Police Department Cell Block Rescue

When Chief Corey Haines of the Madison Heights Police Department finally received the authorization from City Council to upgrade his outdated facility, he knew he had to immediately put his priority on the jail cell flooring. The Madison Heights jail cell flooring was showing seriously aging VCT tiles that over the years have been picked at and lifted, which posed a serious threat if any of the inmates ultimately shaped any pieces into a weapon. Chief Haines also knew he had to find a solution that was easy to maintain where it did not require any expensive or specialized cleaning. And just as equally important, was finding a solution that not only met the available budget but also finding a quality contractor that could install at speed and convenience to prevent any downtime.

Pandemic adds challenges

The Covid-19 pandemic also added another layer of logistic challenges to the project. Luckily, he knew a local business in town that was an expert in the epoxy industry and had a reputation for quality work since they had just wrapped up a job renovating the police department’s gun range. Chief Haines invited Simiron Inc’s team to participate in the bid process that required a turn-key solution, including all incidental costs related to removal, disposal, preparation of existing surfaces to accommodate the new floor coating and application of the new floor coating. After successfully securing the bid, Simiron’s team worked directly with Chief Haines to help come up with a solution that met or exceeded the minimum safety and health standards of jail cell flooring.

Simiron offers a permanent flooring solution to aging and potentially dangerous jail cells!

The flooring consisted of approximately 2,100 square feet of vinyl composition tile (VCT), most of which was original to the building’s 1991 construction. The scope of work consisted of removing the existing VCT tile and cove base in the 2 prisoner holding cells and 1 prisoner-booking cell, remove the existing residue adhesive, diamond grind the concrete flooring base, install a moisture-vapor primer and lastly, install a flexible & soft polyurethane coating. In lieu of the cove base, Chief Haines also desired the coating to go up the wall sides one block-height. Once the base coating was cured, the crew leveled any low spots and later came back to apply the topcoat. Chief Haines opted for the standard grey color coating which was a vast upgrade to the yellow-stained VCT tile that was in place for many years. The finished floor demonstrated solid seamless epoxy flooring that was slip-resistant, tamper-free but also soft enough for inmates to lay directly on.