WHY DO EPOXY FLOORS PEEL?

When an Epoxy floor peels, the cause is usually not the Epoxy itself but the concrete substrate and the installation process. Identifying the real cause helps avoid redoing the work repeatedly.

Common causes

• Damp substrate, or moisture vapor rising from below
• Inadequate surface preparation: remaining dust, grease, weak laitance, insufficient grinding or shot blasting for profile
• Low substrate strength, or a dusty or crazed slab
• Wrong or missing primer, wrong mixing ratio, or incorrect time between coats
• Loads, chemicals or impacts exceeding what the selected coating system can take

How to fix it

1. Survey: measure substrate moisture, check strength and determine the extent of delamination.
2. Remove the failed Epoxy; grind or shot blast to recover clean, rough concrete.
3. Repair cracks and damaged areas with specialist mortar.
4. If moisture is rising from the slab, apply a moisture barrier before the new coating.
5. Reapply primer, main coat and topcoat according to procedure and the correct waiting time between coats.

Choosing a suitable floor system

Each area has different requirements: forklifts, chemicals, hygiene, anti-static. ANTINCORP recommends an Epoxy or PU system according to real conditions of use. See the Epoxy and PU industrial floors page.

Frequently asked questions

Concrete should be hardened and dust-proofed before Epoxy is applied: see PENESEAL FH (Vietnamese page).

See also