However, when the time comes to renovate, hospitals that choose to refinish the surfaces instead of replacing them can make the process easier to stomach for both the staff as well as the budget. Chuck Pistor, CEO of Miracle Method, a surface restoration company, gives four reasons why a hospital should refinish surfaces in need of an upgrade instead of paying for mass-scale replacements.
1. It’s cheaper. Hospitals that need upgrades to bathrooms, shower tiles and laminate countertops could be an expensive venture. One only needs to look at house renovation prices to see how it could affect hospitals. For the average home residency, replacing a bathtub is $3,000, but plumbing, labor and installation still must be factored in. Refinishing the bathtub can cost one-sixth of the price, and most people cannot tell the different between a new tub and a refinished tub, Mr. Pistor says. Refinishing simply doesn’t require the same amount of resources, but it still provides up to 15 years of new surface life
2. It’s quicker. If an entire floor of a hospital needs renovation, it can be very difficult and time-consuming to vacate the area without a disruption of the hospital’s major operations. The hospital staff still needs access to all patients and places as well. Replacing items, especially those involved in bigger, floor-wide projects such as registration centers, could take two to three days, but refinishing projects can be completely finished within 24 hours, Mr. Pistor says. As the saying goes, time equals money.
3. It doesn’t create as big of a mess. Time is of the essence, but a major floor renovation can also create a huge construction mess, Mr. Pistor says. Hospitals are very concerned about the cleanliness of a project, especially since they don’t want to put sick patients at risk of contracting any other conditions. Refinishing surfaces reduces the construction disarray, and it additionally eliminates germs and bacteria in some jobs, such as tile grout refinishing projects.
4. It’s environmentally friendly. Without the demolition of floors, desks and bathrooms, hospitals are limiting the amount of physical waste and debris that would fill up a landfill. “It’s much more environmentally responsible to effectively recycle and restore what you already have,” Mr. Pistor says.
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