The Opryland Hotel

The Opryland Hotel contacted Sundek of Nashville to get our ideas on how they could solve a serious problem of extremely slippery tile on their relatively new indoor pool deck.  They said that they had customers slipping and falling on the pool deck and had to settle approximately fourteen lawsuits in four years since the spa was built.   We arranged a meeting and suggested SUNDEK’s Sunstamp overlay with aluminum oxide grip in the sealer surface.

 Project Design

The Opryland designers and architects spent a great deal of money and effort designing a beautiful indoor tile surface for their indoor spa.  Upon our initial meeting they were concerned that a new pattern and color would have to be approved by the many layers of Gaylord management and design teams prior to our starting the project.   They were relieved to hear that Sundek Nashville could closely duplicate the existing design and colors so that they would not have to spend many hours going through different layers of Gaylord management to get the design approved.  

Economy and craftsmanship

The first question that the Gaylord management asked was if we could meet their slip coefficient standards and do it before a certain date.  The hotel had a major convention previously scheduled and the indoor spa was to be available at that time because of commitments for the pool area.  A decision had to be made as to whether the existing tile would have to be removed.  The removal of 4000 square feet of tile that was firmly bonded to the sub straight would take a great deal of time and expense.  We determined that we could shot blast the glazed surface off the tile and go over the existing floor with two SUNDEK base coats and our Sunstamp overlay.  This process saved at least a week’s work and several thousand dollars.

Degree of difficulty of layout and installation

Before the project could be approved, Gaylord required us to create a sample on a few of the extra tiles they provided.  They wanted us to:

• Grind the tiles in order to remove the glaze
• Apply SUNDEK surfaces to the tiles just as we would on their pool deck
• Stain the Sunstamp coating as we would on the deck
• Apply the sealer with our aluminum oxide anti-slip material in several gauges in order to determine how abrasive the surface should be.

The samples were inspected, tested and approved.  A slip coefficient of .05 was the industry standard for pool decks according to the lawyers and safety experts.