The Durable Protection of Concrete Floors

Research and development in Tech-Dry laboratories by Dr Ren Kebao has used nanotechnology to achieve a breakthrough in the protection of concrete floors.  This development work has achieved an impregnant which binds to the concrete to form an oil and water repellent layer and densifies the concrete.

One of the dilemmas of the specifier is to choose a floor treatment which is durable and designed to be easy to apply.  For many years epoxy and acrylic surface coatings have been used.  As these are surface coatings, they are subject to abrasive removal leaving a patchwork of remaining coating and bare concrete.  In addition, they are not environmentally friendly being organic and solvent-based.

So, the ideal floor treatment is an impregnating treatment which uses the base concrete as the final surface so that a durable effect is produced.  The result of Tech-Dry research and development is a range of environmentally friendly water-based materials which densify concrete and in addition can be designed to add water repellency and oil repellency.  Lithium densifier with additives can be used to achieve deep penetration of the active materials to densify/harden and modify the concrete.  As there is no surface coating with these densifiers there can be no delamination.  The final surface can be polished to produce attractive finishes.

The advantages of lithium silicate densifiers are:

1. Deep penetration compared to sodium silicate and potassium silicate.
2. Reduced resultant efflorescence compared to sodium silicate and potassium silicate.
3. One coat application.
4. More efficient and less time-consuming application and open to traffic sooner than with sodium silicate or potassium silicate.
5. No caustic waste water produced on application so no disposal problem and so product and application are environmentally friendly.
6. Final floor has increased abrasion resistance and is dust proof and exhibits better durability to traffic.
7. Final floor has increased slip resistance.
8. Final floor exhibits ease of maintenance:
   – Resistance to mould.
   – Resistance to water absorption so reduced efflorescence or water-borne staining.
   – Resistance to staining and etching by food, orange juice, vinegar, cleaning products and resistance to contamination by soils and other materials.
9. Non-flammable formulation.
10. Non-toxic formulation.
11. Low odour.
12. VOC compliant as there are no vapours unlike acrylic, polyurethane or epoxy formulations.
13. Final floor will not yellow, discolour, peel or flake as the lithium silicate densifier is incorporated within the concrete surface not on the surface as a surface coating.
14. Final floor can be smooth or glossy as achieved by surface polishing and can be burnished.

Click here to view Tech-Dry’s latest Concrete Densifier range