No matter what type of business you are in, choosing the right type of flooring is essential. Making sure your business has appropriate flooring will enhance the safety and wellbeing of your employees and improve the look, efficiency and functionality of your work spaces.
What to consider when choosing Commercial and Industrial Flooring?
There are many different options to consider when choosing commercial or industrial flooring. You will need to take into consideration a number of different factors. The temperature of your working environment can play a major role. How much foot traffic and whether or not the floor will be used to transport goods is also a major point to consider. You need to be sure that your new floor is the right thickness and made of the right material for your needs. Commercial kitchen flooring, for instance, has very different characteristics than healthcare flooring.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our experts from Clifford Flooring have put together a few responses to common questions to help you make the right decision when it comes to choosing the new floor that will best suit your business.
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What is the budget for your new floor system?
As always in the business world, money is the first and perhaps most important consideration. Making a decision about how much you want to spend will greatly influence the type of flooring you install. Generally, the thickness and the type of floor system will dictate the price of the work. Make sure that you set enough funds aside to provide for a safe, functional and practical floor that will be adequate for the needs of your business.
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What will your floor system be exposed to?
Commercial and industrial flooring needs to be able to withstand much more than just day-to-day foot traffic. Does your business regularly deal with food or chemicals? Are there high traffic needs or forklift traffic? What temperature is the working environment? Will the floor be subjected to mechanical impact or high abrasion? These questions will help you decide the floor system that suits your needs.
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Will your floor system need to last a lifetime or just a short time?
Another aspect that you will need to keep in mind is the longevity of your flooring. Is your flooring going to be a short term investment or a long term requirement? There’s no point in investing a large amount of money into a floor that will only be temporary!
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Do I need Coving? And what type?
Coving is a method wherein the edge of your floor is moulded to the wall. The need for coving is determined by the type of environment you have and the type of wall construction. Coving is common in cool-room panels, concrete floors or brick floors.
If you find that you are unsure as to what your needs are when considering these questions, remember that Clifford Flooring is only a phone call away. From epoxy floors to polyurethane flooring to polished concrete, our team can help you find the right floor for your business. Contact us today!
Epoxy or Polyurethane? What’s the difference?
Here is a breakdown of the characteristics, curing properties, applications of each concrete protection system, to help you make better-informed decisions when choosing your next coating solution. Epoxy resins are one of the most versatile concrete coating solutions that can be used in multiple applications across a wide range of industries including concrete flooring, water, mining and wastewater industries.
Epoxy Flooring
Epoxy flooring gives you a seamless and easy-to-clean surface. It is extremely hard wearing and will last for years. Due to their glossy finish, epoxy floors also look fantastic. As epoxy flooring can be installed in different colour schemes, it makes it easier to designate separate areas in your workspace. Because of the high gloss finish, epoxy flooring provides a slick surface area that makes transporting goods or operating vehicles much easier. If you need a perfectly level floor, then once again epoxy coating is the best choice for you. Epoxy flooring is a great way to level out uneven or broken concrete floors. Better yet, epoxy floors are quick to install, very cost effective when compared to other options and are an environmentally responsible flooring option.
Because epoxy floors are resistant to chemicals, aid in quick movement and are easy to clean, they are ideal for showrooms, hospitals, vehicle workshops, and schools. However, please bear in mind that it is not recommended that you install epoxy flooring into these environments, as it will not cope with temperatures above 60oC, which is normally associated with washing down floors.
At Clifford Flooring, we use a range of epoxies with different characteristics and capabilities to suit almost every application, tailoring our products to meet the specific demands of our Australian conditions.
Applications:
- Industrial and commercial flooring
- Concrete sealant for carparks
- Secondary containment protection
- Grouting applications
- Coatings for concrete wastewater pipes and tanks
Key characteristics:
- Strong adhesion to the substrate
- High mechanical properties
- Corrosion resistance
- Resistance to chemicals
- Can have antimicrobial properties
- Abrasion resistance
- Range of colours and textures available
- Low VOC
Strength: Compressive strengths of >120Mpa
Thickness of application: 100 microns to >6mm
UV stability: Good UV stability although generally not as good as some PU and PMMA, however Hychem Glaze 3 or SF20UV have increased UV stability.
Cure time: 8 hrs at 25℃ for dry touch. 24hrs before it can be walked on.
Temperature resistance: 60℃ +.
Chemical Structure
The majority of epoxy products are based on a reaction between diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA – epoxy resin) and an amine hardener. These components react to give a film forming a crosslinked polymer.
Novolac epoxy resins for high temperatures
Novolac is another class of epoxy resin that has higher functionality than standard DGEBA resulting in a higher crosslink density.
Novolac epoxies provide an increase in chemical resistance by about 30 per cent over regular epoxies, as well as a significant increase in resistance to sulfuric acid and heat.
Choosing the curing agent
The curing agent plays a major role in determining the properties of the final cured epoxy. These properties include cure speed, gloss level, chemical resistance, strength and UV resistance.
“A hardener used in an epoxy for topcoats is likely different from that used for machinery grouting.
“An epoxy topcoat needs to produce a high quality finish where properties such as compressive strength are not as important in a thin film.
Conversely, compressive strength and other properties such as creep and heat release are very important in a machinery grout and the amine hardener plays a big part in this.
Polyurethane
Polyurethane coatings produced used by Clifford Flooring Pty Ltd are varied, consisting of water-based, solvent-based, 100 percent solids and cementitious products. Within this group of products, we have properties including excellent UV and weather resistance, abrasion resistance, high heat and chemical resistance and also flexible products used as membrane systems for both foot and vehicular traffic.
Applications:
- Antimicrobial flooring in harsh, heavy duty environments
- Chemical bunds
- Roads and bridges
- Balconies and patios
- Crack-bridging
- Carpark waterproofing
Key characteristics:
- Odourless
- Fast cure
- Trafficable
- Hygienic and safe surface finish
- Thermal shock resistant
- Chemically resistant to acetic acid, lactic acid and oleic acid from vegetable and animal fats
- High versatility in adhesion to different surfaces
- High abrasion resistance
- High resistance to corrosion
- High flexibility
- Low curing temperature capability
- Strong adhesion to the substrate
- Unlimited film build
Chemical Structure
Polyurethane coatings applied by Clifford Flooring Pty Ltd are either one-pack moisture cured or two pack systems based on a polyol and an isocyanate.
If you find that you are unsure as to what your needs are when considering these questions, remember that Clifford Flooring is only a phone call away. From epoxy floors to polyurethane flooring to decoflake flooring , our team can help you find the right floor for your business. Contact us in NSW today!
