Tampa Waterside Hotel gets beautiful, long-lasting facelift with high-performance restoration coating
Kynar Aquatec®-based architectural coating reduces property’s restoration costs, extends facade’s service life by 25 to 30 years in extreme coastal climate conditions.
Perched on the waterfront overlooking the sparkling harbor, the Westin Tampa Waterside welcomes guests with an effortless blend of modern elegance surrounded by lush tropical landscaping on Harbour Island. This gorgeous 12-story hotel in the heart of downtown Tampa recently went through a stunning transformation, bringing patrons a revitalized look and feel for an elite getaway experience.
Located on the Gulf of Mexico’s Florida coast, the Westin Tampa Waterside is no stranger to the deleterious effects that harsh weather—rain, wind, high humidity, salt air, bright sun and soaring temperatures—can have on a building’s exterior. After the hotel sustained extensive damage from water penetration through its brick facade, the property manager—HEI Hotels & Resorts—decided to correct the problem and give the building a vibrant new aesthetic that would stand the test of time.
Desired longer service life
When it came to the selection of a coating system for the hotel’s brick facade and metal window profiles, HEI wanted a durable solution that would stand up to extreme weathering conditions longer than the typical three-to-five-year coating lifecycle in Florida. By using a coating that offers long-term color retention and fade resistance, facility managers can reduce the frequency of repainting cycles and avoid costly, time-consuming and disruptive maintenance on their building envelope.
To meet the long service-life goals, HEI selected NeverFade® Exterior Paint, which are backed by a 15-year product-and-labor manufacturer warranty for color performance from APV Engineered Coatings. The product is based on Kynar Aquatec® PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) emulsions, which are used in high-performance architectural coatings for keeping building facades looking vibrant and appealing. They are also excellent at preventing water from penetrating the surface, since PVDF is naturally hydrophobic.
Coatings formulated with the water-based Kynar Aquatec® fluoropolymer technology provide the same long-lasting durability, extreme weatherability and color-retention properties as Kynar 500® resin-based coatings, which can withstand extended exposure to temperature extremes, ultraviolet rays and other harsh climate conditions. These high-performance coatings are also easily applied to a variety of substrates, including masonry, stucco, concrete, metals, plastics and previously painted surfaces.
Restoration gets underway
Kynar Aquatec®-based NeverFade® coatings are precision-blended to match each customer’s specified colors. For the Westin Tampa Waterside, HEI selected a custom-colored Westin Tan for the hotel’s brick surfaces and a custom-colored Westin Granite for the metal window profiles. The primer for both the brick and the window profiles was also tinted to help achieve full opacity with one layer of topcoat.
Coating contractor Stuart Dean Company—a national provider of renowned restoration services—produced three-dimensional mock-ups of the structure to conduct adhesion testing and confirm that the finishes and colors met the architect’s and HEI’s expectations. The mock-ups were then presented to and approved by the community’s architectural review committee.
Prior to the application of the Kynar Aquatec®-based NeverFade® Exterior Paint with rollers and brushes, all exterior surfaces were sanded by hand and pressure cleaned to remove loose surface contamination, salt deposits and mildew. “The coating system allowed the applicator to keep a nice wet edge, which can be difficult to do in the hot, humid Florida climate, because coated areas tend to dry too quickly,” said Rex Dean, global director of facade restoration at Stuart Dean.
Minimizing guest inconvenience
During the restoration process, it was of vital importance to hotel management that the work have minimal impact on room reservations and guest activities, which included mitigating odors and noise. Typically, odors are a major concern and point of complaint during this type of renovation.
“We were pleased that the application of the NeverFade® waterborne coating system did not impact our guests’ experience with odors during the restoration period,” said Rob Willis, HEI’s senior vice president of design and construction. “In addition, the use of a water-based coating allowed us to face fewer environmental restrictions during application, such as dew point and relative humidity, thus assisting in an accelerated schedule of completion.”
An additional benefit to HEI Hotels & Resorts was that the NeverFade® Exterior Paints were able to be applied with brushes and rollers—unlike many other coating products that require a spray application. This eliminated the potential of overspray problems on the property and allowed the restoration team to avoid complaints and inconvenience for guests entering and leaving the building.
Beautiful, long-lasting restoration completed
The restoration project was completed on schedule, within budget and with zero interruptions to hotel operations. The Westin Tampa Waterside now has a fresh, lighter and brighter new look, and the design and construction team at HEI are very pleased with the new aesthetic of the exterior.
The application of the Kynar Aquatec®-based NeverFade® coatings enabled the service life of the facade to be extended by 25 to 30 years, at a much lower cost than replacing the brick facade and window profiles or repainting the exterior every three to five years, which is a typical coating lifecycle in Florida.
“In addition to the manufacturer’s strong color-performance warranty and the attractive appearance of the final coating finish, we were pleased that the hotel had no guest complaints due to either odor or noise during the restoration,” said Willis. “The use of a water-based restoration coating for the project also aligns with our company’s culture to be green-conscious and eco-friendly.”
Kynar Aquatec® and Kynar 500® are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc.
NeverFade® is a registered trademark of APV Engineered Coatings.
© Copyright 2021 Arkema Inc. All rights reserved.