Drains are an integral part of the hygiene within any facility. The function of any drain, gully or channel is to remove standing water from the floor as quickly as possible.

Good quality drains themselves rarely fail. Often the failure is on the floor and substrate around them. We’ll take a look at the main issues that arise from flooring failures and how to prevent them.

What Issues Can Arise From Resin Flooring Failure?

Drains will take a huge volume of water over their lifetime, often at varying temperatures. The drainage channels are often in the middle of the floor and subject to heavy traffic. They take on a range of wheeled traffic, such as product bins, pallet trucks or even forklifts.

This repeated mechanical and thermal loading means that the drain will move, expand and contract, multiple times a day.

Since it is usually surrounded by a solid screed and sealed by a resin floor, any movement will inevitably lead to cracking at the drain edge.

Once cracking occurs around the drain edge of the resin floor and substrate, the water can get down in between, compromising the performance and hygiene of a previously good non-slip resin floor and drain.

Bedding Of The Drain

Firstly, the water starts to “eat” away at the concrete surrounding and bedding the drain. If this water contains alkaline or acids, both often found in cleaning products, then erosion of the concrete will be much faster.

Secondly, the crack exposes the bond line between the resin floor and the concrete. Water can now find its way along this joint and the floor will start to delaminate around the drain.

Not only does this allow more process water to attack the substrate, but often a gap between the floor and drain exists.

This can cause any wheeled traffic to disrupt the drain edge, through bumps in the floor, further exacerbating the movement of the drain.

Luckily, There Is A Flooring Solution

Acrylicon’s Levelling Screed is a unique, non-porous resin system that can be used to bed in drains or as a screed to provide falls to the drain. It cures to 59N/mm.sq. within 2 hours, and can be installed at almost any depth.

This allows:

• the drain or section of a channel to be lifted out
• the damaged concrete to be removed
• the drain to be “set” back in place
• our Levelling Screed to be poured around it

We can then repair the floor around with our Acrylicon Décor System+ and 2 hours later, you’re back in use. Having a long-lasting resin flooring solution that’s easy to clean and hygienic is essential, especially around drain areas.

We have repaired drains for many customers across many foodservice industries – often overnight or at weekends with little or no shutdown required.

The drain is now encapsulated by a non-porous resin block, so any water seeping down the sides has nowhere to go.

Conclusion

By installing Acrylicon Levelling Screed and Acrylicon Décor System around the drain, the bond line is eliminated, removing the chance of delamination as the Acrylicon floor fuses to the concrete – penetrating deep into the pores of the substrate.

Let us prove to you, from years of experience and references, that drains installed or repaired with Acrylicon products last much longer than using traditional products.

Contact us to be put in touch with your local expert today and find out how we can help you.

About Acrylicon

Acrylicon, the go-to industrial flooring company, has been implemented by Unilever, Walkers, McCains, Network Rail and many more companies that understand the cost implications of shutting down.

Their fast cure, combined with the immense compressive strength saves you time, money and hassle when it comes to your industrial flooring. They can work at weekends or in business downtime to ensure minimal disruption to your daily processes.

With a life expectancy of up to 4-8 times longer than traditional resins, Acrylicon’s unique chemical composition ensures you get better value for money than from any other resin floor available.

Acrylicon’s long-lasting resin flooring is used across a variety of sectors including in food factories, commercial kitchens, warehouses, hospitals, supermarkets and car parks.

New flooring comes with a 10-year performance warranty for complete peace of mind. Every installation is carried out by trained and certified regional installers, so there are no split warranties.