Resin flooring

Resin flooring produces a hard-wearing 'plastic' surface. Its highly durable finish means that it is a popular design choice for heavy-use environments such as pharmaceutical, chemical, storage and logistics areas, commercial and public areas.

Typically, resin floors comprise a primer which penetrates and reacts with a substrate layer (usually concrete), creating a high-strength bond. A body coat of resin is then applied on top of the primer, and this creates the bulk of the floor thickness, the decorative finish and key performance characteristics such as impact resistance. Typically, 1-3 seal coats will then be used to encapsulate the body coat and provide additional performance characteristics, such as resistance to chemicals and wear.

The main types of resin used are:

• Epoxy.
• Methyl methacrylate (MMA).
• Polyurethane (PU).

Other ingredients can be added, such as; aggregates, decorative chips/flakes, pigments, cement powder, specific chemical resistance additives and so on. This may increase the thickness of the body coat.

As well as being tougher in compression than concrete, resin flooring can have some stress flexibility, which makes it durable under impact and thermal shock. In addition to its greater compressive strength, resin can dissipate loading and increase the base concrete’s weight-bearing limit.

Other advantages of resin flooring include:

• Ease of maintenance.
• An impervious barrier is created enabling the flooring to be easily cleaned and meaning they don’t harbour bacteria.
• Slip-resistant versions can be created by adding graded aggregates within the base layer, creating safer environments.
• Design flexibility is possible due to a huge range of available finishes.
• There do not need to be joints in the surface layer.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Adhesives.
• Cladding.
• Composites.
• Finishes.
• How to fit carpet.
• Paints and coatings.
• Plaster.
• Quarry tile.
• Rendering.
• Terrazzo.
• Types of carpet.
• Types of flooring.