Installing a Floor System Designed for Chemical Containment in Wilmington, MA

We recent­ly fin­ished a project in Wilm­ing­ton, MA, that called for our exper­tise in both paint­ing and meet­ing cus­tomized indus­tri­al floor­ing needs.

Our client is a lead­ing man­u­fac­tur­er of world-class water purifi­ca­tion sys­tems. Two new rooms had just been added to their oper­a­tional facil­i­ty, and these spaces were designed specif­i­cal­ly to house the new tech­nol­o­gy and equip­ment they use for inno­va­tion and development.

As is often the sce­nario for our indus­tri­al floor­ing clients, this com­pa­ny had very spe­cif­ic needs. In this case, their floor­ing sys­tem had to be designed for chem­i­cal con­tain­ment, just in case there were any spills from their new equip­ment. Work­ing in close com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the vari­ety of oth­er trades that were sup­ply­ing their ser­vices, we began apply­ing a floor­ing solu­tion that would check off every item on the list of requirements.

What Does a Chem­i­cal Con­tain­ment Floor Sys­tem Look Like?

There were a few key com­po­nents involved, so let’s take a clos­er look at those before we dig into the spe­cif­ic prod­ucts used.

• The Floor Itself — We installed a seam­less epoxy chem­i­cal con­tain­ment floor sys­tem. If you would like more details about the ben­e­fits of a sys­tem like this one, be sure to vis­it our epoxy floor coat­ings overview. In short, how­ev­er, this is a strong, durable, easy to main­tain option. As you’ll see in a moment when we dis­cuss the prod­uct details, it also is a sys­tem that can be eas­i­ly tai­lored for your indus­tri­al or com­mer­cial environment.
• Cove Base — A trow­eled cove base is essen­tial­ly a seam­less, curved exten­sion of the floor­ing that wraps just slight­ly up the wall. It elim­i­nates the typ­i­cal sharp edge between the floor and wall, and is ide­al for easy clean­ing and, of course, con­tain­ment of spills.
• Con­tain­ment Coat­ing — Tak­ing the con­tain­ment just a bit fur­ther, we also extend­ed the epoxy top­coat that we used for the floor 14” up the wall from the base.
• Extra Fea­tures — In case of larg­er chem­i­cal spills, there are pop-up gates designed to cor­ral and con­tain. For added vis­i­bil­i­ty, we paint­ed the box­es that des­ig­nate trench areas with an eye-catch­ing safe­ty yellow.

What Kind of Epoxy Do You Use for Chem­i­cal Containment?

For this project, we applied two high-qual­i­ty products:

• PIP Pro­tect 1000 — Chem­i­cal-resis­tant, pig­ment­ed primer
• PIP Pro­tect 1750 Novolac — Topcoat

Both of these epoxy coat­ings are specif­i­cal­ly devel­oped for excep­tion­al chem­i­cal resis­tance, and are able to per­form in the face of the harsh con­di­tions you would expect to find in a chem­i­cal pro­cess­ing plant. Caus­tics, strong acids, and sol­vents are not an issue.

Inte­ri­or and Exte­ri­or Paint­ing in Wilm­ing­ton, MA

For the paint­ing por­tion of this project, we chose Pro­mar 200 Zero-VOC from Sher­win-Williams. Not only does it offer a beau­ti­ful, durable fin­ish, but the lack of VOCs means that there is no odor. A non-intru­sive paint was ide­al for a project like this where there were both oth­er trades at work and ongo­ing oper­a­tions in the facil­i­ty nearby.

Can We Answer Your Paint­ing or Floor­ing Questions?

We are always here to help, and are more than hap­py to answer any ques­tions you might have. Why not give us a call at Kaloutas today?

Kaloutas is New Eng­land’s pre­mier con­trac­tor for com­mer­cial & indus­tri­al paint­ing, floor­ing, and relat­ed ser­vices. Estab­lished in 1987, Kaloutas has become a trust­ed resource for gen­er­al con­trac­tors, facil­i­ties man­agers, and build­ing own­ers from Con­necti­cut to Maine. Our team prides itself on high qual­i­ty work­man­ship, jobs done on time & bud­get, and tack­ling com­plex projects that oth­er con­trac­tors don’t have the expe­ri­ence or resources to han­dle. Con­tact us today for a paint­ing or floor­ing esti­mate, or give us a call at 978−532−1414 to learn more.