Industrial finishes. Lasting impact.
Epoxy & Polyurea Floor Coatings
A warehouse floor takes thousands of forklift passes, pallet drags and chemical spills. A standard floor paint will not survive that. We install industrial coating systems specified for the traffic and the substrate.
Why ordinary floor paint fails
Warehouse concrete is a hard, porous, chemically active surface. Standard floor paint sits on top of it rather than bonding to it, wears through in the traffic lanes, and starts flaking at the edges of the worn patch — which then takes the coating further away with it.
An industrial coating system bonds or chemically locks into the substrate, carries the load across the surface rather than at a point, and can be built up to a thickness that resists forklift traffic and pallet drag.
The systems we install
| System | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Epoxy primer + epoxy topcoat | Most warehouses, factories, workshops | The default. Tough, economical, wide colour range. |
| Epoxy with anti-slip aggregate | Wet areas, ramps, kitchens, walkways | Slip resistance at the cost of a slightly harder clean |
| Polyurea | Cold rooms, food processing, heavy thermal cycling | Cures fast, handles chemical and thermal shock |
| Polyurethane / urethane | Areas needing UV stability and a harder finish | Thinner build, harder surface |
| Tinted sealer | Budget refresh where full removal is not required | Shortened life. We will say when this is and is not enough. |
The specification is driven by three things: what the forklift traffic actually is, what gets spilled on it, and how hot and wet it gets.
Preparation is the job
The coating is the cheap part. Getting the floor ready is what determines whether it lasts five years or one.
Our preparation usually involves:
- Grinding to open the pores of the concrete and remove the old coating. This removes the need for chemical stripping and produces a dust-controlled surface.
- Crack and joint repair, filled and blended so the coating can run continuous across them.
- Repair of damaged or spalled concrete before any coating goes down.
- Moisture testing — a coating applied over a wet slab will lift, and testing costs very little compared with redoing a floor.
- Dust extraction and containment so we are not coating your stock instead of your floor.
Working inside a live site
Floor work is the hardest thing to do around an operating building, so it is where planning matters most:
- Over a shutdown. One area at a time, so you still have somewhere to operate from.
- Phased by bay or aisle. Planned joins, so the floor is continuous in the end.
- Nights and weekends. Grinding, coating and curing overnight where the traffic allows.
- Heavy-duty build for high-traffic lanes, with a lighter system in the low-traffic areas so you are not paying for performance you do not need.
Questions
Epoxy & Polyurea Floor Coatings — common questions
Is epoxy or polyurea better for our floor?
Epoxy is the workhorse. It is tough, economical, and available in a wide range of colours and finishes. For most warehouses and factories it is the right answer.
Polyurea cures faster and handles thermal shock and heavy chemical exposure better, which matters in food processing, cold rooms and some manufacturing environments. It costs more per square metre.
We will recommend one based on what is actually happening on your floor, not on what we would rather sell.
How long can the site be closed?
A single-coat epoxy system over prepared concrete typically needs overnight to a day or two. Polyurea cures much faster and can be walked on sooner.
The real constraint is preparation, not curing. Grinding a large floor takes days, and that is where the programme is spent.
Can you do the floor in stages?
Yes, and we usually do. Warehouse floors can be divided by bay or by aisle so you keep using part of the building.
The join between coats has to be planned properly, so we agree bay order with you before we start.
Will the floor be slippery?
A smooth epoxy floor is considerably more slip-resistant than bare concrete, but it is not the same as a dedicated anti-slip system.
If you have a genuine slip risk — wet areas, ramps, kitchens — specify an anti-slip aggregate broadcast into the topcoat. It is slightly harder to clean, which is the trade-off.
Do you repair the concrete first?
Yes. A coating system is only as good as the substrate. We will grind, fill cracks, and repair or replace damaged sections as part of the works, and we will tell you if the floor is too damaged to coat without that work.
Related work
Other services we provide
-
Warehouse & Factory Line Marking
Aisle lines, pedestrian walkways, hazard zones and bay markings that stand up to traffic.
See how we do it -
Commercial & Industrial Repainting
Interior and exterior repaints for warehouses, factories and commercial buildings — planned in zones around your operation.
See how we do it -
Planned Maintenance Programmes
Scheduled repaint cycles across multiple sites, budgeted up front, so facilities never become reactive.
See how we do it
Built to protect. Finished to impress.
Tell us what the building is, roughly how big, and when you need it done. Written quotes within 48 hours.