How to repair warehouse concrete floor

Warehouse concrete floor repair

Industrial concrete floor repair

Repair of concrete surfaces

Sooner or later, all owners of warehouse real estate are faced with the question of how to repair concrete floors in a warehouse? 

How to repair warehouse concrete floor?

And the next topical question is how to quickly repair concrete floors?

The main types of defects in concrete floors in a warehouse

• Dust emission.

• Wear of the top layer of the concrete floor (peeling).

• Sinks, potholes, pits.

• Cracks in concrete floors.

• Destruction of expansion joints.

• Destruction of shrinkage seams.

• Topping wear.

 

Warehouse floor refurbishment

What happens if the concrete floor is not repaired?

Concrete dust

• Cement dust is harmful to the health of employees.

• Dust settles on goods, equipment, machinery.

• Costs of ongoing cleaning (equipment, people, time).

• The cost of warehouse real estate as an investment asset is decreasing.

 

Dust formation on concrete floors in a warehouse

Wear of the top layer of the concrete floor (peeling)

The movement of equipment slows down, the wheel group wears out, the cost of repairing equipment (loader, rokla, stacker) increases.

 

Wear of concrete floors in a warehouse

Sinks, pits, potholes

• Reduce the resource of operation of warehouse equipment (Wear of wheels, running gear).

• The unloading and loading process is reduced due to a decrease in the speed of movement of loading equipment.

• The integrity of the goods decreases during logistics in the warehouse (accident, the goods fell from the loader, etc.).

• The level of security for warehouse workers is reduced.

 

Repair of potholes in concrete floors in a warehouse

Destroyed expansion and shrinkage seams

Increase the wear of equipment, increase the sound effect when moving through the seam.

 

Destroyed shrinkage seams in a warehouse

How to repair concrete floors in a warehouse? What to do?

Given the full load of the warehouse and its operation 24 hours a day, a very frequent request is how to quickly repair a concrete floor?

Dedusting concrete floors

• The fastest way to eliminate dust formation. It is necessary to dedust the floor with an industrial vacuum cleaner, apply a water-based lithium hardening impregnation or a deep-penetrating epoxy primer.

• Epoxy primer, already after 24 hours, seals the pores in the concrete and eliminates dust. Until the primer dries, there may be an unpleasant solvent odor.

• The concrete hardener is lithium, it takes longer to react and the result from the application can be seen after 7-14 days. Odorless to others. Completely eco-friendly.

 

• A more complex option for dedusting a concrete floor in a warehouse is the use of grinding and polishing equipment, followed by the application of liquid hardening impregnations.

• This process may take several days. However, it is possible to perform work in stages, by zones, and the use of industrial vacuum cleaners makes it possible to grind concrete without generating dust and not stop the operation of the warehouse.

 

Polishing concrete floors in a warehouse

Repair of worn top layer of concrete | Marble floor repair

• When repairing industrial floors, namely the peeling of a concrete floor, using cement bulk repair compounds, it is recommended to remove the top layer from 10 mm.

• According to the method of patching on the roads. The worn area is cut out with a card, dusted, primed to increase the adhesion of the repair compound to the old base, and the prepared repair mixture is poured.

• Bulk repair composition, distributed over the base, compacted, leveled.

• There are repair mixtures for concrete floors that gain strength after 2 hours and you can put the warehouse into operation. But such systems are expensive and not every customer is willing to pay three times more. But on the other hand, how much will a simple warehouse cost? If it is possible to stop the work of the warehouse complex for 2-7 days, then it is possible to repair the concrete floor, cheaper.

 

Repair of industrial floors

Why is it recommended to apply a repair bulk cement composition, from 10 mm thick?

• In general, it is possible to apply cement repairers from 5 mm, but with the obligatory use of a primer adhesive layer. For such thin layer repairs, "Wet Topping ", "Wet to Dry" or "Wet to Dry" systems are commonly used.

• If the destruction is deeper, dry repair mixes are used for structural repair of concrete, with a filler fraction size of 1.2-2.4 mm.

• With a thickness of 10 mm, a new micro-concrete patch will weigh between 20-22 kg. With such a weight and adhesive layer, there is little chance that the new coating will peel or peel off. But thin-layer repair coatings, cement-based, up to 5 mm, are more likely to fall off over time.

• For thin-layer repair of a concrete base, epoxy repair compounds are more suitable , which have a fine filler and the ability to stretch a new coating to zero. 

 

Repair of industrial concrete floors

Repair of sinks, potholes and holes

If there are minor, localized defects on the surface of your floor, they can always be repaired with epoxy repair compounds or fast curing cement compounds. 

Usually, to repair such defects, 2-4 hours are enough and you can move around the warehouse floor.

 

Warehouse floor repair

Repair of seams in concrete floors

• For the repair of joints, epoxy repair compounds, bulk cement repair mixtures, three-component polyurethane systems (elastic concrete), polyurethane sealants, bitumen-polyurethane sealants, joint profiles are used.

• Here it is necessary to take a comprehensive approach to the issue of repair, but from practice, it is possible to repair the seam in 24 hours, with the right approach and the use of effective technologies.

 

Dismantling of destroyed concrete at the seams 

Warehouse floor crack repair

The crack is embroidered, demineralized, if necessary primed and filled with a repair compound or sealant, depending on the type of crack.

Separate several types of cracking in concrete floors

• Shrinkage cracks.

• Deformation cracks.

• Estimated cracks above reinforcement.

• Cracks due to an error in the design of seams.

• Cracks in the absence of vibration and compaction of the concrete mixture.

 

Repair cracks in concrete floor

How to determine what this crack is?

Tap with a hammer along the crack, if dust is released from the crack, then the cause of the formation is deformation loads. 

Deformation cracks are repaired using polyurethane sealant, ms-polymer sealant, bitumen-polyurethane sealant.

Shrinkage cracks are repaired with repair compounds.

The crack is embroidered with a grinder, a joint cutter or a wall chaser. Dedusted, primed if necessary and filled with a repair mixture.

Small, shrinkage cracks (cobwebs) are repaired with a grinder and polymer latex.

• First of all, it is necessary to carry out grinding of the concrete floor, 3-4 times, with a 30 Grit metalsegment. Then increase to 50-70 Grit, with a pass 2-3 times.

• Acrylic latex, poured in front of the grinder.

• Cement dust, which is formed during grinding with a 120 Grit segment, is mixed with latex, turns into a viscous suspension and is rubbed into microcracks by grinding equipment. 

Of course, the ideal result will not work, but it will definitely be better than it was.