Floor Coatings for Warehouses

Forklifts are the workhorses of the warehouse. These beefy beasts can weigh three times more than the standard automobile. Along with fork trucks, the concrete floors in warehouses are exposed to an array of traffic from pallets, carts, hand trucks, and dollies. These floors tend to experience it all, usually with weather elements adding another variable. Coating your dock and warehouse floor with a durable, high-quality floor coating system, such as the Garage FX® flooring system, is essential to ensure the longevity and sustainability of your working warehouse facility.

Concrete is the standard when it comes to flooring in warehouses. Adding an industrial floor coating to concrete is an important step that should be considered. There are several factors to weigh when specifying materials for your project.

• Usage: An active loading dock and warehouse experiences varying amounts of traffic throughout the day. From inbound trucks delivering materials in the morning, to forklifts moving products, and delivery vehicles hauling away the finished goods; the amount of foot and vehicle traffic the loading dock encounters on any given day is easily underestimated. Carefully analyzing your flooring requirements based on the level of traffic it will experience is vital to determining your flooring system.

• Strength and Durability: Coating your concrete floor will come at a cost. You want to make sure the coating you select is resistant to chemicals and abrasion. Many coatings form an impenetrable barrier, resistant to dents, buckling, or cracking. Special materials are available to maintain expansion joints found in many warehouses.

• Low Maintenance: Selecting a flooring system, installed by a professional, that has low maintenance requirements is also important. Gone are the days when floors required the need to be resealed, waxed, or constantly maintained. Many industrial-grade coatings require very low maintenance. They can be mopped with pH-neutral cleaning supplies, yet they maintain their luster and strength for many years.

It’s important to make sure you evaluate the level of traffic and the necessary level of durability and strength your floor requires. Once you have those qualities decided, it’s time to choose the concrete coating you’ll use.

Epoxy and Polyaspartic Coating Systems

Epoxy and an ultra-high solids polyaspartic coating are an excellent option for many loading dock areas. The combination can withstand almost any environment, offering a high-quality, tough, and very low-maintenance floor.

This floor coating system is strong enough to endure whatever comes its way – whether it’s forklifts, truck ramps, or any heavy load. If a slip-resistant surface is needed for your flooring solution, ultra-small grit pieces of anti-slip materials can be added during the installation to create an OSHA-grade, slip-resistant floor.

Remember, unfinished and uncoated concrete floors cannot withstand the steady physical impacts and chemical exposures that are common in a working warehouse.

Installing an industrial-grade system, such as our Garage FX® flooring system, on your loading floor will provide a durable surface that will last for years to come.