One of the top ten exposition venues in the United States, the Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center covers more than 400 acres and offers more than one million square feet of contiguous, climate-controlled exhibit and meeting space. With 20,000 seats, Freedom Hall sits in the middle of this huge complex and is home to a continuous string of concerts, ice events, basketball games, trade shows, conventions and other large-scale productions.

In 2002, the four major ramps of 50-year-old Freedom Hall needed a long-term coating solution that would stand up to the heavy foot traffic, one that would last more than a few months. Local Tnemec coating consultant Mike Barnhill had just given a flooring presentation to the facility’s design engineers Louis & Henry in Louisville, Ky. Architect Keith Clements asked Barnhill to come up with a slip-resistant floor system for the hall’s ramps. There was extensive work needed to repair cracks and fractures. Over the past few years, the floor had numerous coatings applied and none had lasted more than a year. Working closely with Mike Sausman, special projects officer for the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, Barnhill wanted to demonstrate that Tnemec’s high-performance StrataShield Flooring System would provide many years of service on these hightraffic walkways.

To find the appropriate long-term flooring solution, Barnhill specified a half-inch Series 237 Power-Tread mortar system—a modified polyamine epoxy—because of its outstanding resurfacing power and dense surface properties. He followed that with a 1⁄16 inch broadcast for slip-resistance along with a coat of Series 280 Tneme-Glaze, a modified polyamine epoxy, and a coat of Series 291 CRU, an aliphatic polyester polyurethane, for extended abrasion resistance and color fastness.

“Barnhill was right,” Sausman said. “This StrataShield Flooring System is a terrific product. After an entire basketball season, the ramps with Tnemec coatings look like new. They clean up extremely well, and I believe we won’t have to worry about our ramp floors for years to come.”