TESTING OF EPOXY FLOORING

March 29, 2014
MABUHAY!

Construction nowadays requires innovative material that are not only economical but the ease of installation is also essential due to a tight schedule of modern day projects. Self-leveling epoxy paint is commonly specified for flooring finishes not only for factories or large parking buildings but also preferred for commercial buildings especially shopping malls. The speed of installation, the flexibility of design, wide range of available colors to choose from and ease of maintenance are some of the advantages of epoxy flooring over other floor finishes such as tiles. 

This is a photo journal of the conducted tests.

One of the three specimen mock-up epoxy flooring prepared for testing

Choosing the best product and specialty contractor for epoxy paint flooring require some series of tests. These tests must be conducted to ensure that the tough and durable kind of material was applied and the correct installation methodology was followed. 

CHEMICAL TEST FOR EPOXY FLOORING

For this particular project, 3 specialty contractor prepared their mock-up sample to be tested. The size of the sample is 6 meters long by 2 meters wide. The parking field color is green, the pedestrian lane is dark green and the borders are white.

2 strong chemicals that are commonly spilled in the flooring by cars will be used for the chemical test. These are the brake fluid and motor oil. Brake fluid can discolor the paint and create serious surface damage. Motor oil when spilled in a porous surface creates a permanent dark spot on the epoxy flooring

SPECIMEN MOCKUP FLOOR NO.1

Pouring of used oil to the white stripe for discoloration test

Pouring of used oil to the first half of the green field for discoloration test

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Pouring of brake fluid for the chemical test 

Pouring of brake fluid to the first half of the green field of the parking slot

SPECIMEN MOCK FLOOR NO.2
A similar procedure will apply to the other mockups.

Owner's representative witnessing the test.

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SPECIMEN MOCKUP FLOOR NO. 3

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STRENGTH AND DURABILITY TEST

This test is conducted to simulate the use of parking by running the epoxy flooring with a vehicle. But instead of using a car, we utilized a skid loader to do the test. This is to verify whether the epoxy flooring can withstand the friction of the moving tires of the vehicle without manifestation of any cracks or peel-off. This is to check also if the epoxy material will resist the tire's dark skid marks.

The mockup flooring was poured with water to be run over by the skid loader

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Skid tire marks

Evident skid tire marks but no scratch on the flooring was found. This floor passes the test.

Evident skid tire marks but no scratch on the flooring was found. This floor passes the test.

This flooring fails the test because it shows the manifestation of cracks

It is very important that a certain product or scope of work must undergo quality control measure like testing the product before approval.

CLICK the LINK to READ the related article: Quality Issue: Paint Peel-Off