Everyday, facility floors receive different kinds of mechanical and foot traffic, multiple loads and impact. Being subjected daily to these stresses often lead floor coating systems to fail, resulting in poor performance and lesser resistance to any further damage.
When facility floors are suffering in performance because of coatings systems failure, these floors become a liability to the facility that result in safety risks, hinder productivity, or cause costly repairs and maintenance.
To avoid floor coatings failure, facility managers used to favor the installation of heavy-duty coating systems that were tough, enduring and deliver extremely high performance. But these coatings often came in drab and utilitarian colors — beige, gray, or white. Very little emphasis was given to installing decorative floors. Function, not form, used to be the only important consideration.
Today, more and more paint manufacturers have formulated coating products that finally reconciled function with form, giving facility managers a wider choice of high-performing yet visually-appealing floor coating options.
Multi-Purpose Decorative Floor Coatings
Commercial lobbies, foyers, hallways and other visitor-frequented locations are often installed with attractive floor coatings to enhance appeal. No longer limited to commercial facilities, industrial loading docks, warehouses or production floors also use floor systems that are designed strong and resistant to all types of heavy loads.
There are now more choices in flooring, particularly epoxy-based formulations that serve two purposes — aesthetics and function. Utilitarian facilities such as hospitals, schools, airport lobbies and hangars, now have floor systems installed.
Elastomeric formulations are also used in outdoor areas like pool decks, patios and walkways, along with a protective top coating of a product such as urethane. Layering, texturing, or mosaic applications add eye-catching variations to otherwise ordinary floors.
Technical Capabilities of Decorative Floor Coatings
Nowadays, these coatings are no longer consigned to show rooms, concert halls and art galleries, nor intended merely to enhance the look of facility floors. They are designed tough as well as beautiful.
Below are some high-performance technical features floor coatings:
- Strong resistance to wind, rain and weather conditions, suitable for outdoor parks and patios. These coatings are easy to use and cure quickly in low temperatures, with unique slip resistance.
- Good adhesion and high resistance to water intrusion, abrasion and other damages, with unique sealing abilities suitable for concrete surfaces.
- Surface elasticity and anti-skid resistance ideal for athletic floors, basketball courts or sport gymnasiums.
- Chemical and mechanical resistance, ideal for industrial floors constantly exposed to toxic spills and heavy loads.
Decorative coatings not only add pleasing choices for facility floors, they are tough and enduring floor finishes.
Below are some products and the ways they are used:
- Aliphatic polyisocyanates products that do not fade even when cleansed with detergents or other chemical abrasives.
- Two-component polyurethane systems that are visually attractive and features water- and sound-proofing properties, and resistant to slips, static and extreme climate conditions.
- 100% solid epoxy floor coatings that come in multiple colors, creating refreshing perspectives to utilitarian floors.
- Mosaic tile decorative coatings with paint chips that add depth and beauty to facility floors minus the cost of tiles, with polyurethane top coats that deliver outstanding performance.
- Colored quartz coatings replacing paint chips in mosaic tiles, delivering the same toughness and endurance.
