In 2012 PSC completed a multi-phase commercial flooring project for the Mary Rose Museum, in the Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth. The bespoke museum offers visitors a deeper dive into the extraordinary story of Henry VIII’s favourite ship. The purpose-built museum was built by construction firm Warings. The construction was challenging because the museum was built over the ship in the dry dock, which is a listed monument. During construction of the museum, conservation of the hull continued inside a sealed “hotbox”.
The end client was looking for a hard wearing, flooring surface for all the customer facing areas, that would have a built-in anti-slip. The works would need to be completed in several phases to accommodate the building schedule, including working on multi levels. In order to ensure longevity and cope with the changes in temperature and humidity it was recommended a nominal 10mm heavy duty polyurethane floor screed be installed. At 10mm a heavy-duty polyurethane floor screed would offer built-in anti-slip, whilst offering a hard-wearing surface that would last for years to come.
In preparation for the works and to clean and prepare floor surface they were ground back using a diamond grinding machine. The repairs were made to any localised damaged concrete, holes and cracks using epoxy mortar compound and resin filler.
A 10mm x 10mm channel was saw cut to the perimeter of the floor area to toe in screed. Aluminium edge trim was installed to 815 linear metres. Finally, a coat of epoxy resin primer was laid to the total area.
The installation team laid a nominal 10mm heavy duty polyurethane floor screed, in the end clients chosen colourways – dark grey to 1334 sqm, and light grey to 492 sqm, mid grey to 253 sqm and quartz black to 220 sqm totalling 2299 sqm.
To lay a nominal 3mm Advanced Polymerics self-levelling epoxy screed mid grey, incorporating a fully blinded light and dark grey flake sealed with polycoat, UV stable, high gloss clear sealer to 36 sqm.
Completed on time and within budget the project was handed over to the end client. The new £35m purpose-built museum opened in May 2013, allowing visitors to see the hull through viewing windows while it underwent final drying conservation.
16 years on and over 2million visitors later the floor still looks brand new as you will see from the photographs taken in June 2026.
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