A Coat Of Many Colours

Talk to some people about coatings and they immediately think and sometimes say, “Oh you mean paint.” Well, sort of.  It’s true that coatings can on occasions be polyurethane based, similar chemically to gloss paint, but when a product is specifically designed for medium to fairly heavy use on a floor, that is normally where the similarity ends.

Floor coatings can be anything from clear acrylic to metalised emulsions often used on contemporary flooring such as rubber or vinyl, to provide a durable protective layer which will resist dirt and in most cases, prevent the floorcovering from premature wear and surface scratching.

Being just a few microns thick, this type of coating needs regular maintenance to prevent it breaking down due to trafficking.  This is normally achieved by high speed buffing and a maintainer which is basically liquid detergent and hydrated polymer mixed with water.  The solution is sprayed onto the floor surface and the action of the high speed machine causes the water to evaporate, leaving the ‘solids’ behind and filling in the worn areas of the acrylic coating.

Thicker more permanent variations of the above can be used on quarry or ceramic tiles to enhance the appearance if they become worn.  Classed as semi permanent, they are applied with a mop or pad and can be trafficked within an hour or so.

At the other end of the scale there are the coloured high build floor coatings, many times thicker and therefore more durable than the products described above.  These are designed for use as a finished floor in warehouses, factories, service and tyre bays in garages and even aircraft hangars.  If applied properly they are a robust, decorative, cost effective and durable floor surface which can be quickly applied.

These systems can be anything from 180 to 500 microns or 0.5 millimetre thick for a two coat system.  Depending on what you need the product to do, they are normally water or solvent based epoxy or polyurethane.  The basic difference is that the PUs are generally speaking more chemically resistant than the others and as a result are often used where spillages of noxious substances is a possibility.

As you would imagine surface preparation prior to the installation of the high build systems is vital for their successful application but more importantly for their longevity.  If the preparation is poor, the coating, being only 0.5 millimetres thick at the most, will soon break down.

Basic preparation of a subfloor to receive a floor coating should include mechanical abrasion or light enclosed shot blasting, before thorough vacuuming of the area, even on new floors.  Coatings can also be used on walls for abrasion or chemical resistance; in their vertical surface format they occasionally need adapting with a thixrotropic agent to prevent the thicker ones sliding down the wall, but this is normally done by the manufacturer.

There are many variations within the field of coatings and much more to know, Altro apart from manufacturing the worlds largest range of PVC safety flooring also manufacture epoxy and polyurethane resin systems and all the coatings you could ever need.

This article first appeared in the March 2010 edition of the CFJ.