Epoxy System Builder

Describe the floor and get the system that fits, its layers in order from prep to topcoat, and why the other systems were ruled out.

Which Floor System Does This Job Need?

Answer what you know about the floor and the builder recommends a system, lays out its layers from prep to topcoat, and links each layer to the calculator that sizes it. It also tells you which systems it ruled out and why. Every rule comes from one of our system pages, so the answer never says anything those pages do not.

1What kind of building is it?

The weakest evidence the builder uses. It nudges between close options and never decides on its own.

2What traffic does the floor take?

Wheels and weight are what wear a floor through, so this carries a lot of weight.

3Heat and water

The single biggest decider. Daily hot water is a thermal shock test that a rigid resin film loses.

4Chemicals

Think about what reaches the floor, how strong it is, and how long it sits before anyone cleans it up.

5What should it look like?

Concrete finishes are in the running too. Sometimes the honest answer is not a coating.

6Anything else it has to do?

Tick what applies.

7What is the slab like?

Tick everything that is true. Leave them all clear for a sound, flat slab.

8Has the slab been tested for moisture?

Judged against the same bands as our concrete moisture calculator. This is slab moisture, not the humidity in the air.

The system for this job

Answer what you know above and the recommended system appears here, with its layers in order and the reasons it won.

How the Epoxy System Builder Works

  1. Pick the kind of building, or leave it blank. It is the weakest evidence the builder uses and never decides the answer on its own
  2. Say what the floor has to survive: traffic, heat and water, and chemicals. These carry the most weight
  3. Choose the look you are after, and tick daylight, wet grip or a same-day return if they apply
  4. Tick anything true of the slab, and enter a moisture reading if you have one
  5. Read the recommended system and its layers, then open the system page before you specify anything
  6. Check every layer against the product data sheet. The builder narrows the choice; the data sheet decides it

Examples

ScenarioCommercial kitchen cook lineInputKitchen · Foot traffic · Hot water and steamResultUrethane cement, with anchor grooves at every free edge. Rigid epoxy films ruled out for thermal shock
ScenarioWarehouse forklift lanes on a worn slabInputWarehouse · Forklifts and steel wheels · Worn and spalled slabResultEpoxy mortar, with high-build epoxy as the alternative. Solid color ruled out for the lanes
ScenarioGarage on a slab that has never been testedInputGarage · Vehicles · Hide the slab · Moisture not testedResultFull broadcast flake, with a moisture test added as the first step

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the builder decide?

Each answer triggers rules taken from our system pages. A rule either supports a system, rules it out, or attaches a caution to it. The system with the most support and nothing against it is the pick.

The weighting is deliberate: what the floor has to survive (heat, chemicals, hard wheels) counts for more than the look, and the look counts for more than the type of building. A building type on its own never produces a recommendation, because "showroom" says very little about what a floor has to do.

Why does it sometimes show two systems side by side?

Because the answers genuinely do not separate them, and picking one anyway would be a guess dressed up as an answer.

The common case is forklift lanes. Our pages support both a high-build epoxy and an epoxy mortar for hard wheels, and no published line divides them. What does divide them is the slab: a worn or spalled floor, or one that has to fall to drains, points to the mortar.

Why does it not give thicknesses, coverage or cure times?

Because those belong to the product you buy, not to the system. Two data sheets for the same kind of system can differ on every one of them.

Each layer links to the calculator that sizes it, and those calculators ask for the figures from your data sheet. That keeps the numbers where they can be checked.

What happens if my moisture reading is high?

The builder reads it against the same bands as our concrete moisture calculator. A borderline reading adds a step to hold it against the data sheet. A reading in the barrier band adds a moisture vapor barrier to every resin build, and lifts urethane cement and a densified floor, which tolerate slab moisture far better.

A reading in the top band recommends nothing. That is a stop: find out why the slab is that wet before choosing any floor.

Can it recommend a floor that is not a coating?

Yes. Polished concrete and grind and seal are both in its library, and for a floor that only needs to stop dusting, or where the client wants the concrete to show, they are often the honest answer. Many floors are coated to solve a problem a coating is not needed for.

Is the recommendation a specification?

No. It is decision support. It narrows a long list of systems to the one or two that fit what you told it, and tells you what those systems demand. The specification comes from the manufacturer's data sheets and, on a commercial job, from whoever is responsible for the specification. Read the system page before you commit to anything.

What if my job has more than one kind of floor?

Run the builder once for each area. A commercial kitchen is a good example: the cook line, the prep areas and the dry storage each want a different system, and specifying one system for the whole room usually overspends on the dry areas or under-builds the wet ones.

Important Notes

  • The builder only repeats what our system pages say. Each rule is checked against the page it came from every time the site is built
  • Answers left blank are treated as "no special requirement", not as a guess
  • Quartz broadcast has no system page yet, so it links to the guide on single and double broadcast
  • Always confirm the build against the manufacturer's data sheets, and keep one manufacturer top to bottom where a warranty depends on it
Epoxy Flooring Cost CalculatorOnce you know the system, price it layer by layer.Concrete Moisture CalculatorJudge a slab reading against the same bands the builder uses.Film Thickness CalculatorTurn the build a data sheet calls for into material to order.
Epoxy vs Polyaspartic: Which One Should You Choose?Both are two-part floor coatings, but they cure on completely different clocks. Here’s how they compare on cure time, UV stability, cost, and where each one wins.Flake vs Quartz: Which Broadcast Floor Fits the Job?The same build with a different aggregate. What soft chips and hard sand change: the wear, the texture, the look and where each belongs.Epoxy vs Polyurethane Topcoat: What Should Go on Top?Epoxy builds the floor; the last coat decides how it handles sunlight, scuffs and cleaning. Epoxy, polyurethane or polyaspartic, and what each demands.Full Broadcast Flake SystemA resin base coat, vinyl flake thrown into it until the surface will take no more, then a clear topcoat over the top. This is what each layer is for, what the system asks of the concrete underneath it, and the honest account of where it wins and where it does not belong.Metallic Epoxy SystemA pigmented resin coat carrying metallic particles, moved while it is wet so the pigment separates into depth and movement, then locked under a clear topcoat. This is what the layers do, what the slab has to be, and why the least repeatable floor on the market is sometimes exactly the right answer and sometimes the wrong one.Polyaspartic One-Day SystemThe whole stack goes down in a single session, which is why it gets specified for buildings that cannot close. The same short windows that make that possible remove every pause in the day, so nothing can be checked between coats and nothing can be fixed. This is what that trade actually costs.Self-Leveling Epoxy SystemThe material levels itself. It does not level your floor. That distinction decides whether this is the right specification or an expensive way to reproduce every dip in the slab, and it is the first thing to settle with a client who has read the name and drawn the obvious conclusion.Solid Color Epoxy SystemThe simplest build in the library and the hardest one to make look right. Every other system has a broadcast or a pattern to hide behind. This one gives the eye a uniform field, so the slab, the mixing, the application, the repairs and the wear all have something to be measured against.Urethane Cement Flooring SystemThe floor for the parts of a building where hot water, steam and cleaning chemicals hit the slab every day. It is not a better epoxy. It is a different material that moves with the concrete when the temperature swings, and it asks for a different installation in return.Grind and Seal Concrete FloorsGrind the slab, then seal it. The simplest finished concrete floor there is, and the one most often quoted without anyone saying which sealer they mean. That choice decides how it looks, how it wears and what it costs to keep.Moisture Mitigation Flooring SystemA barrier coat is one layer. The system is everything from the test to the topcoat, and a gap anywhere in it is where the moisture comes through. This is the build-up, in the order it goes down.High-Build Epoxy Floor SystemA thick epoxy film chosen to take traffic and abuse for longer. The label promises thickness without saying how much, so two quotes that both read "high-build epoxy" can describe very different floors. The number that matters is on the data sheet and in the quote, not in the name.Epoxy Mortar and Slurry Floor SystemsThe same epoxy that coats a floor can be loaded with filler and poured as a slurry, or packed with graded aggregate and troweled as a mortar. What changes is not the chemistry. It is how much of the floor is resin, how it goes down, and whether the job is to cover the slab or to rebuild it.Polished Concrete Floor SystemThe grit sequence gets all the attention, and it is only the middle of the system. A polished floor is decided at the pour and on the mock-up, finished by how the joints, repairs and color are handled, and kept by what happens after handover.Chemical-Resistant Floor SystemsNobody can say whether a floor is chemical resistant until someone says which chemical, how strong, how hot and for how long. The resin comes last. This page is the system around it: the exposure, the chart, the build, and the details where these floors actually fail.Commercial Kitchen FlooringThe cook line, the dish area, the walk-in and the dry store all want different floors, and most kitchen floor failures come from treating them as one. This page picks the system for each zone and covers the things only a kitchen asks of a floor.Warehouse FlooringA warehouse floor is judged by forklifts, racking and the dock doors, not by how it looks on handover day. This page decides what the floor is for, picks a system for each zone, and covers the details that only a warehouse asks for.