What’s the best time to replace high-traffic flooring at an airport?
When air travel is lighter than usual.
Thus, it was the perfect time for management at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport to reach out to our team at Hodge Floors about replacing their “airlock” flooring.
But first, you might be wondering, “what exactly is an airlock?”
This is a high-traffic area that’s meant to control air pressure in a heated/cooled building. It literally works to “lock-in” air pressure by using two sets of automatic doors that alternate as travelers enter or exit a space.
Now, let’s consider the nitty gritty details of just one traveler entering and exiting an airport. Consider for a moment, just how much grit and grime one might track into the airport from the outdoors. Now, more than ever, this debris would need to be captured in phased way.
Hodge Floors had just the solution for the phased needs of this flooring update: Milliken’s “OBEX” entrance flooring technology.
This flooring technology is unique because it segments a building’s entrances, such as GSP’s, into specific “zones.” These flooring for zones can be customized based on space, foot traffic and debris-capturing needs. Additionally, the OBEX flooring technology uses various forms and materials to maximize those space needs.
For instance, zone one is considered the outdoor zone, where a heavy scraping action would be needed to trap a traveler’s grit, heavy dirt particles and moisture including snow, salt and sand that they might bring in.
For zone two, the “airlock zone” between GSP’s automatic doors, Hodge Floors chose a different, dual-action flooring product that combines scraping and absorption to further collect debris, dirt and moisture.
Lastly for the interior zone three, this rug-like carpet removes any remaining particles that a traveler could bring in from the outdoors.
This unique combination of forms and materials through a phased approach offers not only the best long-lasting protection and performance, it also offers an aesthetically pleasing progression through an airport’s entrance space.
GSP’s finished flooring result was a shining example of what the OBEX floor technology can do for a commercial entrance. Check out this time lapse video of our Hodge Floor phased installation to see the progression.
Hodge Floors Commercial Flooring
Our Hodge Floors family values our partnerships with area businesses, and GSP’s “airlock project” was certainly one of the highlights of our year. It’s exciting to think about the many travelers that will pass through this space once travel sector fully reopens in the future.
