PARTNERED POST – SPARTACOTE a new Lux flooring additive – now available in North America – is tailored to the needs of indoor cannabis cultivation.
Use of this simple ultra-reflective sealant increases light efficiency and cuts energy costs with no sacrifices in yield.
How?
“LATICRETE is always looking to provide solutions to our customers, and the way we do that is unique in that we approach it from building materials which we produce,” Ben Lampi, product manager for LATICRETE, told Cannabis Culture in a recent interview.
“We have a unique coating system that uses new patent-pending technology to increase reflected light, geared specifically for grow rooms and indoor agriculture.”
SPARTACOTE High-Yield system can go over existing flooring, increasing light reflectivity and decreasing bacterial growth
The hygienic, easy-to-clean SPARTACOTE resinous floor and wall systems, which include the SPARTACOTE High-Yield System, are USDA and FDA compliant, have strong chemical resistance, are seam-free and impact resistant, and allow for a rapid return to service.
LATICRETE is a 3rd-generation, family-run business that started as a backyard venture and has grown exponentially over the last decade. They strive to maintain their homegrown values, focusing on problem solving and making systems better for their customers. They saw a need for grow room operators that they could address, and from this need created their innovative SPARTACOTE Lux additive.
SPARTACOTE Lux additive is perfect for an indoor growers specific needs
“One of the biggest expenses for a grower of cannabis or any type of interior grow operation is electricity, so our primary goal was to come up with a way of lessening how much money they are spending every month, or basically almost every day,” added Troy Wicks, product director for LATICRETE.
“We had a little bit of exposure to indoor growing through other contractors and other projects we had done before. We took that exposure and took the next step, asking ourselves how can we improve upon some of the feedback we’re already getting,” continued Wicks. “That’s where we came up with the idea for the Lux additive, which basically increases that reflectivity and supercharges that system and enables it to return the light.”
“Electricity and lightings can be up to 25% of expenses for grow operations, so by creating a system that returns the light, they are now maximizing the amount that they already spend. In a lot of cases, we’ve seen they’re able to reduce the intensity of the light, and therefore reduce their costs.”
Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) measures how many photosynthetically active photons fall on plant each second, and SPARTACOTE’s Lux additive has been able to increase PPFD by up to 56%.
“The light that a plant actually sees and needs to grow is a little bit different than the visible light you and I perceive. This actually does a great job in reflecting that as well, so not only is it reflecting visible light, but it is also reflecting the light that the plant actually needs for growing.”
Installation is made easy thanks to LATICRETE’s contractor partnerships and training programs. “What we found is there’s a growing market for companies that are building facilities for owners – companies that are now doing a service where they basically build your whole setup for you, so we are training those companies or their installers to do it,” said Wicks.
“We also have a network of installers that we work with across North America and Canada that are trained on the product, and so this additive goes into a product that they’re already using that on a daily basis.”
Tearing up existing floor or modifying structures is not necessary. According to Lampi, “We can go over quite a few different substrates. If the substructure is in good shape, we can go to the top of it most of the time. There really is not a huge expense of doing demos because you are doing a very thin coating.”
“Some coating can be very thick, and all of a sudden you have problems with doorways and walkways. This coating does not have those types of issues.”
An added concern with other types of floor coating can be offgassing, which can lead to downtime, infiltration of odour into product, and large-scale cleaning post installation. However, SPARTACOTE with Lux additive has their customers covered.
SPARTACOTE is specially designed for indoor cannabis growing
“All our coatings are low VOC. They can be sold across the US, including the strictest air quality management district in California,” stated Lampi.
“One of the unique things about our product is that we use a chemistry called polyaspartic, and it cures very quickly. We are building a sum of multiple coats – each one of those coats will go down, and then you can be walking on it within two to three hours. It allows you to return a facility that is being retrofitted back to growing very quickly, or get the next cycle of plants going very quickly.”
“For new construction this allows you to compress the timeline of how soon can you get that facility up and running, because with plants there is only so much you can speed up the growth cycle, so the sooner you can get them started in that cycle, the sooner they can start producing profits for you.”
This also means that while work is being done in one part of the facility, other parts can be in operation.
“It is a return-to-work same day product.”
Upkeep on the floors is also a huge selling point for SPARTACOTE’s High-Yield System. The floors are seamless and non-porous, so maintenance is quite simple.
“Nothing gets into the coating itself,” Lampi continued. “Simply scrubbing it periodically, mopping it, and sweeping it up is pretty much all the maintenance that is needed.”
“There is no need for any special cleaners, so a simple pH-neutral cleaner will do a great job on these floors.”
“We work with the facility to come up on a maintenance plan that works for them depending on the usage and the traffic and what is going over the floor. Bacteria is one of the biggest nemeses. The product we are selling also has an antimicrobial in it, so it really cleans very easily.”
LATICRETE takes pride in not just trying to create something “cheap,” but rather quality products that will be long lasting and help make the decision to purchase their products an easy one.
According to Wicks, LATICRETE has its SPARTACOTE Lux product in 10 grow rooms already, and the results have been incredible. “The grow rooms that we tried to hit immediately were ones that had duplicate rooms which did not have our product, because we really wanted to get that comparison testing.”
“We are turning down lights, using less electricity, which translated to less finances, and at the end of the day also using less energy.”
Maintenance of SPARTACOTE flooring is simple and requires no special chemicals
“We take a traditional coating system and take it one step further and address needs that were not being met, something specific just for them, rather than just trying to shoehorn an existing product into it.”
With the way the grow industry is expanding, and as legalization across the US state by state, LATICRETE sees nothing but accelerated growth in the future.
“It is a minimal investment that is going to return value to you for years to come,” said Lampi. “It pays back for itself the added cost, depending on your lighting system obviously, within a year or two, so it really is not a lot of investment for a great return that’s going to give you years of return and keep paying for itself.”
“Essentially you are taking something you are thinking about doing anyway, and now you are having it make money back for you.”
“It was not about being cheaper. It was about making something better long term. And that is exactly what this does.”
More information on purchasing LATICRETE’s products, including their SPARTACOTE Lux additive, can be found here.
Original Article
