If you run a commercial garage or service centre and are thinking of improving your working conditions to attract new clientele, you may want to improve the quality of your flooring. Until now, you may have relied on the base concrete, but understand that this can be quite difficult to keep clean and is also porous, so not ideal for this type of environment. So, what do you need to know about installing epoxy flooring, and is this something you should tackle yourself or bring in the professionals instead?
Installing Epoxy Flooring
Epoxy flooring is a great solution for a busy car workshop. It looks good and is resilient, resisting cracks, stains, chips and scratches all day. Further, it's quite easy to clean, which is an added bonus in a busy workshop.
Preparing the Area
Before installing epoxy flooring, you need to ensure that the surface is well-prepared. So, you need to remove everything that is movable and thoroughly clean the floor before letting it dry. You then need to inspect the concrete surface to look for any signs of spalling or cracking, which will need to be addressed before going any further. If there are any existing and significant oil stains, do your best to remove these with a mixture of bleach or a commercial cleaner.
Getting Things Ready
Once you've done all this preparatory work, you may want to introduce some muriatic acid, deleted with water. This will help to "roughen" the surface so that it will embrace the epoxy solution. You probably need protective clothing and safety gear so that the solution does not come into contact with bare skin.
Once you have allowed this to dry, you may be ready to apply the primer coat. Once that is dry, you can introduce a mixture of resin and hardener to your work area. You can apply this with a roller to ensure that you get even coverage, and take your time to do this carefully.
Further Steps
Once the epoxy coating is dry, you may notice some air bubbles. You can get rid of these with a buffing machine, set to a light setting before getting rid of any debris, mopping the floor and waiting for it to dry. Finally, you need to apply a second coating before letting the entire area cure for a given number of days. Refer to the manufacturer's instructions to make sure that you get this right.
Bringing in Help Instead
As you can see, there's quite a lot of work involved and an element of disruption to your everyday activities. To keep this disruption to a minimum, it's best to bring in experts to perform the job instead. They will work around your schedule where possible, and you'll be delighted with the finished outcome.
For more information on epoxy flooring, contact a company near you.
