Concrete Floors: Polyurea Coatings

As polymer floor systems go, polyurea is the new kid on the block. But during the past decade, the technology has evolved significantly and the coatings have become increasingly popular. "Our studies showed that you can increase the service life of the facility two to three times what the current technology was able to provide," says Rob Loomis, a chemist with polyurea manufacturer Willamette Valley Co. "That's in terms of chemical resistance and abrasion resistance."

One of the most unusual properties of a polyurea coating is its short cure time. Pure polyurea can set up in 15 seconds or less. In fact, the traditional application method is spraying with a plural-component impingement gun with mechanical purging. Newer formulations, however, have somewhat longer cure times and can be applied using a squeegee followed by backrolling. Those products have pot lives of 15 minutes to 60 minutes, are dry to the touch after about four hours, and can accept regular foot traffic after about 24 hours.

Project completion time is minimized in another way by a polyurea system, too. The coating can be applied to the full desired thickness in one layer. Eliminating the need to apply multiple coats to achieve full thickness reduces the true cost of the system. The direct cost of labor is less, as is down time for the facility.

Polyurea formulations are either 100 percent solids or very close to it. With little or no solvent content, the products are nonflammable and emit little or no odors or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during application.