the Elderly

No patient ever sees a hospital’s storage area — yet everything that reaches the patient passes through it. Sterile supplies, medicines, linen, beds and medical equipment are moved on trolleys round the clock. The floor is judged on three criteria: whether it can support the shelves and trolleys without sagging, whether the trolleys roll smoothly, and whether it can be cleaned without dirt becoming trapped in the joints and corners.

What storage space?

The ‘storage area’ of a healthcare facility comprises many different spaces, each with different requirements:

Space	Dominant stress	Flooring range
Sterile supplies store & chemist’s	Particle control, frequent disinfection	Homogeneous vinyl with raised edge on the wall, ISO Class 3 cleanroom
Equipment, beds and wheelchairs warehouse	Static wheel loads, continuous rolling	Homogeneous or compact heterogeneous with very low residual imprint
Central warehouse & logistics corridors	Pallet trucks, hand trolleys, box drops	Industrial interlocking tiles or solid, heterogeneous heavy-traffic tiles
Clothing & ancillary cleaning facilities	Wet mopping, wet trolleys	Vinyl flooring with raised edge on the wall and R10 slip resistance
Archives & dry storage facilities for administration	Shelving, light-duty	Linoleum or LVT, with environmental criteria

Remaining detail: the shelf that isn’t visible

A shelf laden with materials, a bed left in the same spot for weeks on end, a medicine cabinet: all exert constant pressure on the floor in the same place. The dimension that describes this is the residual imprint — how much depth remains after the load has been removed.

Flooring	Type	Permanent record	Category of use
PRIMO PREMIUM	2 mm homogeneous vinyl	0.03 mm	34 / 43
ACCZENT EXCELLENCE COMPACT+	Compact, heterogeneous · wear 0.80 mm	0.03 mm	34 / 43
iD CLASSICS Glue-Down 70	Adhesive-backed LVT · wear layer 0.70 mm	≤ 0.05 mm	34 / 43
iQ GRANIT	2 mm homogeneous vinyl	≤ 0.10 mm	34 / 43

All are well below the 0.20 mm limit. The difference is significant where loads remain at the same point for years — and where the space will be reconfigured, because a deep indentation does not ‘spring back’ and remains as a mark throughout the floor’s lifespan.

Rolling resistance: the cost borne by staff

A trolley carrying materials or a bed with a patient is pushed dozens of times per shift. The softer the floor, the more force is required to get it moving and keep it rolling — force that takes its toll on staff’s backs and shoulders.

Solid flooring in traffic areas: Homogeneous and compact heterogeneous, without a foamed acoustic base.
Sound-absorbing flooring where quiet is required: patient rooms, offices — not in the storeroom, where the sound of footsteps is not an issue.
Wheels: Linoleum xf² is specified as suitable for wheeled chairs with W-type castors. For heavy trolleys and beds, the resistance to rolling is tested on a product-by-product basis — homogeneous and compact heterogeneous products are specified as having a permanent indentation of up to 0.03 mm and being suitable for wheeled furniture.

ARGYNET Note

The most common mistake in specifying healthcare storage facilities is to replicate the flooring of the corridor or the room ‘to create a uniform look’. The room requires comfort and good acoustics; the warehouse requires zero indentation and minimal rolling resistance. A consistent look is achieved through colour and design — not by using the same product in areas with conflicting requirements.

At ARGYNET, we draw up specifications for each area of the healthcare facility and calculate materials per m².

Wax-free cleaning

A floor that requires waxing also requires stripping — a process involving chemicals, water and the area being taken out of use. Modern surface protection systems do away with this:

Protection	Collections	What it does
iQ PUR	iQ GRANIT, iQ OPTIMA	Wax-free; localised damage can be repaired by dry buffing; excellent disinfection in accordance with ISO 8690
Premium Pro	PRIMO PREMIUM	Stain and chemical resistance; excellent disinfection performance in accordance with ISO 8690
TEKTANIUM®	ACCZENT EXCELLENCE COMPACT+, iD CLASSICS	Easy to clean, excellent chemical resistance
xf²	ETRUSCO, STYLE ELLE, STYLE EMME, VENETO, LINO LOOSE-LAY	Linoleum requiring no waxing; naturally antibacterial in accordance with ISO 22196 (E. coli, MRSA)

Homogeneous vinyl flooring has colour and pattern throughout its entire thickness: a scratch from a shelf does not reveal a different substrate, and the surface can be restored without replacement. This is why they are the first choice for sterile storage areas and pharmacies, alongside the classification ISO Class 3 cleanroom.

The sanitary detail: joints and corners

Dirt does not remain on the surface of the floor; it accumulates in the joints and at the corner where the floor meets the wall. This is where the hygiene of a healthcare facility is put to the test:

Thermally bonded joints: with a 4 mm cord in the colour of the floor, for vinyl and linoleum. The joint is continuous, watertight and withstands trolley traffic and wet mopping.
Wall mounting: The floor rises up the wall at a curved angle, with no joint at the floor-to-wall junction. Homogeneous vinyl flooring is waterproof for wet areas in accordance with EN 13553 when fitted with this detail.
Skirting: Completes the wall installation — CAP 3 with base and cover for maximum hygiene, CAP 2 self-adhesive, CAP 1 economy.

Refurbishment whilst the facility remains in operation

A hospital storeroom is not cleared out for a week. Two solutions are installed without adhesive, directly onto the existing floor:

LINO LOOSE-LAY: Linoleum on a cork backing, 4.3 mm thick, non-removable, with a naturally antibacterial xf² surface — for dry storage areas and archives.
TILT HIT: Industrial interlocking tiles with a 2.70 mm wear layer — for central warehouses and logistics aisles, with yellow and blue marking tiles for zones and aisles.

Design series

Use of space: sterile materials, medicines, equipment, clothing or logistics — determines the floor category.
Loads: Shelves, bunk beds, fridges, pallet trucks — are checked against the as-built drawings.
Wheel circulation: type of wheels and frequency, for a solid floor without an acoustic underlay.
Cleaning protocol: Disinfectants and frequency — wax-free surface protection.
Health and safety detail: heat-sealed joints, wall upstand, skirting cap.
Reaction to fire & slip resistance: Bfl-s1 where required, R10 in wet ancillary areas.
Project window: New build or refurbishment without interrupting operations.