Housekeeping and maintenance decision making on the Queen Mary.

As I was walking around the Main Hall on Promenade Deck I noticed the peculiar condition of the linoleum flooring there. The flooring is a Long Beach replacement of the postwar flooring that was installed in 1996. While the same pattern as was installed after WW2, it is of a thinner grade and was placed directly over the postwar flooring. (The fine craftsman who laid it wanted to remove the old floor and level the surface but the manager would not approve that effort.)

In recent years it has apparently been coated with some polyurethane finishing agent to give it a shine. It is shiny, but unfortunately, the coating has developed a distinctly dirty look. Moreover the shine highlights the uneven nature of the now multi-layered flooring.

A section where the polyurethene chipped off shows the linoleum underneath looks cleaner than the current surface.

The shiny, but dirty looking surface now highlights the uneven nature of the floor. And as we move further forward towards the center shop, someone has tried to repair the edging with a matching paint. The result is unsuccessful but it has been left like this for months.

Traditional linseed based linoleum is still widely available and still broadly used in the design and building industry. The decision making process that leaves the Main Hall of the Queen Mary in this sorry state is very unfortunate.