Epoxy floor in the brewery???

[maxwellbrewer]

Can anyone give me a run down on the correct type of epoxy floor to use in the brewery, if any? Thank you!

[BeersmithMT]

There are many factors to consider when choosing floor coatings for brewery applications. New concrete vs old, cost, life expectancy, time you have to apply, chemical resistance, types of traffic, traction, etc. I don't mean to discourage anyone from posting, but here have been a couple of threads previously, so you might also try searching the forums for flooring, epoxy, urethane, etc.

[Alex T]

hi,

epoxy won't handle impact and stress so well, so expect some cracking, peeling, chipping, etc after not too long.

whatever the floor coating you choose, make sure you ask about chemical resistance (mention beer, 50% caustic, phos acid), mention temperature (say 60 to 80degC) and what sort of traffic it will have (forklift, dropping kegs, etc). Also ask about application and required concrete moisture. sometimes the flooring can only be applied after four weeks curing, other products after only a few days.

Sometimes when you speak to suppliers the recommended flooring will seem expensive, but in the long run a fit for purpose one is cheaper. do your homework and i'm sure you'll find the right one (and sometimes you just have to settle for a cheap substitute for the time being!)

cheers,

alex

[Ted Briggs]

Contact STONEHARD in NJ for the absolute best.

[kaiabrew]

Flooring

I would agree with Alex. Don't skimp on the flooring. You usually have only one chance to do it right. It took 3 breweries to learn this! We waited 6 weeks for the concrete to cure and had to keep it above 75 degrees in November (Maine) We have epoxy on our brewery floor. It is great but it does chip and scratch. It can be patched. We have radiant heat in the cement so it dries up fairly well. Epoxy paint doesn't cut it. Think about your budget and make sure you set aside enough to cover the flooring costs. FYI- FRP on the walls first than have the epoxy rolled up on it. We also cut 3 inch HDP plastic for trim and than applied silicon to protect the seam. Good Luck

ICS in Gorham ME is a great contractor.
Bob LeBlanc
(207) 856-5000

http://www.icscoatings.com/

[evanevan]

I'm assuming that by epoxy floor, you guys mean an epoxy slurry, like 1/4" thick, correct?

Anyone have experience with the thicker polyurethane cement slurry floors, closer to 1/2" thick application? Much more expensive, but they appear to tolerate anything, with 15-25 years life span according to the manufacturer. We're having our floor done in a few weeks, and are a little on the fence about which product to go with, this or epoxy... but my gut instinct is that the floor is a bad place to save money.

Any other opinions?

[Alex T]

hi,

in a recent project i used Ucrete (one website http://www.degussa-cc.com.au/polyflor/ucrete/index.htm ).

it was a 6mm thick (from memory) flooring with the nonslip added. it is very hard and can handle just about anything. it was more than twice as expensive as what i used the previous year on another job, but it was the better choice. added advantage is that it can be applied to "green" concrete (so after laid for only one week or so, rather than 28days).

alex

[evanevan]

Yup, thats the polyurethane variety I mentioned. Goes by a bunch of names depending on who makes it, Ucrete, Flowcrete, Flowfresh, PU Screed, Polycrete, etc. And unlike epoxy the one we're considering breathes a little (our slab is new but will have 5 weeks curing before we floor it.)

So you're (or the client is) happy with it? The other project you mentioned, was that more of an epoxy type flooring? How is it holding up after a year? Any other reasons you liked the poly better?

[Alex T]

hi,

the other project i did the year before (in the same brewery where i used to work, which was a very busy ~35,000HL) we used epoxy type, and even after curing the concrete for 28days before applying, following all manufacturer's instructions, it didn't take up very well. after 6months there were heaps of cracks and a good portion needed to be patched (i planned on using the good stuff for that!). we tended to high pressure clean the floors, and this also chipped the shit out of it.

cheers,

alex

[evanevan]

That settles it, we're going with the polyurethane cement floor. I've worked on these before and they're nice, just wasn't sure if it would be overkill for us or not. Clearly not!

Thanks for the info.

[cpelz]

We've had Polycrete down on a new slab in our brewery for a little over the year and it has performed well so far.

It sure has stained where wort flows to drain and where it's been hit with chemicals. Has anyone else experienced this? The floors are solid, but they look like hell.

[evanevan]

I'm told that this is extremely color-dependent, so much so that the manufacturer mentions the color stability could be an issue with some colors. Our installer will only do yellow and grey for this reason, as it is these two that the manufacturer stands behind color wise (we're doing grey in a product called PU Screed.) I found this about polycrete:

"Polycrete ® HF is not colour stable and may discolour on ageing especially light colours. We recommend therefore darker colours such as Brown Beige, Tomato Red, Leaf Green and Stone Grey where this colour change hardly is noticeable. Product functionality will not be influenced by this."

FWIW...