Mr Funtubbles Star Flooring

Flowcrete Africa has been bringing colour and creativity to a number of Mr Funtubbles children’s play areas across the country with unique floor finishes designed to deliver bright, fun and exciting surfaces.

Mr Funtubbles provides a family-friendly atmosphere that reflects the visuals and experience of a traditional funfair. To this end, each site’s visual identity revolves around vibrant, clean, safe and colourful environments filled with rides and attractions.

It was important that this image extended to the floor underfoot with a finish that would fill each venue with light, colour and shapes to reflect Mr Funtubbles’ bright and happy image. The chosen finish would also have to be able to maintain its visual impact despite the scuffs, scrapes and stains that lots of running, playing children would inflict on the floor.

This was achieved in both Johannesburg’s The Glen Shopping Centre and in Durban’s Gateway Theatre of Shopping by installing a selection of decorative epoxy flooring solutions from Flowcrete Africa.

The large-scale Gateway Theatre of Shopping built a family-friendly space as part of a project to enhance its food court and entertainment zones. A completely new wing was added to the shopping centre so that they could upgrade the existing Mr Funtubbles by moving it into a bigger space.

The places that required flooring included the main rides and attractions area, a private party zone as well as a more understated coffee shop for the parents to relax in. 1,349 m² of Flowshield SL and Peran SL Fruity was used to create a floor with the aesthetic and functional properties required by Mr Funtubbles. These systems gave the designers the versatility to get creative and innovative with the surface underneath the customers’ feet.

1,185 m² of the hard-wearing, self-smoothing epoxy system Flowshield SL was applied around the carousel in a range of colours including Sky Blue, Mid Grey, Light Grey and Slate Grey. The main floor space was divided between blue and yellow areas with grey used to create two-toned bands around the bottom of the carousel as well as a more sedate, laid-back vibe in the adjacent coffee shop for the parents. The clear polyurethane coating Super Satin (Matt) was used to seal these parts of the floor.

Peran SL Fruity in Grapefruit played a “starring” role in the new Mr Funtubbles, with 180 m² of it used to create multiple large yellow stars embedded into the blue floor. A glitter additive was put into the stars to add an atmospheric shimmer and these parts of the finish were sealed with Peran STB Clear Sealcoat.

All of the colours and various floor areas would have to withstand a number of different challenges. Large numbers of children running around and playing may not seem like the most demanding of environments, but it can put a lot of stress and pressure into the floor. This is compounded by the potential for stains from spilled drinks and dropped food, scratches from arcade ride machines and wear from frequent cleaning.

The hard-wearing nature of Flowcrete Africa’s resin flooring systems is ideal for such scenarios, as these types of conditions won’t deteriorate the finish and thanks to its seamless and impervious nature it is very easy to clean, ensuring that the floor stays fresh and unblemished.

1,036 m² of the same flooring specification was also used at Johannesburg’s The Glen Shopping Centre to ensure that the Mr Funtubbles there would provide the same safe, fun and on-brand surface. A similar floor is also in the pipeline for a Mr Funtubbles in the Cape Town area.