Plant floors coated to take the traffic they actually get.
Concrete floors in working plants prepared and coated to take forklifts, pallet trucks and spillage, with the slab ground open first, joints treated, aisles marked, and the work sectioned so the rest of the unit keeps running.
- Free site inspection
- Written, itemised quote
- 1-year workmanship warranty
- Same-day callback
At a glance
What does industrial floor painting involve?
A coating system put down on a concrete floor that has to carry forklifts, pallet trucks and spillage. The visible part is the colour and the line marking. What decides whether it holds is underneath: opening the slab by grinding or blasting, checking it for moisture and oil, and treating the joints and damage.
When this is the answer, and when it is not.
Sending you to the wrong service wastes your money and our time. This is how to tell.
This is likely right if
- The slab is sound but dusting, stained or soaking up oil, and you want a sealed surface that can be cleaned
- Forklift routes, walkways and machine footprints need marking out in a layout people will actually follow
- A workshop, warehouse or service bay is taking spills and wash-down that bare concrete can't cope with
- A unit is being handed over or re-let and the floor has to come back to one consistent finish
Something else comes first if
- The slab is cracking, sinking or breaking up under load, that's concrete repair, and sometimes a structural engineer's opinion, before it is a painting job
- Moisture is rising through the slab because there's no membrane beneath it, a film-forming coating will blister off, so the source has to be dealt with first
- Oil has soaked deep into the concrete under a machine or around a pit, that concrete has to be cut out and replaced, not coated over
What the service includes.
Slab survey and moisture testing
We map contamination, joints, cracks, drains and falls, check whether the concrete is sound or dusting, and test for moisture rising through the slab before anything is specified.
Sectioning and containment
The floor split into workable sections, machine bases, shutters and adjacent bays masked, and extraction run on the grinders so the rest of the unit is not covered in concrete dust.
Mechanical preparation
Diamond grinding or shot blasting to take off laitance, curing compound, old sealer and failed coating, and to open the concrete so the primer can key into it. Edges, corners and plinth bases done with hand machines.
Joint and crack treatment
Spalls and potholes cut out and patched, saw-cut and construction joints raked and filled so hard wheels stop chipping the arrises, and movement joints left free rather than bridged.
Primer and coating build
Primer chosen for the slab's porosity and its moisture reading, then coats applied to the specification and film build stated in your quotation, cut in by hand around plinths, kerbs and drain channels.
Line marking and staged handback
Aisles, walkway edges, hatching and bay numbers set out to your approved drawing, then the floor released section by section, foot traffic first, wheeled traffic when the coating allows it.
Not included, or quoted separately
- Structural concrete repair, slab replacement, moving or settling slabs, and anything needing a structural engineer's opinion
- Installing or altering drains, channels, kerbs and floor falls; a coating follows the levels it is given and won't cure ponding
- Moving machinery, racking, stock or dismantling production lines, each section has to be handed to us clear
- Damp proofing beneath the slab, which can't be done from above; if moisture readings rule out a coating we say so and stop
- Cleaning out pits, sumps and machine bases, and disposal of process waste or oil-contaminated concrete
The sequence.
Survey and moisture test
We walk the floor with your maintenance team, mark up damage, joints, oil-soaked patches and drainage, and test for moisture. If the slab or the moisture rules a coating out, you hear it at this stage rather than after the first coat.
Specification and section plan
Each area specified for the traffic and spillage it actually sees, a packing aisle and a battery-charging bay aren't the same problem. We also agree which sections come out of use, and in what order.
Clear, degrease and contain
The section handed over empty. Oil and coolant degreased off the surface, machine bases and openings masked, and the working area cordoned from live operations.
Open the slab
Grinding or blasting to a consistent profile, vacuumed as we go, with hand machines into corners, around plinths and along kerbs where the ride-on machine can't reach.
Repair, fill and coat
Damage patched, joints filled, then primer and coats applied to the agreed build, working back towards the exit so nothing has to be walked over.
Mark out, inspect and hand back
Lines chalked for your approval before they're painted, a walkthrough with you against the specification, and the floor returned to traffic in stages.
What moves the price on this job.
We do not publish a rate, because it would change once someone measured your property. These are the variables that decide it.
- Measured floor area, and how much of it is cut-in detail, plinths, kerbs, drain channels, columns and racking legs
- Condition of the slab and how much grinding or shot blasting the preparation needs, which is the largest variable on this work
- Whether a failed coating, curing compound or old sealer has to come off before anything new goes down
- The system specified for each area, a thin roller-applied floor paint sits in the surface and wears through where wheels turn and brake, so a bay taking forklifts needs a built-up film with enough thickness to carry that point loading
- Extent of line marking, hatching, bay numbering and anti-skid broadcast
- How the floor is handed over: one clear area, or sections worked around live production and out of hours
Industrial Floor Painting — your questions.
Can the floor be painted while the plant is running?
Not in the same bay. The area we're working in has to be handed over empty of stock, racking and vehicles, and stay off traffic while the coating cures. What we can do is split the floor into sections and take them one at a time, or work through a planned shutdown or a night shift, so the rest of the unit keeps operating. The section plan is agreed before we start.
Why does the slab have to be ground or blasted? It looks clean already.
A trowelled concrete floor has a weak, cement-rich skin on top, and often a curing compound or an old sealer as well. Coating bonds to whatever is on the surface, so if that skin lifts, the coating lifts with it in sheets. Grinding or shot blasting takes it off and opens the pores so the primer can key into sound concrete. Washing alone can't do that.
Our last floor coating peeled up under the forklift wheels. Why did that happen?
Usually one of three things. The slab wasn't mechanically prepared, so the coating was only stuck to the surface skin. Or moisture was pushing up from below and broke the bond from behind. Or the film was too thin for the traffic, and warm forklift tyres gripped it and pulled it off, which is hot tyre pickup. We test for all three before quoting, because the fix differs for each.
Can you make the floor non-slip?
Yes, by broadcasting a graded aggregate into the coating on ramps, wash-down areas and anywhere that gets wet. It is a trade-off worth understanding: the coarser the texture, the better the grip and the harder the floor is to mop or squeegee clean. We usually vary it by area, fine or none in dry aisles and coarser where water and oil land.
Do you do the line marking, and can you change our aisle layout?
We set out and paint aisle lines, walkway edges, hatched zones, machine footprints and bay numbers, to a layout you approve on a drawing before anything is marked. Deciding that layout is your call rather than ours, since it follows your traffic routes and your own safety requirements. Once it is agreed we chalk it on the floor for you to check before paint goes down.
Related services
- Epoxy Floor CoatingWhen the traffic or the spillage needs a thicker epoxy build than a floor paint will carry.
- Dampness and Seepage TreatmentIf moisture is coming up through the slab, that's traced and treated before any coating.
- Factory and Industrial PaintingThe walls, columns and steelwork above the floor, usually done in the same shutdown.
Let us look at your walls first.
Tell us about the property and we will set up a free colour and wall inspection. You get a written, itemised quotation afterwards, with no obligation to go ahead.
- We call you back the same day to get a picture of the property and the surfaces.
- We agree a time and come out for the free inspection.
- You get the written scope and itemised quotation.
- Nothing starts until you approve it.