Resin flooring contractors Castleford process plants, materials handlers and distribution operators call on when a floor has to resist chemicals, heat and abrasion and hold a spill where it falls. Serving process, manufacturing and warehouse facilities from Wheldon Road and the Aire and Calder Navigation to the logistics units at Glasshoughton and M62 Junction 32.
Working for national manufacturers, logistics operators and public sector estates since 1999.
Castleford sits where the Calder joins the Aire, and that confluence, with the Aire and Calder Navigation running through it, made the town a centre for glass, chemicals and heavy industry long before the motorway arrived. M62 Junction 32 has since added a substantial layer of modern logistics and retail floorspace at Glasshoughton, so process plant and new large-format warehousing now sit within a few kilometres of each other.
In the process buildings the floor is rarely asked only to wear well. It is asked to resist a specific reagent, to survive heat and abrasive material, and to keep a spill inside a defined area until it can be dealt with. That last requirement is the one most often treated as an afterthought.
Containment is a designed system, not a finish. Falls, coving, upstands, thresholds and collection points have to be set out before anything is applied, because the floor, the coving and the bund wall either behave as one impermeable surface or they do not contain anything at all. We survey the containment and the exposure before we specify a system.
Almost every failed industrial floor comes back to the same four variables: the condition of the substrate, the quality of the preparation, the temperature and contamination on site, and whether the system was matched to the traffic it actually carries.
Get those right and a resin floor runs for fifteen years and more. Get them wrong and it blisters, delaminates or dusts within a year or two, regardless of what the manufacturer’s datasheet claims.
We survey the substrate before we quote it. That means moisture testing, an assessment of what is already down, and a written specification naming the system, its FeRFA type and its thickness — so you know what you are buying and so does anyone who has to approve it.
Diamond grinding or shot blasting back to sound concrete, moisture testing to confirm the substrate is dry enough to coat, and repair of cracks, joints and spalled areas before any resin is mixed. Skipping this is why cheap floors blister and peel.
Substrate condition, preparation quality, temperature and contamination are the four variables that determine whether a resin floor lasts fifteen years or fifteen months. FeRFA guidance is explicit: resin flooring follows the substrate profile beneath it.
Established industrial and distribution units on the western approach to the town.
Modern large-format logistics, industrial and mixed commercial development.
Long-standing heavy industrial and process premises close to the river.
Waterside industrial and former colliery land towards Allerton Bywater, still in industrial and storage use.
Trade counters, service premises and smaller commercial units.
Industrial, trade and storage frontage linking the town towards Pontefract and Leeds.
Reagent resistance, bunded areas and falls designed to a safe collection point.
Spill containment, oil resistance and the integrity of the secondary containment itself.
Abrasive dust and dropped batch material with localised heat, where coatings do not last.
Thermal cycling, steam and localised heat on slabs that were never isolated for it.
Large young floors losing joint arrises and surface to pure throughput.
Diesel, hydraulic oil and coolant exposure with pit surrounds and wash bays.
Where oils and chemicals are stored, secondary containment at 110 per cent of the largest container comes into scope under the oil storage regulations and environmental permitting. That capacity is only real if the floor, the coving and the bund wall behave as one impermeable surface. A bund with an open day joint, or coving cut back at the wall, holds a number on a drawing and nothing on the ground.
Where a spill travels is decided by the levels, not by the coating. Falls to a blind sump or collection point are formed in screed and set out before the first coat, because a flat floor cannot be asked to do that work afterwards.
Chemical resistance is not a single rating. The reagent, its concentration, its temperature and the contact time together decide the system, so those four are what we ask for at survey rather than quoting a generic table.
Near glass and heavy materials handling the dust on the floor is an abrasive. It cuts a thin-film finish quickly, which is why a screed rather than a coating is specified in those bays even where the chemistry is mild.
On a permitted site the programme is built around isolation rather than around our own preferences. Lines broken, tanks drained, residues cleaned off and the area formally handed over before preparation starts, with hot work and confined space permits raised through your systems, not alongside them. We work to the site rules we are given and we say at survey if a chosen system cannot live inside them.
Preparation runs under H-class extraction with areas screened and waste contained. Respirable crystalline silica is limited under EH40 to 0.1 mg per cubic metre over eight hours, and where abrasive process dust is already present the extraction is doing two jobs at once.
Waterside buildings along the Calder, the Aire and the Navigation carry a further step. Substrate moisture is tested before anything is specified, because a moisture-tolerant primer or a liquid damp-proof membrane is a decision made from a reading, not from the look of the slab. We present that test as risk control rather than as delay.
The oil storage regulations and environmental permitting bring containment at 110 per cent of capacity into scope. The floor and its coving are part of that containment, not a finish applied over it.
Resistance data for the actual reagents, concentrations, temperatures and contact times present, framed by BS 8204-6 and EN 1504-2 rather than by a general claim.
Where hot liquids, steam or rapid cooling occur, a heavy-duty polyurethane screed in the upper FeRFA Types, supported by EN 13813, is the honest answer rather than an epoxy coating.
The Workplace Regulations 1992 and HSE guidance L24 apply directly where forklift and pedestrian routes cross repeatedly through a shift.
FeRFA classifies resin flooring into eight types by build-up and thickness, and BS 8204-6 governs which one a floor actually needs, with EN 13813 for the screed and EN 1504-2 for protection of the concrete beneath. Polyaspartic and MMA sit outside that classification because they describe the resin chemistry rather than the build-up. In Castleford the split is clear: Types 7 and 8 carry the process and hot areas where chemistry, heat and abrasion all appear together, while Types 3 and 4 answer the newer distribution floors at Glasshoughton that need protecting rather than rescuing.
FeRFA Type 1. Two or more coats up to 150 microns, binding a dusting substrate and giving a cleanable surface. From £8 per square metre.
FeRFA Type 2. Dual component to 300 microns, solvent free, in gloss, matt or silk. Chemical resistance with a decorative finish.
FeRFA Type 3. Up to 1000 microns over prepared concrete and the system specified on most industrial jobs. Takes colour well for demarcation.
FeRFA Type 4. Multi-coat build at 1 to 3mm with aggregate broadcast between coats, for impact and constant wear.
FeRFA Type 5. Flow-applied at 2 to 3mm for a seamless finish where hygiene and cleaning matter more than impact resistance.
FeRFA Type 7. Three part filled system at 4 to 6mm thickness, giving a self-smoothing finish for heavy and very heavy duty areas.
FeRFA Types 7 and 8. Trowel-applied at 6 to 9mm to take thermal shock, steam cleaning and constant heavy forklift traffic.
Cures at temperatures down to −5°C and is ready in around two hours. Installed overnight or at a weekend it can remove the need to shutdown entirely.
Cures in hours, but the odour can taint food, fabrics and stock and the area must be cleared and ventilated. Better suited to new build and refurbishment projects.
Rates run from £8 per square metre for a floor seal to £45 for MMA, inclusive of preparation, labour and materials. On a containment job the detailing is measured separately from the area, because coving, upstands, formed falls and collection points are where the work and the risk sit rather than in the open bay.
| System | FeRFA | Thickness | Per m² |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floor Seal | Type 1 | Up to 150µm | From £8 |
| Epoxy and PU Coating | Type 2 | 150 – 300µm | £8 – £12 |
| High Build Coating | Type 3 | 300 – 1000µm | £8 – £12 |
| Multi-Layer Flooring | Type 4 | 1 – 3mm | £12 – £16 |
| Self-Smoothing | Type 5 | 2 – 4mm | £20 – £30 |
| Heavy Duty Flowable | Type 7 | 4 – 6mm | £25 – £35 |
| Heavy Duty PU Screed | Type 8 | 6 – 9mm | £30 – £40 |
| Polyaspartic | Chemistry | 300 – 500µm | £38 |
| MMA | Chemistry | 2 – 6mm | £45 |
Inclusive of preparation, labour and materials. Rates assume a sound, accessible substrate and are indicative until the floor has been surveyed. Polyaspartic and MMA sit outside the FeRFA type classification because they describe the resin chemistry rather than the build-up.
A three day shutdown at a plant turning over £2,000 an hour is £120,000 of lost output. On most sites that is several times the price of the floor.
Five contractors quoted one timber processing plant. All five proposed the same system and a three to four day closure. None of them costed the closure.
We proposed a faster-curing system installed across a weekend. A higher rate per square metre, and no shutdown at all. On the client’s own figures the avoided losses exceeded the price of the floor.
We install evenings, weekends and one bay at a time.
Whether a shutdown costs you thousands an hour or simply gets in the way, you do not always have to close your site for a resin flooring installation.
Patch repair, crack filling and making good on multi-layered and previously patched floors.
Walkways, crossings and exclusion zones designed to the space that actually exists.
Damp proof membrane where a substrate fails moisture testing, as a standalone package.
Abrasion resistant floors and joint repairs phased around continuous shed operations.
Hygienic coved systems with falls to drain, installed overnight between services.
Confined workshop floors prepared under extraction with neighbours still trading.
We work across the district regularly, from Whitwood and Wheldon Road through to the Navigation corridor and the logistics units at Glasshoughton. We are Cheshire based rather than Castleford based, so a survey usually happens within days and there is no mobilisation charge for attending.
Yes, and that is the point most often missed. Secondary containment at 110 per cent of capacity only exists if the floor, the coving and the bund wall are continuous and impermeable. We survey the detailing as carefully as the area, and we will tell you if an existing bund will not hold what it is credited with.
By asking four questions rather than one: which reagent, at what concentration, at what temperature and for how long it sits on the floor. Those four decide the system. A general chemical resistance table is not evidence for your process, and we will not specify from one.
Usually yes, and it is cheaper now than later. A new power-floated slab has no chemical or abrasion protection and its saw-cut joints are the first thing to fail under forklift traffic. Sealing or coating the slab and detailing the joints before throughput starts avoids the arris repairs that follow two years of wheel loads.
It is a question to answer with a reading rather than a guess. We test substrate moisture before specifying, and where it is high the answer is a moisture-tolerant primer or a liquid damp-proof membrane. Applying a resin system over an untested waterside slab is how a floor is lost to blistering a few months later.
From £8 per square metre for a floor seal up to £45 for MMA, inclusive of preparation, labour and materials. On process and containment work the detailing is priced separately from the area. The full table by system is on the cost page.
Tell us what is stored or processed in the area, what the floor has to hold, and whether heat or abrasive material is present. We attend, test the substrate, set out the containment and put a written specification and a fixed price in front of you at no cost.
