A Short Guide to Commercial Floor Coatings
There are many options when it comes to commercial flooring. Learn here about the many types of commercial floor coatings and their properties.
Your flooring might not seem important, but it can make or break your business.
The wrong flooring type can wear away early and cause your customers and guests to feel unwelcome or put off. It can also cause accidents by causing slips and falls, which can cause injuries and cost you time or even your business.
Picking the right commercial floor coatings will save you money and keep you and your employees safe. In this article, we’ll give you a short guide to commercial flooring types and which type is the best for your business.
How to Choose Your Commercial Floor Coatings
There are many different types of floor coatings, each with their own properties and advantages. When it comes to choosing your commercial floor coatings, you need to think about how you will use your floor and what you need your floor to do.
For example, a commercial kitchen will need a different flooring type than an industrial laboratory or a veterinarian’s office.
This is because each different workplace has different needs from their flooring solution; kitchen floors need to be non-slip and durable, while an industrial lab needs flooring that won’t react with chemicals or is anti-microbial.
There are a few factors you need to consider before you choose your flooring type:
- Heat Resistance – Will this flooring type need to resist high heat or cold temperatures?
- Impact and Abrasions – Will this flooring type need to resist high-impact or abrasive materials?
- Travel – How many people and vehicles will travel over this flooring type? Will this floor stand up to high-traffic areas?
- Aesthetic Appearance – Does this floor need to look good to guests and customers? Who will be seeing the floor on a daily basis?
- Bacterial Resistance – Do you need the flooring type to resist the growth of bacteria? Are there chemicals present that might cause concerns?
- Moisture – Will this floor get exposed to water or spills? Will it hold up to water and spills? How much moisture is still in the concrete?
Asking these important questions will help you figure out what you need out of your flooring choice and which flooring type is right for you.
Types of Commercial Floor Coating
In this section, we’ll go over the different types of commercial floor coatings and the attributes and benefits of each type of flooring.
Polyaspartic Floor Coating
A polyaspartic is a type of polyurea coating that is a “two-part system”, meaning that a resin has to mix with a catalyst to get the solution to react and harden. This type of flooring is great for businesses who can’t afford to close for long while they apply their floor coating due to its fast curing time.
This means that a business can get their floors coated in a few hours and re-open the same day, where some other coatings can take much longer to cure.
This type of floor coating is also very durable and hard, so it is resistant to wear and high temperatures. It even resists stains from things like oils, acids, and even red wine.
There are a couple of downsides to this type of flooring. Due to the quick curing process of polyaspartics, if the entire application is not done before the product starts to dry, it can lead to bubbles, blistering, or early peeling and fading. The quick curing time also means that if your floor has a high moisture vapor emission, you cannot use this floor coating. It will not penetrate deep enough if there is extra moisture and will fail too early.
This type of flooring is best for high-traffic areas like grocery stores, entryways, and hallways.
Epoxy
Epoxy coatings are one of the most popular floor coatings on the market. It gets applied by pouring it and spreading it over concrete that has had all scratches, cracks, oils, and dirt removed.
Epoxy floor coatings are popular based on the price of applying it, its durability, and its variety.
Epoxy floor coatings are one of the cheapest floor coatings available, and with its wide range of styles and colors, its a great option for business owners who want to spruce up their space. They are also resistant to temperature changes and are able to handle high-impact collisions.
There are a couple of downsides to using this floor coating. The first is that it is difficult to prepare the floor for application; if it is not prepared in the right way, the floor coating won’t last long at all.
Another disadvantage is that epoxy coatings can be slippery when wet or oily, so they aren’t a good choice for kitchens or places where spills happen all the time.
You can fix this problem by choosing texturized epoxy coatings or have anti-slip properties. Epoxy floors are great for garages, hospitals, and places where people walk.
Methyl Methacrylate (MMA)
If you need a floor coating this is resistant to very high and low temperatures, Methyl Methacrylate is a great choice for your business. MMA has a very fast cure rate, even faster than polyaspartic coatings, coming in at 40 minutes to 1 hour.
This coating is also famous for its durability and gets used in vehicular traffic applications due to its quick curing time and high durability. This coating is also well-known for its weather and moisture resistant properties.
MMA can get applied in very hot or cold temperatures; you can even apply this coating in below zero weather.
This floor coating is a great choice if you live in a very hot or cold area, and need a floor coating that will stand up to tons of foot traffic or vehicle traffic. It’s also great for labs because it can withstand high and low temperatures while keeping its anti-microbial properties.
Get the Right Coating For Your Business
Now that you have a better understanding of commercial floor coatings, you can do more research and make the right floor coating choice for your business.
If you have any questions about commercial flooring types or which flooring type is right for your business, please visit our blog.
