Resin floors in parking lots are already a permanent fixture in office buildings, shopping malls, public facilities or multi-family residential buildings. In addition to their aesthetic and functional qualities, these coatings play an important role in ensuring the durability of the structure. The requirements for their properties can be found, among other things, in the standards for concrete surface protection systems and floor bases and materials for their construction.
Flooring is the term for the top, usable layer of a floor. Resin-based parking garage floors are intended, among other things, to protect the concrete substrate on which they are made from deterioration. Typical factors that occur in garages and parking lots that have a degrading effect on bottom and floor slabs include: mechanical loads from vehicle traffic, moisture, temperature changes, and rainwater and de-icing salts imported on tires. Particularly dangerous are the chloride ions contained in the salts - when they get deep into the reinforcement along with water, through cracks and fissures in the concrete, they lead to its corrosion.
Airport City, Gdansk, Poland, Alpha Deckshield ID
© Flowcrete
slip and scratch resistance
The use of resin floors on the surfaces of parking lots is intended to increase the durability of bottom and floor slabs as elements of the building structure. They are surface protection systems for concrete, and the requirements for their performance properties can be found in EN 1504-2. These include, among others, abrasion resistance, capillary absorption and water permeability, slip properties and the ability to bridge substrate cracks. The standard also indicates the test methods to be used in determining the properties described therein.
Apartments at the Brewhouse, Deckshield ID HD
© Flowcrete
For example, the abrasion resistance of resin parking lot floors should be tested in accordance with EN ISO 5470-1, with the Taber test result indicating aa weight loss of less than 3,000 mg using a hard H22 abrasion wheel at 1,000 revolutions and a load of 1,000 g (using a soft CS-10 wheel is an error). Appropriate test methods according to EN 13813 are also acceptable, for example, when the protective coating is to act as a floor subject to significant mechanical loads.
Slip resistance, in the case of interior damp surfaces, according to PN-EN 13036-4, in the pendulum test should correspond to Class I, with a score of ≥ 40 units in the wet test, and in the case of exterior surfaces - Class III, with a score of ≥ 55 units in the wet test.
UCity, Warsaw, stage 2, Deckshield ID
© Flowcrete
Since scratches in the concrete substrate in a parking lot are gates for the penetration and leakage of water containing chloride ions, the ability of parking lot coatings to penetrate them (tested according to EN 1062-7) is particularly important. Requirements for floors with respect to crack bridging should be selected by the designer (taking into account local conditions, including climate, width and change in crack opening) so that no damage occurs after testing for the appropriate class.
In construction practice, resin floors are most often used in parking lots: epoxy or polyurethane. Both types of coatings should meet the requirements specified in the above-mentioned Polish and European standards.
flexible polyurethane floors
Polyurethane floors are more flexible than epoxy floors. As a result, they have a high ability to bridge cracks in the concrete substrate with less system thickness than epoxy floors. Polyurethane-quartz garage flooring systems from the Deckshield group, intended for use in indoor parking lots (Deckshield ID and Deckshield ID HD), in a test according to PN-EN 1062-7 at -20oC, bridge cracks in class A2 (crack width in the range of 0.25-0.5 mm). While systems intended for use on outdoor, uncovered surfaces (Deckshield ED and ED HD), bridge cracks in class A3 (crack width in the range of 0.5-1.25 mm).
`Aura Sky, Warsaw, Deckshield ID.
© Flowcrete
Sometimes guidelines from other countries, such as the German Committee for Reinforced Concrete, DAfStb-Guideline (so-called OSs), are also used in the evaluation and selection of flooring systems used in multi-story parking lots. They apply to all floor layers (from the primer to the top layer), and the classification of the floor in them depends on the thickness of the surface protection system. While this approach works well for epoxy floors, this classification ignores the favorable properties of flexible polyurethane systems, which, with less thickness, meet the standard requirements, have exceptionally good crack bridging properties, and at the same time are more economical compared to OS systems with similar performance characteristics.
`The Bridge, Deckshield ID
© Flowcrete
Flowcrete is a leading brand of specialized, seamless resin flooring for industrial and decorative applications, offering world-class flooring solutions based on synthetic resins: epoxy, polyurethane, methacrylate and vinyl ester. Flowcrete resin floors are designed for all industries and sectors. These include heavy-duty industrial floors, hygienic anti-microbial floors, waterproof and flexible parking lot floors, strikingly colored decorative floors, including but not limited to polished resin terazzo and "stone carpets," and specialized chemical-resistant coatings.
Tremco CPG Poland Sp. z o.o. is the manufacturer and supplier of Flowcrete resin floors.
Tremco CPG (Construction Products Group), a regional division of RPM International Inc. unites Europe's leading construction products brands such as illbruck, Flowcrete, Nullifire, Tremco, Vandex, Dryvit and Nudura. The company employs more than 1,400 people in Europe and more than 6,500 people worldwide, and produces high-quality, specialized building materials that respond to the complex requirements of modern construction, such as durability, energy efficiency, and sustainability. The brands concentrated in Tremco CPG cater to a variety of construction needs, from sealing, bonding and thermal insulation to resin flooring, fire protection, waterproofing, wall construction and roofing systems.
RPM International Inc. is one of the world's leading building products companies for commercial and residential customers, based in Medina, Ohio, USA.
For more information, visit the company's FLOWCRETE | Tremco CPG Poland Sp. z o.o., page on the A&B portal.
