Share thisWhen most of us walk into a vivarium we tend to look down. Flooring has demanded so much attention in recent years that we tend to forget about the rest of the vivarium finishes.
It’s time we examined our position with other interior finishes, as an industry, with respect to the materials we use, their effects on the industry as a whole, the problems that are commonly encountered, and where technology is leading us for tomorrow.
Depending on the ceiling height, vivarium walls represent roughly 2.0 to 2.5 times more total area for coating and maintenance than the floors, and ceilings are equal to the floor in size. Consequently, while flooring may receive the most attention, walls and ceilings represent about 77% of the total maintenance area in a vivarium. Maybe that is the reason it seems as if you are constantly painting; you are.
Walls are coated for two very basic reasons:
- to protect the substrate from the normal workday abuses
- to protect the work environment from the unsanitary conditions afforded by a raw substrate.
More recently we are noticing that people are finally aware that diversity in wall colors affects employee morale as well. The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide) addresses the level of expectation for both wall and ceiling finishes. For walls it basically says that they should be smooth, moisture resistant, nonabsorbent, impactresistant, free from cracks and unsealed penetrations, and free of pinholes. Further, the walls should not have imperfect junctions with the floors, ceilings, or other protrusions. Finally wall coatings need to withstand detergents and disinfectants as well as high pressure washing. Ceiling recommendations closely follow the same guidelines.
The Guide closely resembles today’s performance expectations. Experience has taught us that coatings must be able to withstand repeated scrubbing and wash down with chemical cleaners and disinfectants and thereby be “cleanable.” They need to withstand UV rays, impact, direct animal contact, and animal waste. They must withstand temperature swings such as when steam blasts from an autoclave or cage washer discharged onto the wall or ceiling surface when the room is otherwise at reasonable ambient temperatures. High pressure washers like those used in wash down cubicles or to clean large animal areas must not delaminate the wall surface.