Industrial Epoxy Flooring

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Industrial floor coatings: what makes a floor industrial

Exposure, not square footage. A clean distribution hall with rubber-tire forklifts is a big commercial floor. A machining cell with coolant on the slab, steel-wheel carts and parts hitting the floor all shift is an industrial floor, and it needs a different build.

Before anyone talks product, write down what rolls on the floor, what gets dropped and spilled on it, whether it sees heat or a hose, and how many hours you can have the room. Those answers pick the system.

Traffic and impact

Forklifts, steel wheels and point loads

Abrasion is a wear-course job

Forklifts grind hardest at turns, dock plates and aisle ends. A clear wear course takes that wear instead of the color. EF-290 loses 0.03 g in Taber abrasion testing (CS-17) against 0.1 g for the EF-100 epoxy base, and it is aliphatic, so it does not amber at a sunny dock door. Where gloss shows every scuff, EF-301 is a satin polyurethane at 0.02 g.

Impact and point loads

Dropped tooling, rack feet and machine bases load a tiny footprint very hard, so look at compressive strength. EF-100, EF-150 and EF-155 cure to 6,200 psi. LTX-100 cures to 18,400 psi, roughly three times a standard 100% solids floor epoxy, at 10 to 32 mils per coat. Steel wheels and dragged pallets gouge a thin film, so build those floors up. Where impact comes with water and heat, urethane cement at 3/16 inch is the build for kegs, carts and dropped tooling.

Chemical exposure

Chemical resistant floor coating: acids, caustics, solvents and oils

Chemical resistance depends on the chemical, the concentration, the temperature and how long it sits. Bring us that list for every room.

Oils, hydraulic fluid, coolant and fuel

100% solids epoxy under a polyaspartic wear course handles this in machine shops and maintenance bays. The closed surface keeps oil out of the concrete.

Acids and caustics on a wash cycle

Food acids, lactic acid in a drain, hot caustic sanitation. When the floor sees both ends of the pH scale on one shift, with hot water, that is urethane cement territory.

Solvents and concentrated acids

We do not guess. Give us the chemical and the concentration and we check it against the manufacturer's resistance data, in writing, before we commit a system.

Thickness

How thick is industrial epoxy flooring?

Thickness is measured in mils, thousandths of an inch. For a 100% solids product, one gallon at one mil covers 1,604 sq ft, so coverage per kit is kit gallons times 1,604, divided by the mils you spec. Nothing evaporates: a 16 mil pour measures 16 mils when it is hard.

Specify mils per coat and check them with a wet-film gauge. Heavier trowel-applied mortars for extreme thermal shock are sourced to order.

Slab preparation

Prep at plant scale

Shot blast or grind

The Everflow epoxies call for a diamond grind to ICRI CSP-2. LTX-100 takes a grind or a shot blast to CSP 2 to 3. Urethane cement needs an enclosed shotblast to CSP 2 to 3, deeper than a grind. Shot blasting earns its place on large, flat, open floors; edges and tight rooms still get ground. A freshly blasted profile drinks resin, so add 10 to 20 percent to the material.

Cracks and joints

Static cracks get chased and filled. EF-135 is an 8,700 psi epoxy paste that runs about 1,100 linear feet per gallon on 1/8 by 1/8 inch cracks and recoats in 2 to 4 hours at 68F. Moving control joints are honored, not bridged. Coat across one and it splits in a clean line that looks like a product failure.

Slab moisture

Test before you buy. The long-standing limit for standard epoxy is 3 lb per 1,000 sq ft per 24 hours on a calcium chloride test (ASTM F1869). From 3 to 25 lb, EF-160 goes down first. Above 25 lb, or with liquid water, fix the water source before any coating. The Krete Slurry SL page states that moisture testing is not required before install. See the moisture testing guide.

Machines and dust

On a plant floor the grinder sets the schedule. Open slabs want 24 to 33 inch machines, and a remote unit like the HTG-820RC (32 inch, three phase at 240 V 60 A or 480 V 40 A) keeps the operator off the deck. HEPA extraction runs the whole time in an occupied plant. The grinder buying guide covers sizing and power.

• Floor Grinders
• Dust Collectors & Vacuums
• Dust Extractors
• Cup Wheels & Diamond Tooling
• Crack Fillers & Specialty Products
• Moisture Vapor Barrier

Downtime

Cure windows and shutdown planning

Manufacturer figures at 68F for Everflow and LTX-100, 72F for Krete. Cold slows all of them.

Foot traffic and forklift traffic are different milestones; put forks on at the foot-traffic time and you mark a floor that is not cured. Where the plant cannot close, go bay by bay. EF-150 and EF-155 apply on substrates down to 32F. Krete cannot go down below 50F and the floor stays above 40F for 24 hours. Keep full-strength caustic off new urethane cement until its chemical cure has passed.

Specifying the system

Specifying industrial epoxy floor coatings by exposure

Most plants are two buildings at once: urethane cement on the wet side and the drains, epoxy with a wear course on the dry side. That split is where the budget comes back.

Have us spec the build →

Safety and marking

Safety colors, aisle lines and traction

Zone the floor in color instead of tape that peels. EF-100 comes in six stock colors and pigment covers the rest. Aisle lines go down after the color coat and under the clear, so they are sealed in. EF-290 tests about 0.75 DCOF wet; EF-301 about 0.80.

Budget

What industrial epoxy flooring costs per square foot

We price industrial floors by the job, because the resin is rarely the big number. What moves the price per square foot:

• Prep and repair. Old coatings off, cracks chased, spalled joints and dock edges rebuilt.
• Moisture. A barrier is a full extra layer and a day of cure.
• Thickness. Urethane cement is an order of magnitude more material than a 10 to 20 mil film and lands several times higher than epoxy.
• The window. Night work and bay sequencing cost more than an open week.
• Footage. Bigger floors come in lower per square foot, because setup spreads over more area.

The contractor takeoff guide and coverage calculator size each layer, and every product's numbers are on its technical data sheet.

By facility

Industrial floors, room by room

Two ways to work with us

Supplied anywhere we ship, installed in South Florida

We install industrial floors in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, prep through line markings. Outside those three counties we work with a network of installers across the US.

For contractors, we are the supply house: free UPS Ground over $150, freight quoted on pallets and machines, pickup at our Pompano Beach counter, and trade pricing through a trade account. Failing floor already? Start at epoxy floor problems, or compare epoxy vs polyaspartic.

Talk to a coatings expert →

Straight answers

Common questions

What is industrial epoxy flooring?

A 100% solids epoxy system over mechanically prepared concrete, built for plant traffic: a primer or moisture barrier, one or more build coats, and a polyaspartic or polyurethane wear course. Where the floor sees steam, hot wash-down or constant acids and caustics, the answer is urethane cement at 1/8 to 3/16 inch instead.

How thick should an industrial epoxy floor be?

Count it layer by layer. An epoxy build coat goes down at 10 to 32 mils depending on the product, a clear polyaspartic wear course at 8 to 12 mils, and a moisture barrier at about 18 mils. Urethane cement is 1/8 to 3/16 inch, roughly 125 to 190 mils.

How much does industrial epoxy flooring cost per square foot?

We price by the job, because prep, repair, moisture, thickness and the shutdown window drive the number more than the resin. Large floors cost less per square foot than small ones, and urethane cement lands several times higher than epoxy.

Will an epoxy floor hold up to forklifts?

Yes, on a ground slab with a 100% solids build coat and a wear course. EF-290 loses 0.03 g in Taber testing against 0.1 g for the EF-100 base. Keep forklifts off until the vehicle cure time has passed, not the foot traffic time.

Epoxy or urethane cement for a manufacturing plant?

Epoxy for dry process, assembly, storage and maintenance areas at ambient temperature. Urethane cement where the floor sees steam, hot sanitation, fast temperature swings, or acids and caustics every shift. Most plants need both.

How long does the floor have to be shut down?

EF-155 recoats in 2 to 4 hours, so a full epoxy build can go down in one day, and EF-290 takes foot traffic in 3 to 6 hours. Vehicles wait about a day. Krete Slurry SL takes heavy traffic in 24 hours and reaches full chemical cure in 5 days at 72F.

Shot blasting or diamond grinding?

Everflow epoxies call for a diamond grind to ICRI CSP-2. Urethane cement needs an enclosed shotblast to CSP 2 to 3, which is deeper. Shot blasting pays on large open floors; edges and tight rooms still get ground.

Do you install industrial floors outside South Florida?

We install in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Outside those we work with a network of installers across the US, and we supply material and equipment anywhere we ship.