Importance of Floor Preparation
Most surfaces and substrates are developed to be hard-wearing, for example walls, frames, car bodies, roads and building floors. As such, anyone who has applied paint to a surface will know that without sanding, roughening or some other type of preparation, the paint will soon flake and peel away, leaving the area prone to the weather and/or wear.
Preparation is therefore fundamental if the aim is to achieve a durable coating.
The surface material type and use will significantly dictate the type pf preparation and paint needed. Warehouse striping and floor coatings are excellent examples of how pre-work and preparation will help achieve a long lasting finishes which will also be more cost effective in the long term. Distribution center floors are typically very smooth having been finished with the use of a Power Trowel making them akin to glass with smooth and hard surfaces. You may remember from painting your window frames last, it is easy to remove paint from glass once dry, which goes for concrete floors too.
If we take the basic example below, a piece of paper lying flat on the desk is susceptible to damage, in exactly the same way as paint is without preparation on a warehouse floor. If we push the paper, it crumples at the point of pressure, just as paint would if we scrapped or hit it with a pallet. Improve the point of adhesion and it’s a very different story.
Preparing the concrete with shot blasters, grinders, planers, and other specialist equipment ‘opens’ the floor. Opening a concrete floor is where the smooth and extra hard surface is removed, leaving a porous and roughened substrate. Being porous and roughened, it becomes ideal for the paints to ‘key’ or adhere with, forming a bond and adhesion which integrates the paint and concrete, bringing them close to being one unit.
Once bonded, the line striping or floor coating becomes a 5 to 7 year product with light traffic and 2 to 4 year product with medium usage. Without preparation, 1 year with light use would be impressive. On this basis, a project completed without preparation which costs £10,000.00 may need around 1/3 reapplying every 12 months, over 7 years the total cost with downtime costs would be around $45,000.00. The same prepared option would have been around $15,000.00 with one disruptive period.
There are drawbacks with preparation, the most difficult to overcome is gaining the building owners permission. Very often the owners will not permit alterations to the floor as it was the most expensive part of the building. In these cases consider discussions based on the length of contract term, operational safety and if it remains commercially viable to operate without reliable markings.
In short, if you are able to have preparation with your floor coating or line striping and you can afford it, you would be making the right commercial decision long term. In addition, your facility markings and flooring will remain for longer, safety markings will keep you safer, storage markings will keep you organized and coatings will keep you cleaner.
Preparation is therefore fundamental if the aim is to achieve a durable coating.
The surface material type and use will significantly dictate the type pf preparation and paint needed. Warehouse striping and floor coatings are excellent examples of how pre-work and preparation will help achieve a long lasting finishes which will also be more cost effective in the long term. Distribution center floors are typically very smooth having been finished with the use of a Power Trowel making them akin to glass with smooth and hard surfaces. You may remember from painting your window frames last, it is easy to remove paint from glass once dry, which goes for concrete floors too.
If we take the basic example below, a piece of paper lying flat on the desk is susceptible to damage, in exactly the same way as paint is without preparation on a warehouse floor. If we push the paper, it crumples at the point of pressure, just as paint would if we scrapped or hit it with a pallet. Improve the point of adhesion and it’s a very different story.
Preparing the concrete with shot blasters, grinders, planers, and other specialist equipment ‘opens’ the floor. Opening a concrete floor is where the smooth and extra hard surface is removed, leaving a porous and roughened substrate. Being porous and roughened, it becomes ideal for the paints to ‘key’ or adhere with, forming a bond and adhesion which integrates the paint and concrete, bringing them close to being one unit.
Once bonded, the line striping or floor coating becomes a 5 to 7 year product with light traffic and 2 to 4 year product with medium usage. Without preparation, 1 year with light use would be impressive. On this basis, a project completed without preparation which costs £10,000.00 may need around 1/3 reapplying every 12 months, over 7 years the total cost with downtime costs would be around $45,000.00. The same prepared option would have been around $15,000.00 with one disruptive period.
There are drawbacks with preparation, the most difficult to overcome is gaining the building owners permission. Very often the owners will not permit alterations to the floor as it was the most expensive part of the building. In these cases consider discussions based on the length of contract term, operational safety and if it remains commercially viable to operate without reliable markings.
In short, if you are able to have preparation with your floor coating or line striping and you can afford it, you would be making the right commercial decision long term. In addition, your facility markings and flooring will remain for longer, safety markings will keep you safer, storage markings will keep you organized and coatings will keep you cleaner.
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