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When carrying out a floor repair it’s important to go with a type of resin that’s strong, durable and long-lasting.

It’s essential to understand when a floor repair or a floor replacement is the best option for you in terms of costs, durability and how long your floor will last.

Read on to discover how to get your floor repair to meet hygiene standards, how to work out if a floor repair is cost-effective and how to repair drains with acrylic resins.

Meeting Hygiene Standards

Selecting the correct material when carrying out a resin floor repair is important to meet hygiene standards. During an audit or inspection, areas of a floor are usually identified as being traps for dirt and bacteria and need to be repaired.

Therefore, it’s important to look at the type of resin being used in the repair.

How Floor Repairs Work

Thermoset plastics only cure once, this means that each layer is stuck to the dried layer below, providing a mechanical bond between them.

When exposed to a crack or impact damage, this leaves bond lines that can delaminate.

Like a pot-hole repair in the road, these joints will eventually open; allowing for water and dirt to break through the floor.

This causes the repair to be ineffective and may require a larger patch of the floor to be repaired.

Unfortunately, so many organisations get into the process of continual repair by regularly patching and re-patching repairs. This in turn will cost time, money, and hassle.

Having joints creates an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. This must be avoided, especially in food and beverage factories.

Revolutionising Industrial Resin Floor Repairs

Acrylicon is from the Thermoplastic family of resins, meaning it can cure and un-cure. This is essential when it comes to repairs, as instead of creating layers, your floor is as one.

When repairing a floor with Acrylicon there is no risk of delamination within the Acrylicon System as there are no cold joints. This highly reduces the opportunity for bacteria to multiply, resulting in a much more hygienic industrial floor.

The unique chemical construction helps companies save time, money and stress whilst delivering an industrial floor that meets their unique requirements.

How Long Do Different Types Of Resins Take To Fully Cure

The time it takes to repair an industrial repair is entirely reliant on the type of resin chosen for your floor repair, because different types of resins have different cure times.

The biggest impact on the duration of an industrial floor repair is the resins curing and drying time.

This sounds simple; however, many resins have a different cure and dry time, with some taking up to 14 days to cure. Here’s the difference between dry time and cure time:

Dry Time: When it’s dry to touch and walk on

Cure Time: When it’s resistant to a chemical attack (including water)

If an un-cured resin floor is exposed to water before it’s fully cured, the curing process can become disrupted.

This also means that the compressive strength can become weaker and the floor isn’t as durable as intended.

With floor repairs, it’s often perceived that a ‘dry’ floor is a performing floor. It’s important not to get the 2 mixed up as it can cause damage to a newly laid floor or repair.

Key Characteristics Of Industrial Resins

The most commonly used resin in the UK is Polyurethane (PU) which comes from the Thermoset family of plastics. As PU is the most common let’s see how it performs against Acrylicon resin floor.

Acrylicon fully cures in 2 hours and has a compressive strength of 84-104N//mm.sq, making it the UK’s strongest resin floor.

Acrylicon resins are Thermoplastics that attain a chemical bond between each installation layer, which creates a monolithic system that won’t delaminate.

This means each new layer chemically merges to the previous layer creating a virtually indestructible bond.

When Does Resin Floor Repair Become A Replacement?

A common question we encounter is ‘is it cheaper to repair an industrial floor or replace it? Although, a floor replacement can be seen as a big investment, opting for a long-lasting resin flooring system can save you money in the long run.

This is because an Acrylicon resin floor can last well over 20 years, becoming a great money-saving investment.

This is the best option for when a floor has got to the stage where it needs constant repair and maintenance.

The Cost Of An Industrial Floor Replacement

Most companies perceive floor replacements as a big cost and end up constantly repairing old, worn-out floors to avoid a new floor. However, the money spent on constant repairs can end up being more than that of a new floor.

It’s also important to consider the cost of shutdowns and production for your company.

The initial cost of a floor replacement can seem high; so, we’ve tried to make this calculation as easy as possible for you. Start by working out what your current floor is costing you annually now:

With a 10-year warranty- a new floor can save you money. By using the above formula, if a floor costs you £40,000 when divided by the 10-year warranty, it will cost £4,000 a year.

This can offer you significant savings over an annual repair budget.

When factoring in the cost of shutdowns to production, Acrylicon reduces this significantly with overnight or weekend installation, whilst providing a fully cured floor on return so that full production can resume immediately.

Industrial Floor Drain Repairs

The purpose of any drain, gully or channel is to eliminate standing water from the floor as quickly as possible.

Decent quality drains themselves rarely fail. More often the failure is on the floor and substrate around them.

Issues That Can Arise From Resin Flooring

Drains take on huge volumes of water over their lifetime, differing in temperature. The repeated mechanical and thermal loading means the drain will move, expand, and contract, throughout the day.

Since drains are typically enclosed by a solid screed and sealed by a resin floor, any movement could lead to cracking at the drain edge.

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

Exposed water starts to “eat” away at the concrete surrounding and bedding of the drain. If this water contains alkaline or acids, common in cleaning products, then erosion of the concrete will occur faster.

Additionally, the crack reveals the bond line between the resin floor and the concrete. Water can then 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 opens up a gap between the floor and drain.

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

The 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 drops to the drain.

This solution 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
• Acrylicon levelling screed to be poured around it

Key Considerations When Undergoing Resin Floor Repairs

When it comes to industrial flooring repairs, there are things you may need to consider, such as disruptions to production and maintaining your output.

Undertaking A Floor Repair Without Affecting Production

A pause in the production line is a problem and a fear that many facilities face. These facilities usually have an area of the floor that has failed and needs to be repaired to maintain acceptable hygiene and safety standards.

To avoid disruption, Acrylicon’s fast-curing formulation can help. With opportunities to complete repairs overnight or at weekends, your non-slip floor can be ready in no time.

When To Resume Production Without Damage To A New Repair

It’s particularly important to understand when a repair is fully cured to minimise the risk of damaging a new floor repair. This means that the floor is fully cured enough to resist a chemical attack, including water.

This is a common issue and some believe that if a floor is dry and hard, it is fit to restart production. This is incorrect as the floor may not be fully cured, but Acrylicon’s resin fully cures in 2 hours so your floor can be put back into action with no ill effects.

A Hassle-Free Floor Repair

At Acrylicon we understand and appreciate that people are busy in a production environment and the last thing they might want to be spending their time on is a floor repair.

Acrylicon has an easy 6 step process to save you time and hassle while getting your resin floor repairs done.

Step 1: Book your free no-obligation floor inspection survey.

Step 2: Once your survey is completed, our local experts will create a proposal and specify the correct flooring repair solution for your unique needs.

Step 3: We then work with you to create an installation plan that fits your operation and aims to eliminate potential disruption.

Step 4: With the proposal agreed, we book the installation date and begin production with the materials in our factory

Step 5: Our own specially trained and certified teams carry out the installation.

Step 6: Once you are completely satisfied with the work, the project is signed off.

Conclusion

With Acrylicon’s fast cure time and compressive strength, you can save time, money, and hassle when it comes to your floor repair needs.

Acrylicon is an industrial flooring company that understands the costs of shutting down production lines, so are happy to work overnight or on weekends and with a fast cure time, you won’t need to worry about your production line being paused for long.

To arrange a free no-obligation floor survey from one of our local experts, get in touch.

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.