In today’s competitive business climate, controlling maintenance costs of warehouses and office buildings is essential. One expensive element of building maintenance is care of warehouse floor coatings.
If poorly selected, or entirely the wrong coating is installed in the application, the coating may be prone to failure. Even the most expensive and highly touted coating systems such as multi-component epoxies, polymers and powder coatings can and will fail under some conditions. It is critical to choose the correct warehouse floor coating.
Choose Warehouse Coatings Carefully
Specialty coatings are often installed to meet hygienic requirements for the food industry, safety standards for processing, control of electrostatic discharge, aesthetic, or other specific reasons. Epoxy and urethane systems are essential in some applications, but not all. Seek the advice of your floor coating specialists where specific requirements must be met for the food industry, “clean-electronics” manufacture, or other highly controlled environments. Advantages of specialty coatings include the meeting of specified requirements, superior performance if applied correctly, and high durability.
The main disadvantages of such systems are the high initial cost of the products and processes required for the correct application. Specialty products can be difficult to apply as a retrofit because the penetration and adherence of previous floor treatments resulting in contamination of the new floor coating. The resulting pinholes, fish-eyes and other surface defects may become apparent only after the product is cured.
These options are the best if you have to minimize your warehouse coating maintenance budget. But if your budget allows for epoxies or other similar coatings, this is a better way to go because they will last longer, look better and withstand more. Not to mention that if you pay for higher quality coatings up front the cost will pay off because cheaper coatings are really just quick fixes and often have to be redone sooner rather than later.
