05 — Floor Coatings
Floor Coatings
Epoxy, polyurethane, polished concrete, car park decks and line marking. Floor coatings fail from below — we test slab moisture and prepare mechanically rather than chemically.
as the default preparation
A floor coating almost never fails at the surface. It fails at the bond line, because the slab was holding moisture, or because the laitance was never removed, or because the preparation was chemical when it needed to be mechanical. So the first thing we do is test the slab, not price the coating.
Diamond grinding is the default. Acid etching is faster and cheaper and leaves a surface that looks prepared without being prepared — we will use it only where the substrate and system genuinely suit it, and we will say so in the scope.
Set-out matters as much as the coating on a floor that carries information. Numbering, bay marking and traffic lines are dimensioned from the building grid and marked out before the first coat, not laid over the top of a finished floor by eye.
Specification
| Systems | Epoxy · polyurethane · polished concrete · anti-slip · decorative flake and quartz broadcast |
| Preparation | Diamond grinding · crack repair · moisture-barrier priming where the slab requires it |
| Testing | Concrete moisture tested before the system is specified |
| Substrates | Concrete slab on ground, suspended slab, car park deck, existing coated floors |
| Environments | Warehouse and logistics, car parks, food-grade kitchens, retail and office |
| Marking | Line marking, bay and unit numbering, traffic and safety marking, set out from the grid |
| Warranty | 10-year workmanship |
Service life depends on traffic, chemical exposure and the maintenance regime, so we specify against the actual duty rather than quoting a headline figure.
Questions
Why test the slab if it looks dry?
Because a slab can read dry at the surface and still drive enough vapour to lift a coating months later. The test is inexpensive and it decides whether a moisture-barrier primer is needed — which is a specification question, not an upsell.
How long before we can drive on it?
Foot traffic and vehicle traffic have different cure times, and both depend on the system and the ambient temperature. We give you both dates with the programme rather than one number.
Can you coat a car park deck in stages?
Yes, and on an occupied building it is usually the only way. We stage by bay group and sequence the line marking so the deck never loses more than the agreed number of spaces at once.
Is polished concrete a coating?
No — it is mechanical grinding and densifying of the slab itself, so what you get is the concrete, including its blemishes and aggregate. That is the appeal and also the risk, and it should be decided from a ground sample on the actual slab.