Industrial businesses always need to make sure that they have hard-wearing, durable, safe and high-performance flooring. This will ensure that the flooring is able to withstand the tough nature of the work as well as provide a safe work environment for your staff, but it important to note that surface preparation is a key stage before you get started with painting.
Sanding & Planing
First, you need to prepare the floor for painting. How you do this will depend on the material; if you have concrete flooring (highly common in industrial settings), you will want to sand the floor, planing to remove excess material and removing old coatings or paint.
Shot Blasting
Shot blasting can also be used to roughen concrete surfaces, to even surfaces or to remove coatings to prepare the floor for new paint. Shot blasting involves using a heavy-duty material like snd projected at high speeds, which can blast away the top layer of a surface and it is a highly precise and efficient method.
Acid Etching
Another common way to remove the surface layer is with acid etching, which involves diluting chemicals and applying the mixture across the floor. This will result in some bubbling and the acid will eat away at the surface level, leaving behind a rougher texture. As you might expect, this can be hazardous and should always be carried out by a professional.
Scarification
Scarification is used for concrete, steel, and asphalt and involves using steel or carbide-tipped cutters to remove the top layer (up to a quarter of an inch thick) to leave behind a new, clean surface for painting.
Testing
Testing is the next stage when prepping an industrial floor for painting. Hygrometry is the measurement of humidity in the atmosphere and the risk of capillary rise so it is important to check this before you start painting while sclerometry is the evaluation of hardness and resistance of the flooring.
Painting
You will then be ready to start painting your industry flooring. It is important to choose the right type of floor paint as you will want something that is strong, durable and safe such as epoxy paint or polyurethane paint. You might also want to look into anti-slip paint, which can greatly increase health and safety in what can be an unsafe environment.
It is always important to prepare the flooring before painting in an industrial setting and hopefully this post will show you how this can be done. There are a few techniques and it will depend on the surface that you have to work with, but taking the proper steps will help to ensure that you are able to create a hard-wearing, durable and safe floor for your staff to carry out their role each day.
