Q&A With Émilie Aimé, Soprema Product Manager
It pays to know your options when selecting a coating for your floors. Products and technologies are continually advancing, and there advantages to choosing a coating that works best with your specific indoor environment.
“It’s not uncommon for customers to be unaware of their options, or think epoxy is the only solution,” says Émilie Aimé, Product Manager – Civil Engineering, Floor and Parking deck with Soprema Canada. “For example, while the epoxy is an aesthetic solution, it is less resilient against thermal shock, which may make it less suitable in an industrial environment than cementitious polyurethane (CPU). That’s why, as a customer, it’s important to ask some key questions concerning where the coating will be installed and what conditions the floor will be exposed to.”
In the market for coating for interior concrete floors? Consider the following questions:
Will the flooring be exposed to thermal shock?
Thermal shock is defined as a significant fluctuation in temperature over a short period. That could mean jumping from 10°C to 50°C in a manner of minutes or dropping from 23°C to -0°C. Either way, it’s important to know if your flooring will be exposed to such drastic variations since epoxy and polyurethane coating can’t resist thermal shock.
CPU, on the other hand, is more resistant and will provide you with maximum resistance. It can resist to temperatures between -84°C to 104°C (service temperature), meaning CPU can be installed in a freezer or hot cooking area without any concerns.
What are your sector requirements?
Each sector has its own requirements for flooring coating. For example, food and beverage businesses require their flooring to have low VOC (volatile organic compounds) content and high anti-slipping properties. Once again, CPU is an ideal choice for its high compression strength and its ability to absorb mechanical shocks and impacts.
Elsewhere, pharmaceutical environments may require glossy flooring. In these cases, epoxy may be a good solution. However, if there is a requirement concerning resistance to shock, CPU is the better choice.
Lastly, when it comes to institutional flooring, aesthetics is often the number one criteria. This makes epoxy the number one choice.
Learn more about flooring coating and specificities between different applications at SOPREMA Canada.
Will the flooring be exposed to chemical products?
It can be a challenge to know how each flooring product will react to each chemical product. These reactions are dependent on many factors, such as the concentration of chemical products, the quantity used, duration of the flooring’s exposure to the product, and so on. Instead, the best move is to send your coating supplier the most information you can about what chemicals will be used around the flooring and get their advice.
“Its important for a customer to tell us the chemicals that will be in contact with the system, so we can do
all appropriate testing to be sure that the suggested product will resist,” explains Émilie, adding, “Even still, it’s important to remember all coating products are resistant to a broad range of chemical products. CPU and polyaspartic are resistant to a larger range and can resist to a higher concentration for a longer duration.
Is the thickness of the flooring important?
CPU is thicker than epoxy, polyaspartic, or even polyurethane. Epoxy, polyurethane, or polyaspartic systems are about 20 mils to 50 mils of thickness, depending on the system, whereas CPU is installed at ¼’’ to 3/8’’ (250 to 375 mils) of thickness.
Do you want an aesthetic finish?
Epoxy is well known as a versatile, aesthetic coating solution. With countless colours to choose from, as well as options like decorative quartz, there are near limitless ways epoxy can be used to complement the overall design of a building or facility. By contrast, CPU is less aesthetic. It looks like more than cement, and the finish is porous and, therefore, not glassy like epoxy.
“That is why that cementitious polyurethane is installed in a more industrial environment,” adds Émilie. “With cementitious polyurethane, you also have a choice of some colours, but we rarely see other colours than red, blue, and grey.”
What is your budget?
Pricing may also guide customer choice when it comes to the floor coating. CPU is more expensive per square foot due to its many advantageous properties (heavy-duty, high abrasion resistance, etc.), but epoxy offers a high value for the relatively lower cost, as well as a good looking finish and many beneficial properties of its own.
The choice between interior flooring coating is not always cut and dry. Many factors can impact one’s decision, and there are pros and cons of each depending on the environment in question. And with both epoxy and CPU solutions on offer, Soprema Canada is well versed in matching customers with the coating that covers the best.
Émilie Aimé is SOPREMA Product Manager – Civil Engineering, Floor and Parking deck. Learn more about your floor coating options at www.soprema.ca/concrete-flooring-protection.
