Flortex® Professional Epoxy Floor Paint

Exceptionally hard-wearing, high build 100% solids epoxy floor paint. The best available!

Slip Resistant and Extra Fast Hardening versions are also available.

  • Extremely heavy-duty & long-lasting epoxy floor paint
  • 100% solids high build epoxy paint formulation
  • High abrasion, chemical and impact resistance
  • Suitable for heavy traffic, both vehicle traffic and forklift traffic
  • Superb high gloss epoxy finish
  • Highly protective and impervious top coat.
  • Easy-to-clean and pressure washer-resistant

Flortex® Professional is a high-performance, non-toxic two-part 100% solids solvent-free epoxy floor paint incorporating quality high build fillers, providing a totally impervious coloured gloss professional finish. Its pure epoxy high-build formulation makes Flortex Professional one of the most durable epoxy floor paint/floor coatings available, with excellent resistance to abrasion and chemicals.

Special Formulations available include Extra Fast Hardeners (XFH), Extra Chemical Resistance, and Low Temperature Formulations. Please contact Polycote technical helpline.

£128.90£218.90 ex. VAT
£154.68 inc. VAT

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Flortex® Professional Epoxy Floor Paint Product Details

Typical uses.

Being virtually solvent-free and non-toxic, Flortex® Professional is high-performance coating ideal for the painting and sealing of floors in medical, animal or food environments, and offers good chemical resistance. Typical uses include industrial surfaces: warehouses, factories, showrooms, workshops, storage areas and garage floors.

Typical industries.

Proven over the last 30 years on well over 2 million sq.m, there is hardly an industry that has not proved the qualities of Flortex Professional. Industrial floors, Food Production and Processors, Breweries, Electrical & Mechanical Engineering, Off-Shore Platforms, Motor Manufactures and Garages, Warehousing & Logistics, Hospitals and Medical Institutions, Schools and Universities, Veterinary Hospitals, Kennels, Catteries and Zoos.

For garage floors look at Flortex Professional Garage Floor Paint. A garage epoxy floor paint specifically for these types of environments.

Alternative Products

Choosing the Right Paint for Your Floor

It is well known there are hundreds of suppliers selling hundreds of different types of paint from hundreds of manufactures. For business owners, finance directors or maintenance managers, this becomes a lottery as to which manufacturer you should use and what type of paint you should buy.

There is hardly a person or company that has not experienced a failure of either a floor paint or screed and therefore have consequently wasted so much time, effort, and money.  A cheap paint may appear more enticing but when factoring in the inconvenience and cost caused by production downtime, it pays to make a wise and educated decision so as not to end in premature failure and frustration.

So, for your confidence and encouragement, we hope this step-by-step guide will be of great help to you in arriving at the best paint solution, for your own specific needs.

Understanding The Deciding Factors On The Best Epoxy Floor Paint For Your Environment

Before any business owner or indeed supplier can ‘arrive’ at the correct paint solution for you, they need to know the answers to all the following questions.  Only then, can they provide you with a long-term solution. Whilst there are obviously hundreds of different case scenarios, here are some answers to the most common questions:

Flortex® Professional Epoxy Floor Paint Factors to Consider When Selecting Floor Paint

To the average customer, this might sound a bit of an unnecessary question BUT it is one of the most important and crucial questions to ask.  If, as a supplier I do not know exactly WHY you want to paint the floor, then it is impossible to intelligently meet your needs and expectations.

The most common reasons for wanting to paint the floor are:

  1. a)    Stop the dust
  2. b)    Waterproof the floor
  3. c)     To provide a chemical resistant finish capable of preventing oil penetration or chemical attack
  4. d)    For purely aesthetic reasons, such as a showroom
  5. e)    For safety / slip-resistant reasons
  6. f)      To protect the substrate from impact damage
  7. g)    To help prevent wear and tear and prolong the life of the concrete
  8. h)    To stop rising damp

If it is a case of re-painting the floor, all the above points are still relevant. However, there are further questions that are even MORE crucial, because if we do not know why the existing coating has ‘failed’, then it is impossible to intelligently offer a solution!

If the original floor was a good quality floor, has all stuck solidly for the last 20 years and is just becoming tired and worn, then that is simple.  However, if the floor is peeling, lifting, flaking and/or bubbling, then we MUST find out why.

1)    Peel a piece of paint off the floor, turn it over and look at the back.  What do you see?

  1. a)    Is it covered in dust particles?

This shows that the paint has adhered to the surface of the substrate, but the substrate has failed /delaminated, which is why the paint has ‘come away’ from the substrate.

This can be then for two main reasons:

  • i) The quality of the substrate is poor/weak and needs strengthening.
  • ii) The substrate was not prepared sufficiently. This loose particles/laitance must be removed prior to a further application of paint.
  1. b)    The paint has come off the floor and the back side is ‘clean’.

If there is no evidence of the substrate stuck to the back of the sample, this proves there was zero adhesion to the substrate, and you MUST find out why! So, the questions now are:

  • i) Was the floor sealed and preventing any penetration or adhesion to the substrate?

Pour some water onto the bare concrete, from where you have just taken your sample.  If the water simply sits as a blob on the surface, the concrete may well have been sealed with a sealer or might be contaminated with waxes, oils, or silicones. Whatever the cause, concrete surfaces must be thoroughly etched using a chemical acid treatment or better still to mechanically abrade the substrate with a diamond grinder to remove the surface and expose the porosity of the substrate.

Not to depress you but a further point to bear in mind is that whatever it is on the surface, this may well have penetrated into the substrate, and you may need to remove more than just the very top of the substrate! Very simply if you don’t get ‘past’ this barrier and back to bare concrete. If you don’t re-expose the pores, you will more than likely continue to get delamination and failure!

  1. ii)     There is clearly dampness within the concrete.

This shows there is most likely an underlying rising damp issue. It is therefore imperative that concrete surfaces are sealed with a liquid DPM, such as Polycote DPM Primer prior to the application of any further epoxy floor paint or floor screed. Two coats of a DPM Primer would be advised in order to help prevent fill any pin-holing. (For more information, see Point 5 below)

iii)    There is the presence of oil.

Oil is a serious problem when trying to paint a floor and very few products will remain stuck to an oil contaminated floor due to the oil penetrating down below the surface. No matter how much you clean the top, the oil from withing the substrate continues to rise, causing a never-ending problem!!!

If oil is your problem, then Polycote OT Primer is the answer!  This highly advance twin pack epoxy has been professionally formulated to adhere to oil contaminated floors and has been proven in some of the worst and almost unbelievable situations and is suitable for both concrete floors and wood floors.

This question is really a ‘two-pronged’ question; firstly, the type of material whether it be concrete, wood, etc, and secondly, the strength or ‘state‘ of the substrate, whether it is soft or hard, rusty, or clean, whatever!

For instance:

Concrete:   Is it very porous or is it very hard?

Metal:        Is the metal rusty or clean?

Tiled:         Is it ceramic, quarry, terrazzo, or vinyl?

Important!  If the first coat doesn’t stick, no matter how much you pay for any subsequent coating or screed, the project will fail.  It is crucially important to ensure you apply a product specifically designed for, or compatible with, your existing substrate.  Furthermore, even an epoxy resin floor paint can only be any good if the first coat (especially any previously applied floor paint) has truly adhered to the substrate.

If the floor is old, this raises all of the above points/questions.  However, one of the biggest causes of failures is when people think a ‘new’ floor is perfect to paint.  Unfortunately, this is often not true!

Newly laid and untreated surfaces are extremely porous and attract every bit of contamination possible, especially when vehicles and trucks.  Rubber from tyres, oil drips and spills, plaster, and paint from other trades. And the biggest problem of all – dust and surface laitance.  Remember, the smoother the floor, the finer the particle, and this is very simply why every factory experience’s on-going dust issues.

As a professional contractor, we would NEVER paint such floors without first preparing them with professional mechanical equipment such as vacuum assisted diamond grinders or shotblasters.  Our own warehouse is living PROOF. This building was originally used as an HGV workshop and was contaminated with oil and had worn and peeling paint.  In fact, it had been painted every 3 months for 24 years!  We shotblasted the floor, primed with Polycote OT Primer and top coated with our Flortex Professional epoxy floor paint.  This same floor has NEVER been repainted and is still going strong after 21 years!

Even if the concrete floor is sound and strong, it is always advisable to ‘key’ the substrate using mechanical equipment to ensure a good adhesion.  However, if it is weak and porous, often no matter how much you remove from the surface, whatever is left is still weak/poor.  Obviously, each matter needs to be considered on an individual basis, but the only way to achieve success on such a poor substrate is to ‘flood’ the floor with resin and in particular, a low viscosity epoxy paint such as Polycote EP Primer.  This is still a 100% epoxy coating but has an extremely low viscosity therefore allows the resin to penetrate well into the substrate and fully cure within the substrate, thus turning the existing concrete into ‘a form of’ an epoxy screed.  However, please remember that each situation needs to be carefully considered and all comments given here are in good faith and as advisory.  Whilst we do not wish to cast doubt upon the above comments, it must remain the customers responsibility and decision as to how they might wish to proceed with any floor paint.

If your floor has rising damp, due to a damaged/poorly installed DPM or more commonly, no damp proof membrane (particularly on older buildings), rising damp is a major reason why floor coating and screeds fail.

You may not know whether there is a DPM or not and it is well worth trying to establish the fact BEFORE the application of any floor paint. The main reason for not knowing you have a rising damp issue is due to its rising slowly and evaporating, thereby leaving no real evidence. A common way to test the area(s) is to tape a sheet of plastic to the floor and leave for a few days.  The plastic will cause the floor to sweat and will therefore draw up and expose any dampness within the concrete floor.

If indeed the floor does show signs of dampness, then you are strongly advised to use a primer such as Polycote DPM Primer, a twin pack epoxy resin primer formulated specifically to adhere surfaces where rising water may be present.  However, please note that such primers are not suitable where water is ‘running’ into the area as the resin will not have time to cure before being affect by such water.

Finally, we would like to make it clear that these two methods are only advisory and by no means a fool proof method.  However, they will certainly give a very good indication.

All surface contamination such as a build-up of oil or grease should be removed before the application of any paint or screed. This can be accomplished with suitable machinery or with the aid of chemical degreasers such as Polycote Degrease IT.

However, with thinner chemicals such as oil, this penetrates down into the pores of the concrete and after you have thoroughly cleaned the surface, the oil within the substrate then rises back up to the surface by capillary attraction and now your concrete floor is oily again.  Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about this as it will happen over and over again!

The problem when applying an epoxy resin floor paint even directly after the surface has been cleaned is because an epoxy paint is impervious and can therefore make the floor ‘sweat’, which in turn draws up the oil under the paint and hey-presto, you have a failure!  And an expensive one!

If you have the evidence of oil, we strongly advise and oil tolerant primer such as Polycote OT Primer, that has been professionally formulated to be able to bind up to 15% oil into itself whist curing and thus adhere strongly to the substrate in question.

If the floor has been previously painted with a floor paint or sealer, please make absolutely sure that any paint left on the surface (prior to your new paint or screed) has fully adhered to the surface.

If you have any flaking or peeling paint, then it is absolutely vital you remove all the existing paint, down the hard substrate.  This is mostly achieved with the use of vacuum assisted machinery such as diamond grinders and/or shot blasters.

This further note may sound a little rudimentary but please remember that if you apply a coating or screed over an existing paint that has not adhered well to the surface, you might as well simply paint over a sheet of A4 paper and wonder why your new paint is lifting!

You simply MUST remove all loose, flaking, peeling material if you want a success long lasting job.

Obviously, the type and amount of traffic that the floor will be subjected to will determine the type of coating used.

Single pack floor paints can be very good but for areas of her wear and tear, twin pack epoxies will last far longer. Furthermore, due to the fact that they can cure to an impervious finish, they are also far more waterproof and/or chemical resistant and also, far easier to keep clean. Floor coatings such as Flortex Professional are strongly advised for areas such as factories and warehouses with the constant trafficking of heavy forklifts and pallet trucks.

For areas that need to withstand vehicular traffic such as cars and trucks, particularly in garage floors and manufacturing facilities, standard paint will not withstand hot car tyres, etc and therefore twin pack epoxy flooring system such as Flortex Professional remains the number one choice for long term success.

For the most part, a good quality paint, certainly a twin pack epoxy or polyurethane paint has a very reasonable chemical resistance that is suitable to withstand most ‘normal’ chemicals.  However, it is always advisable to make a list of the chemicals used in the area and the percentages of concentration such as 50% sulphuric or 10% acetic or 30% caustic, for instance.

Do you have a particular cocktail of chemicals as such mixes can completely change the characteristics and/or volatility as this also need to be made very clear to any manufacturer?

Another important factor is to consider is the length of time the chemicals will remain in contact with the coating. If you are protecting from spillages and/or the occasional splashing, then how long do you expect to leave the chemical on the coating before cleaning it up.  Please note that this length of time can have a completely differing amount of effect on the coating.

Submersion is a whole different matter from occasional splashing or spillages and this needs to be made clear to the supplier when discussing the right paint for you.

It is strongly advised that ALL these points should be noted and discussed with any supplier or manufacturer before any purchase and/or application is carried out.

If you wish to carry out the work yourselves, it is highly advisable that you speak to companies such as Polycote UK, who not only specialise in the supply of floor paints and coatings, but who also have a full application team to carry out the preparation and application of the products.

With full support from a team of professional applicators happy to help throughout the application, from your initial enquiry as to the right product, the best type of preparation needed along with the provision of the machinery itself, the correct methods of application and right through to the point of completion, you will be assured of a company that is as interested and committed to success, as you are!

Obviously, if you are looking for the labour element as well, it is important that you find a company with a proven track record and well experienced in the use of epoxy resin floor paint.  The fact that companies such as Polycote UK have been in the trade for over 30 years, is far more important than so called guarantees and warranties that in most cases are not worth the paper they are written on! The sheer passage of time along with the millions of sq.m we have covered over the last 32 years, is a true testament to the professionalism, longevity and reliability of both products and service alike.

This is a very important question. Don’t forget that you will need to clear the area prior to the arrival of the preparation team.  The methods of preparation, such as diamond grinding and/or shot blasting can then expose poor areas of concrete that need repairing prior to the application of the floor paint. Then there is the floor painting itself which in most cases would need two coats and this being finally ‘topped’ off with the curing time of the final coat before subjecting it to traffic.

Whilst this might all sound daunting, you can rest assured that there are industrial grade epoxy products available that can cure very fast and be subjected to heavy traffic is as little 20 minutes.  There are epoxy flooring systems and products available that can be applied in temperatures as low as minus 40°C and still be ready for traffic in as little as 1.5 hours.

Obviously, standard products are sufficient for most applications.  However, Polycote UK can tailor both their products and services around your own specific timing parameters should such a need arise.

In most situations, paints are applied in ambient temperatures of between 10-25°C.

However, there are times when the application area is influenced adversely by weather or operations.  Some areas being very cold, such as cold storage facilities down to minus 40°C, food factories, often running between 2-8°C, through to bakeries with ovens running in excess of 80°C and smelting plants with operating temperatures of 200°C. Polycote can manufacture products that will can both cure and withstand the extremes in all of these areas and will be more than happy to discuss your specific requirements with you.

Cold conditions:

It is worth noting that the colder the ambient temperature, the longer the curing time of the coating will be, and it is in these situations when extra fast hardening resins can be used to help speed up the curing process/times.  However, please also note that the use of extra fast hardeners will mean a shorter pot life once mixed so this does need careful consideration. When looking through our epoxy flooring range, all product names suffixed with XFH, are those suitable for the cooler application conditions.

Hot conditions:

There are times when products need to be applied in hot conditions and it is therefore very important to acquaint yourself with the manufacturers data sheet, which will state the pot life of the materials once mixed.

In hot temperatures, it is often a great help if the manufacture can be asked to produce smaller unit sizes, which helps enable the operatives to be able to apply before the curing process gets to the point where application is no longer possible.

Our advice for what it is worth is: try not to look at the painting the floor as a ‘cost’ but more as an ‘investment’!

To coat the floors not only strengthens the concrete but seals and protects from contamination.  A sealed floor rather than a porous surface makes cleaning routines far quicker and easier, thereby saving time, effort, and money.  A painted floor makes the entire environment a far brighter and happier place to work, which has been proven to raise the morale of the employees as well as the productivity!

Furthermore, it has also been proven that a well presented and well-marked out factory/warehouse has massive safety benefits, thereby helping to reduce accidents and consequential disruption to the business.

Finally, by investing in a high-quality paint, last far longer and therefore reduces the need for frequent recoating.

In our humble opinion, when considering all the above points, a good quality paint is truly an investment whereas a cheap, poor job always ends in a far greater cost!

An epoxy coating or epoxy floor paint is mostly a twin pack paint consisting of an epoxy resin ‘base’ that is mixed with an epoxy resin hardener, or catalyst. Each part requires the other in order to initiate the curing process. As the two liquids are mixed together this causes a chemical (exothermic) reaction and thus the product cures to form an extremely hard wearing and protective topcoat, suitable for the most heavily used floors. For example, areas such as a warehouse floor traversed by heavy traffic, concrete garage floors having to cope with the constant movement of vehicle traffic, through to heavy foot traffic in schools, hospitals and shopping centres, to name but a few!

Not all epoxy coatings are what they might appear, so take care! An epoxy paint referred to as a “high solids coating.” does not mean that it is a 100% solids epoxy flooring system! A lot of epoxy paint products contain a higher percentage of solvents that simply won’t evaporate. It is important to note that 100% solids epoxies do not contain solvents and therefore do not ‘evaporate’ while curing or are fully cured. The wet film thickness (WFT) of such epoxy floor paint is therefore identical to their dry film thickness (DFT). Thus, and in ‘other’ words, the quantity of liquid in the can will be identical to the paint that remains on the floor, once cured!

Very few salespeople will want you to know that when they are trying to sell you a solvent based or water based epoxy. Having said that, let’s just be clear. There is nothing wrong with either solvent or water based epoxy coatings, they can both be very good paint, BUT, and quite frankly, nowhere near as good as 100% solids epoxy paint!

1) Less Environmental Impact.

They have far less impact on the environment due to little to no VOC’s (volatile organic compounds). When the solvents evaporate in solvent based coatings, VOC’s are released and therefore increase air pollution.

2) Non Toxic and Non Taint

A major benefit of a solvent free resin floor paint is that it is non toxic and therefore has little to no smell. The fact that it is also non toxic means that it can be applied is sensitive areas such as where there are people or animals within the vicinity and/or where there are products such as food that are susceptible to being damaged by tainting.

3) Fewer Coats Required.

The DFT (Dry film thickness) of a low VOC paint is mostly far better than a solvent based paint. Furthermore, fewer coats means less application time fewer labour costs and perhaps more importantly less downtime.

4) Quicker Drying Times.

Curing times will vary from one paint to another. However, the curing of a 100% solids epoxy resin floor paint is generally quicker that other paints, especially water based epoxy paints as they rely solely on a chemical reaction to cure. Water based epoxy resin and paints have to wait for the water to disperse before they cure and this of course, is why they take even longer in environments that are already damp and where the atmosphere is already ‘water-logged’.

5) Colder Environments

The curing of 100% solids epoxy paints can be accelerated using specialist extra fast hardeners. Due to these hardeners creating more heat in the curing process, thus they can be more able to cure in cooler conditions.

1) Cost.

A 100% solids epoxy will, almost always, be more expensive to buy than solvent based or water based coatings. Furthermore, the coverage (sq.m per kg or per litre) is often less for a 100% solids resin, due to the higher build thickness of the paint.

2) Spillage or final clean up.

In the event of spillage or the final cleaning of tools and equipment, low VOC epoxies can be harder to clean up. However, the difference is minimal and as far as the roller sleeves and other disposables are concerned, they are thrown away in any case!

3) Hotter environments.

Hot environments do not help when applying any type of epoxy resin floor paint and can dramatically reduce the pot life (working time) of the paint. However, as a 100% solids resin relies solely on a chemical (exothermic) reaction and therefore creates even more heat within its curing process, this only exacerbates the issue. However, this can be easily overcome simply by more people applying the product or to reduce the quantity of each mix.