The system that removes the shutdown. Polyaspartic takes foot traffic in roughly two hours and cures fully inside a day, and it will install down to minus five degrees — cold enough for the cold rooms most operators actually run. It is UV stable, so it holds its colour where a conventional epoxy would amber. This page covers the chemistry; the downtime argument has a page of its own.
| System | Polyaspartic Resin Flooring |
|---|---|
| Classification | A chemistry, not a FeRFA type |
| Duty | Medium duty |
| Typical thickness | 300 to 500 microns; to 1 mm with flake |
| Cost indicator | From £38 per square metre |
| Return to service | Foot traffic approx. 2 hours; full cure 24 hours |
| Application temperature | Down to −5°C |
Polyaspartic does not sit in the FeRFA thickness range because it is not a thickness class. It is a resin chemistry, and what it buys you is time rather than build.
Polyaspartic is a two-component aliphatic resin rather than a thickness class. It is laid as a coating in two coats, typically 150 to 300 microns each.
Foot traffic in roughly two hours and a full cure inside twenty-four, against twelve to twenty-four hours per coat for a conventional epoxy build-up.
It does not amber under daylight the way a standard epoxy does, so it holds its colour in entrances, showrooms and anywhere with rooflights or glazing.
Cold stores and chilled areas, weekend and overnight refurbishment, retail and back of house with a few hours of closure, and anywhere daylight would amber a conventional epoxy floor over time.
It is a coating, not a build-up. Thermal shock, hot wash-down and heavy point loading still need a screed. The fast cure also shortens working time, so it is unforgiving of a job that has not been properly planned.
Polyaspartic is rarely chosen for its mechanical properties. It is chosen because of a closure window, a temperature, or a finish that has to stay the colour it was laid.
How many hours the floor can be out of use is usually the reason polyaspartic is on the table at all. We work backwards from that figure to the build.
It cures down to minus five degrees, which covers the minus three to minus five most cold rooms actually run at. Few other systems will go there.
Flake or quartz can be broadcast into the coat for grip and appearance. Daylight exposure decides whether UV stability is a requirement or a bonus.
Every advantage polyaspartic has comes from curing quickly, and that is also its one real demand on the installer. There is no long open time to correct a mistake, so the preparation has to be finished and signed off before the first coat is mixed.
Every installation starts with mechanical diamond grinding and HEPA-extracted vacuum, so dust is controlled under COSHH and the EH40 respirable crystalline silica limit of 0.1 mg/m³. Cracks and joint arrises are cut out and repaired, and the substrate is tested for moisture before priming. Where the reading is high, a liquid damp proof membrane goes down first. At 300 to 500 microns there is no thickness in the build-up to hide a moisture problem underneath it.
We attend site, test the substrate for moisture and contamination, and record the closure window, temperature and traffic the floor has to work around. The system comes out of those findings. If polyaspartic is wrong for your floor, we will tell you so and specify what is right.
