Industrial Epoxy Flooring for Manufacturers: Pros & Cons
Large-scale business settings, such as manufacturing plants and warehouses, tend to have a very large amount of flooring space. Wear from various types of machinery, spills, traffic from personnel and equipment, and other types of frequent use degrade concrete floors.
The direct costs of repairing and replacing your concrete floors have a significant impact on your company’s bottom line, but not as much as the indirect costs associated with shutting down your operation to tend to decaying floors. One solution for limiting the impact of flooring issues in your plant or warehouse is the installation of industrial epoxy flooring over your concrete slab.
An understanding of the various characteristics of epoxy flooring as well as its advantages and disadvantages can help you determine whether its installation is right for your organization.
In this blog post, we’re going to be exploring the following:
- Industrial Epoxy Flooring
- Different Types of Seamless Industrial Flooring
- Industrial Epoxy Flooring Durability
- Care and Maintenance of Industrial Epoxy Flooring
- Cost of Industrial Epoxy Flooring
- Common Applications for Industrial Epoxy Flooring
- Pros and Cons of Industrial Epoxy Flooring
Industrial Epoxy Flooring
Epoxy is a seamless surface coating used to protect concrete from degradation. They typically consist of a resin and a hardener, which are mixed together and poured over a concrete slab. The protective shell created by epoxy floor coating protects your concrete slab against stains, chemical spills, mold and mildew, and daily wear.
An advantage of this type of seamless flooring is the capacity to alter the design to suit your specific needs, such as the addition of color flakes or quartz or an unlimited number of color options. In addition to enhancing the appeal of the finish, color-coding as a means of distinguishing various traffic and work areas from others, replacing floor stickers and tape, is also among its advantages. Adding colors that contrast with the various fluids and solvents used in your operation can also help alert personnel of a spill for easier cleanup or to avoid the area because epoxy floors are slippery when wet.
Different Types of Seamless Industrial Flooring
The term “epoxy flooring” has been used generically in order to describe seamless resin flooring of various types, such as urethane flooring, acrylic (MMA), polyester, vinyl ester, and other polymers. Though these other seamless polymer floor materials look like epoxy, they are not actually epoxy, because epoxy is a specific type of material.
How do some common seamless flooring types compare?
- Epoxy Seamless Flooring: Its slight shrinkage, good adhesion to the substrate, and resistance to mechanical wear, it is often used in areas where there is significant physical stress on the floor or in aggressive environments.
- Polyurethane Seamless Flooring: Also made of two components with the addition of various modifiers, reagent oligomers, and hardeners. This type of flooring features high elasticity, resistance to vibration, loading, and temperature fluctuations.
- Polyester Seamless Flooring: Various resins and fine fraction quartz sand are typically included in this type of flooring, which offers a high rate of solidification that produces a hygienic and dust-free surface in just a few hours.
- Methyl Methacrylate Seamless Flooring (MMA): MMA a dual system polymer mixed with quartz aggregate that is well-suited for rapid installation in low-temperature environments that also benefit from chemical, slip, and water resistance.
Epoxy Flooring Durability
Not only does epoxy flooring produce an aesthetically pleasing finish, but it provides high-impact resistance. Chemical and stain as well as liquid, dirt, and dust resistance, which are often an issue with seamed floors and floors that include grout, are durability advantages of epoxy flooring as well. However, cracking or chipping can be a problem, as can scratching from built-up grit on the surface.
You can expect epoxy flooring to last two to three years in very high traffic areas where there are a lot of vehicles, machinery, and foot traffic. However, when properly maintained, you can expect it to last 10, 20, or more years in lower-traffic areas. Worn areas are easy to patch, requiring little downtime due to quick application and rapid curing.
Care and Maintenance of Industrial Epoxy Flooring
In general, epoxy floor coatings are easier to maintain than most other flooring types. Although highly resistant to chemicals, stains, scratches, and cracks, it is critical to keep the surface free of dirt and debris. Spot cleaning is enough to keep your floors in top shape for several weeks, but deep cleaning, especially in areas that are heavily stained or soiled, is necessary three or four times per year.
Spot cleaning typically involves vacuuming or sweeping up debris, or mopping spills and stains with warm water. The use of harsh chemicals or hard brushes is neither necessary nor helpful when it comes to increasing the longevity of your epoxy floor coating. Dipping a hard foam mop in diluted ammonia is usually sufficient to remove stubborn stains.
Deep cleaning typically includes sweeping or vacuuming to remove surface debris and dealing with stained areas individually. Mopping the entire surface with a medium bristle brush or hard foam mop and diluted ammonia is all that’s necessary to deep clean your floors. Power washing, or pressure washing, is not recommended.
Cost of Industrial Epoxy Flooring
Overall, epoxy floor coating is more cost-effective for small, medium, or large commercial manufacturing, industrial and warehouse spaces.
Prices for epoxy flooring can vary depending on a variety of factors such as size, number of mobilizations, product and color selected, and the condition and material of the existing floor. If you’d like to learn more about what your specific product would cost – contact us today for a free quote.
Keep in mind that cost-effectiveness includes installation, material costs, downtime, and maintenance, as well as the dimensions of the area to be covered, which are all cost considerations associated with installation.
Most Common Applications for Epoxy Floor Coating
High traffic areas, chemical and stain resistance, and locations that require high-performance industrial floor coating should consider industry epoxy floor coating, including:
Pros and Cons of Industrial Epoxy Flooring
When considering installation, longevity, durability, and cost-effectiveness, epoxy flooring enjoys several advantages over other types of flooring, such as:
- Absence of joints, seams or ridges
- Resistance to impact and abrasion
- Stronger than the natural concrete surface
- Eco-friendly, renewable, recyclable
- Smoother, flatter surface
- Excellent stain, acid, chemical resistance
- Non-porous
- Well-suited for small and large installations
- Highly Tensile and Flexural
- Easy to clean, maintain and repair
- Gloss, semi-gloss and matte finishes available
- Capacity to color-code or apply various colors and finishes
- Good at inhibiting static electricity
- 300 percent higher light reflection reduces your need for additional lighting
In spite of the advantages of epoxy flooring, it does have some drawbacks which might not accommodate your specific application, including:
- Low wear durability in high traffic areas
- Slippery surface
- Application prep work and application can be extensive
- Sensitivity to humidity during installation
- Does not breathe well
- Lower elasticity than polyurethane coating
- Not as resistant to vibration, loading and temperature fluctuations as polyurethane
Epoxy Can Be the Right Flooring Solution for Your Plant or Warehouse
The installation of industrial epoxy flooring makes sense in commercial, industrial, and warehousing applications where high-impact, chemical, and stain resistance, as well as low installation and maintenance costs, are required. Its protective properties help avoid the repair, replacement, and downtime costs associated with maintaining the concrete floors of your plant.
Contact us for more information if industrial epoxy flooring is the right flooring solution for your commercial space, manufacturing plant, or warehouse.
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