Hey @growopowners @ProcessorOwners and @LabOwner, I wanted to start a conversation about the flooring issues you encounter with your facilities. What seems to be the biggest “hot button”? Are there any reoccurring problems you can’t seem to get a handle on? I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
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We are getting ready to build our drying, trimming, curing, storage building.
I’m curious what floor coatings y’all use in your cannabis facilities.
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We make a polyaspartic resinous coating (looks like an epoxy, but different chemistry). The brand name is Spartacote (SPARTACOTE® | Resinous Flooring & Decorative Finishes | LATICRETE®). There’s an antimicrobial formulation that seems to be very popular. Its extremely durable (high abrasion and chemical resistance) and, due to a fast cure time, allows minimal down time for the facility. Due to it’s performance characteristics, this product has a wide spectrum of applications. In addition to grow facilities/labs/processing buildings, it gets used in manufacturing/industrial settings, hospitals (OR’s/Labs), car dealerships, commercial kitchens, etc.
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Great question, @Laticrete_Rob! In a facility I once worked, we used an epoxy that is usually used for garage floors. The problem he experienced with the epoxy involved durability. We found it unable withstand the regular wear and tear that we put on a floor. Over the course of one or two cycles, the epoxy would chip and expose the concrete. We’d have to strip the rooms and reapply the epoxy, which would leave us down for two to three days as we waited for the floor to dry. This definitely impacted our bottom line!
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Yep @Growernick, downtime is $$$. Sounds like you could also have had a floor prep issue. If the concrete isn’t prepared properly, the coating will fail. I also run into situations in some areas of the country where moisture in the slab causes the failure.
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It was a 75 year old building, so time has taken it’s toll on the floors. In arid Southern Arizona, it’s rarely a moisture issue. Regardless of the cause, down time = lost $.
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Lol the last place that I worked for didn’t even have drains in ANY of the growing rooms… I am not sure if that is normal but if your building a 30,000 square foot facility to grow cannabis indoors… I would think drains would be crucial. lol.
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Looks like a nice choice. What’s that stuff run $/ft roughly?
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One of the most critical, however commonly overlooked, parts to a cultivation environment!
Even with drains, our epoxy floors chipped all the time down to the bare cement! No bueno 
How long do your floors last with lots of wear and tear?
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Back when I had concrete floors I simply spread lime on the floor. Low cost and no down time. Easy peasy.
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Honestly, I didn’t stay long enough to to see any terrible developments but while I was working at PW I have came in in the morning to see a whole flower room flooded because the drains on the tables were clogged, I noticed that it is one of the most over-looked things … totally understanding there is A LOT to think about when building a cultivation facility but you must remember all these little details though!
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The devil is in the details
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You’re probably looking at $5-$8/sqft installed. The degree of prep needed will determine where you land between those 2 numbers.
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Polycuramene its 10x stronger than epoxy! I used to used it in my auto shops can add metallic flake.
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CDPH approved our concrete floors with no issues at all.
Our biggest complaint is because they’re slightly porous we can have some staining issues from trim and biomass getting on the floor. But a good professional cleaning every six months and regular touchups by our staff keeps it in relatively good shape.
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Thanks. Will look into it. We were looking at something called “GreenKoat”. Not sure it’s the same thing but very helpful.
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If they built the facility from foundation up then that’s definitely something that was overlooked. But, most commercial cultivations heretofore have been repurposed warehouse space.
Most owners don’t want to add the expense of cutting drains for irrigation plumbing let alone open floor drainage.
To show how crucial that can be, there is one growop I know about that overran the tables because of an incorrect valve/pump switch setting. Because they didn’t get all the runoff off the floor they ended up losing over 1/2 of the crop due to mold. That difference in revenue alone would have paid for the drains though lack of attention was the real differentiator.
This is also why it’s important not to have too much moisture in the flower room when lights are out including in the nutrient tank (place it outside the room), or soil on the table.
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Ouch! We can all learn a lesson from that mistake
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@simplyeric, We make a polyaspartic resinous coating (looks like an epoxy, but different chemistry). The brand name is Spartacote (https://laticrete.com/en/resinous-and-decorative-finishes ). There’s an antimicrobial formulation that seems to be very popular. Its extremely durable (high abrasion and chemical resistance) and, due to a fast cure time, allows minimal down time for the facility. Due to it’s performance characteristics, this product has a wide spectrum of applications. In addition to grow facilities/labs/processing buildings, it gets used in manufacturing/industrial settings, hospitals (OR’s/Labs), car dealerships, commercial kitchens, etc. The link will provide additional info. If I can help, please let me know.
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Heard from a customer recently who has had the Spartacote coating system in his facility for about 6 months. The reflectivity of his floor has allowed him to reduce his lighting energy costs by 25%+. Not sure if this would interest any @growopowners, @ProcessorOwners or @LabOwner but thought I’d put it out there.
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