Resin flooring is our most popular type of installation. From dirty, greasy warehouses to busy commercial kitchens there is a product to suit every business. Here we take you through the stages of how we install a new resin floor.
1. Preparation
All new resin flooring need some form of preparation to begin with. This can either be light rotary sanding or cleaning, through to very heavy preparation to remove and reduce floors by up to 60-70mm. As a company, we have invested in diamond grinding as it’s a means of preparation that we’ve found to be very effective. It not only prepares a floor but also smooths and refines a floor to make the resin flooring system perform and appear aesthetically much better. Preparation can take anything from a few hours to a couple of days. For example, if we’re removing latex, adhesive or vinyl the preparation stage might be the longest part of the job. Sometimes during preparation, we uncover repair work that is not visible during the initial site survey as we don’t know what is under the existing floor covering.
2. Prime Coat
Once the floors are prepared they are then primed. This can either be the first coat of high-build epoxy resin (our entry level floor) or water-based coating. However, priming might also take the form of a damp-proof membrane where a floor is open to moisture, or oil tolerant primers if a floor is susceptible to oil contamination.
3. Floor Coat
If you have chosen to have our base level entry resin flooring, the second coat is then applied known as a top coat, these are usually for warehouses or garage floors. Or, if it’s a hygiene floor for a commercial kitchen it’s an application of a polyurethane screed, or a polyurethane flow. If it is a comfort floor mainly for retail and commercial properties, it’s an application of self-levelling polyurethane that is applied.
4. Seal Coat
Some floors then require a seal coat to finish the floor (this is not the case for hygiene floors as the top coat in the previous stage is the final floor). Seal coats can either be water-based polyurethane (usually for comfort floors) or clear epoxy resin seal coats.
5. Joints
The final stage is whether joints are required in the finished floor. Joints are required to help the floor expand and contract. Also floors shrink back when they dry. If the concrete floor beneath had joints in originally, we need to reflect that on the surface as the floor will move. As concrete moves through the seasons it warms up and cools down so unless you allow for movement you will get cracking in the floor. Joints are saw cut in with a vacuum-assisted floor saw and then reinstated with a joint compound to allow for movement.
