How to Prepare Industrial Flooring For Epoxy Coating
When people think of epoxy coatings, residential garages and car showrooms come to mind. Epoxy coatings, however, are ideal for numerous applications including hospital buildings industrial settings, offices, warehouses and much more. Carrying out surface preparation before applying industrial floor coating – such as epoxy coating – is regarded as the most crucial stage of resinous flooring applications, and if this is not done correctly and to professional standards, it could result in you suffering a costly, time consuming repair procedure.
Epoxy coating
Epoxies are durable, tough and resistant to oil, grease, and most chemicals. They are also resistant to impact and extreme wear, making them ideal for locations with a lot of foot or vehicle traffic. Some epoxy coatings even provide added floor protection in environments subject to varying temperature extremes, such as commercial kitchens, refrigeration units, or deep-freeze coolers.
Epoxy coatings can also be designed with various surface textures and system build thicknesses. This provides multiple levels of slip resistance, making the environment safer and reducing the potential of slip-and-fall accidents. This is an attractive benefit for industrial businesses concerned with employee and visitor safety.
Preparation for epoxy coating
In order to ensure your floors look their best, surface preparation is carried out using a number of methods such as grinding, shot blasting or scarifying. For example, in the case of old concrete, the first job is ensuring that surfaces are structurally sound before applying the coating, and this usually mean eliminating scale, loose concrete and existing paint – this may vary depending on the material of the floor but the principle remains the same; the objective is to remove as much dirt, debris and loose material as possible.
Prior to the application of any epoxy solution, your industrial floor surface has to be inspected for signs of vapor transmission. In the case of new concrete, your floor should be dry and well cured before it is coated, unless green concrete primer is utilized, the cure needs to last for at least 28 days. All laitance, grease, oil, or other unwanted material should be removed, and steam cleaning carried out. Mechanical methods such as grinding, scarification, and vacuum blasting are employed to take away laitance and foreign material. When concrete is new, it can be prepared mechanically through grinding, scarifying, sand blasting, or vacuum shot-blasting, and it can also be acid etched. De-greasing compounds or solvents should then be used to take away grease, oil, and other foreign materials.
As the leading installer of industrial floor coatings, our experts have the necessary experience and expertise to assist with your project. For more information about our services, contact our team.