What Can Cause Epoxy Flooring Failures
Epoxy coatings are beautiful and unique products that have the ability to create seamless resin floors on large surfaces and spaces. In addition to their desirable properties, it has been seen many times that epoxy flooring failures are seen due to various factors after implementation.
And when the work is done, the surface has a problem and they do not have their beauty as seen in catalogs and prototypes.
Poor Work Surface Preparation Is The First Cause Of Epoxy Flooring Failures
The most important cause of epoxy flooring failures that is emphasized is poor surface preparation and inadequate substructure for applying epoxy layer on it. Always make sure the work surface is ready for application before applying epoxy flooring.
The weakness and weakness of concrete must be completely repaired and corrected. In other words, the work surface must be clean and in good condition, and this includes items
- Cleaning the surface
- Drying the surface
- Remove dust and any contamination from the surface
- Shot blast (if required).
Moisture is the Most Important Cause of Epoxy Flooring Failures
The most important drawback of moisture is that epoxy flooring products (solvent-based) do not adhere properly to the substrate. Therefore, to implement epoxy flooring, you should pay attention to the following:
- Your surface should be completely dry and no moisture should be seen on the work.
- There should be no leaks from pipes or water droplets around your work surface.
- There should be no moisture on the concrete surface due to surface respiration.
The poor substrate is the most common cause of Epoxy Flooring Failures
This happens when epoxy flooring is much stronger than the substrate.
For example, when the bed of cement or concrete is of poor quality, in fact, epoxy flooring does not break down, and the breakdown of the work is due to the destruction and breakdown of cement and concrete below, which also causes damage to the epoxy floor, and what happens is that Epoxy does not separate from the bottom cement layer, but the cement layers separate from each other and damage occurs.
Do Not Use The Primer (Or Choose The Wrong Primer)
Be sure to always choose the right primer for your work surface. The primer can act as a layer and seal the surface by creating a layer, as well as penetrating very small pores in the surface. The most important task of the primer is that it should be an intermediate layer between the underlying concrete and the epoxy surface and should provide excellent adhesion to the concrete and the underlying cement surface.
In some cases, there is a hypothesis that industrial and heavy epoxy flooring adheres well to the surface of the substrate and does not require a primer layer, which is wrong, and as mentioned, you must use a suitable surface primer.
Incompatible Surface
Before applying epoxy flooring, check the bed surface material and check whether the bed surface is compatible with epoxy flooring in terms of adhesion and tensile strength or not?
For example, never apply epoxy flooring on a wooden surface, because wood is much more flexible than epoxy, so your epoxy will crack easily. As mentioned in The Difference Between Epoxy and Polyurethane Coatings, epoxy has very low flexibility and can not follow the cracks and crevices of wood flooring and cracks. Rubber floors such as PVC and flexible floors are generally not suitable for epoxy. Surfaces such as concrete, which have very low flexibility (similar to epoxy), are a good substrate for this type of flooring.
Surface Contamination
This is a common problem and occurs for obsolete old floors. For example, food and beverage factories, car service shops, workshops, who plan to apply epoxy flooring on old surfaces that are contaminated (such as oils, chemicals, greases, contaminants, etc.) after many years. In this case, it is very important to thoroughly clean your floor and remove contaminants. Otherwise, do not expect good adhesion from the applied epoxy flooring!
Wrong Mixing of Two Components, Resin and Hardener
In some cases, it has been seen that the epoxy flooring is not properly processed and after a few days of completion, the epoxy flooring is still soft or sticky. In most cases, the two components of the epoxy resin and hardener are in separate containers and are transported to work.
The first thing that comes to mind is to open the lid of the two containers and mix them evenly, which is a complete mistake. It is very important that the two components are mixed according to the instructions specified by the manufacturer (which in many cases are inserted on the containers) and in the specified proportions.
Mixing should also be done properly and preferably by electric mixers. Also, the mixing time by the electric mixer is important, which must be observed in order to mix properly so that your mixture looks completely uniform and homogeneous.