How Long Does Epoxy Flooring Last?

Introduction

Epoxy flooring is durable by nature, and if desired can also reflect a sense of style. They’re installed in garages, commercial spaces, venues, manufacturing facilities – but how long do they actually last?

The lifespan of an epoxy floors relies heavily on factors like usage, maintenance, installation quality, and other factors that we’ll discuss in this blog. We’ll breakdown how long you can expect your floor to last as well as sharing some tips to prolong its lifespan.

How Long Do They Last?

In short the lifespan of epoxy flooring varies widely based on where, and more importantly how it is being used:

-          Residential Garages: You can expect these installations to last 10-20 years with proper care and cleaning routine.

-          Commercial Spaces: Commercial installations have a shorter lifespan of 5-10 years with proper care and cleaning. This is due to increased frequency and variety of traffic.

-          Industrial Spaces: Epoxy flooring installed in industrial spaces such as a food processing plant, or manufacturing facility has an expected lifespan of 3-7 years. This is due to much heavier traffic from pallets, forklifts, steel carts, and the floor will likely be exposed to a wider variety of chemicals as well.

Factors That Affect Floor Longevity

1.)   Surface Preparation

Proper prep work by the installers at Tri-Co Industries Inc. ensures strong adhesion. This includes cleaning and grinding the concrete, exposing an ideal surface for adhesion.

2.)   Quality Materials

It’s important to use high-quality, proven materials to us at Tri-Co Industries, Inc. We use nothing but 100% solids epoxy and UV resistant top coats for our epoxy installs.

3.)   Traffic & Usage

Heavy vehicle traffic (forklifts, steel carts, pallets), heavy edged tools being dropped, prolonged chemical exposure, lack of a cleaning routine. All of these are contributing factors to a shortening lifespan of your epoxy floors. While our coatings are resistant overtime to a lot these things, ultimately just keeping the space clean will increase the expected lifespan.

4.)   Environmental Factors

Extreme temperatures, prolonged UV exposure, moisture migration from the subgrade, thermal expansion, settling/undermining of the foundation or concrete slab. Honestly as a write this, a completely separate blog post could be written on this point alone.

Tips & Tricks

1.)   Clean Regularly

While resistant to a wide assortment of chemicals, our floors are not impervious to them. Prolonged exposure to some chemicals will “eat away” at the surface. The use of a diluted pH-neutral cleaner, warm water and a soft-bristled brush will take care of most cleaning concerns. If you really made a mess, we don’t mind cleaning it for you.

2.)   Floor Mats & Protective Feet

By simply placing floor mats at entry and exit points, the bulk of debris will be captured on them and not be continually ground into the surface of your epoxy floor. Felt sliders can be installed under heavy objects such a cabinets, appliances, etc. This protects the floor and allows you the ability to slide these objects around on the floor to rearrange, or clean (given that the selected finish is smooth).

3.)   Avoid Harsh Chemicals

Muratic acid, sulfurc acid, sodium hydroxide, ammonia, acentone, MEK, xylene, bleach, some industrial degreasers (containing solvents), glycol-based fluids. All of these will deteriorate the protective polyaspartic top-coat over time. Small spills aren’t as big of a concern as prolonged exposure.

4.)   Repair Damage Promptly

Address any damage that might have occurred promptly. These things have a tenedecy to get worse over time. Fixing it will ensure the damaged spot in question won’t worsen.

5.)   Reapply a Topcoat When Needed

A fresh polyurethane or polyaspartic topcoat every few years can help to extend the life of the floor massively. Not to mention it will enhance the floor again and give it that “pop” it had the day we installed it.

Conclusion

With proper surface prep, installation, maintenance and repairs, epoxy floors can last anywhere from 10-20 years in a residential setting, and in most commercial and industrial settings you can expect them to last 5-10 years.

If you’re looking for a long-lasting, high-quality epoxy floor installation we here at Tri-Co Industries Inc. would love to help. Contact us today for a free estimate. We’ve been proudly serving Northeast Georgia, Western North Carolina, The South Carolina Upstate, and Southeast Tennessee since 1995.