Sanremo Casino (Italy)

Inaugurated on the 12^th of January 1905, Sanremo Casino – one of only four licensed casinos in Italy – is a Liberty-style building designed by the French architect, Eugène Ferret.

Two more rooms were added in 1928; the Privè room and the Privatissimo room. Today, ninety years on, the renowned Privata room and Dorata room have been given a new lease of life following painstaking restyling work to guarantee the players’ safety and enhance their glamour and elegance.

A completely new space has also been created: the Bistrot, which opens up onto the historic terrace of the main façade.

The prestigious rooms, which were inaugurated in May last year, feature roulette tables and traditional card tables where visitors can spend their time playing their favourite games in even more exclusive surroundings.

The renovation of the rooms was required in order to update the safety features and bring them in line with current safety standards and every effort was made to work to standards of elegance and beauty befitting the historic significance of the rooms.

Mapei also took part in the restyling by supplying products for the installation and care of wooden flooring.

ECO-SUSTAINABLE INSTALLATION AND FINISHING OF THE WOODEN FLOORING

The flooring in the rooms inside the Casino was installed by a local company, Cordone Parquet, using Iroko wood.

The first step was to consolidate and waterproof the substrates by applying ECO PRIM PU 1K, a one component, solvent-free, moisture curing polyurethane primer with very low emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC).

To match the drying time of this particular primer, ULTRABOND P990 1K, a one-component, solvent-free, ready-to-use, elastic polyurethane adhesive was used.

Both products are suitable for heated floors and can be used to bond any format or type of wooden flooring on screeds made from MAPECEM, MAPECEM PRONTO, TOPCEM and TOPCEM PRONTO or on cementitious screeds and old wooden, ceramic, marble and terrazzo tile floors, etc.

The joints between the wooden planks were filled with ULTRACOAT BINDER, a solvent-free, water-based binder with no NMP and very low emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC), which is mixed with sawdust made from any type of wood, including Merbau.

Before finishing the flooring, the surfaces were treated with ULTRACOAT PREMIUM BASE, a two-component, water-based basecoat with high insulating capacity, no NMP and very low emission of VOC, ideal for the preparation of solid and pre-sanded wooden floors and floors requiring repair before applying water-based finishing cycles.

ULTRACOAT PREMIUM BASE has been developed to enhance the colour of wood without creating undesired colour variations in species rich in tannins or other extracts (oak, teak, etc.), which makes it particularly recommended, therefore, for more difficult species of wood to avoid darkening or reddening of the wood.

The floors were then finished with         ULTRACOAT HIGH TRAFFIC, a two-component, 100% polyurethane water-based varnish with low emission of VOC and high resistance to wear and abrasion. This product is also suitable for floors subjected to intense pedestrian traffic.

ULTRACOAT EL slow-evaporating mixture was chosen to keep the open time of the varnish. The use of ULTRACOAT EL is particularly recommended in hot weather or when more time is required to apply the varnish, especially when particularly difficult work has to be carried out.

The various basecoats and finishes were applied with an ULTRACOAT ROLLER T5 and an ULTRACOAT ROLLER T10, which hold and then release just the right amount of the products onto surfaces. Their special fibres make them easy to clean and, if stored correctly in an ULTRACOAT ROLLER QUICK container, the products may be used again and again.

90 years on from the opening of the Dorata Room and the Privata Room, these two jewels in the crown of the Casino in what is known as the City of Flowers have returned to their former glory, thanks also to Mapei, helping to maintain the elegance that has characterised them since 1928.