Concrete floors are an essential part of your plant infrastructure. Let’s face it, there’s no other real affordable option for large product storage areas. But, these large floor have to have joints to allow for stress relief and expansion/contraction to prevent cracking that could lead to eventual structural failure.

These joints have always been a weak point in the flooring system for areas of heavy traffic. However, the introduction of automated lifts and carts have pushed conventional joint design past its limits. These machines are precise. So precise that the wheels never vary from the most efficient and direct path. This shows up in wear patterns in the floor. However, the real damage is to the joint. These heavy loads are concentrated on smaller wheels that make the machine

The bar for affordability of a pump for joint filling just dropped. Just because your projects are smaller, working on your hands and knees to fill floor joints shouldn’t be your only option.

Check out this updated article explaining how much more affordable pumping joint filler is now. The article is the same. But, the numbers are crazy low.

So, you’re comfortable filling floor joints on the average job. It’s easy. Just get some cartridges and start pumping. But now you’re looking at a larger project and there are far more joints to be filled than your average job. You’re adding up the cost of the cartridges you’ll need on this one and it’s a big number. Plus, you’ll need more people to install it 20 ounces at a time.

You know that these materials are available in bulk

So, you’re comfortable filling floor joints on the average job. It’s easy. Just get some cartridges and start pumping. But now you’re looking at a larger project and there are far more joints to be filled than your average job. You’re adding up the cost of the cartridges you’ll need on this one and it’s a big number. Plus, you’ll need more people to install it 20 ounces at a time.

You know that these materials are available in bulk units. But you’d need a pump and you’re not sure you’d have another need to use it again any time soon. Seems like a like a bad investment for just one job. Let’s take a look at the math for a clearer picture.

Example: Assume you have a 6” thick slab and have 7500lf of 1/8” saw cut joints. The depth of the cut is 25% or 1.5”. The average coverage for this joint is

Concrete joint sealants and joint fillers are different in both chemical formulation and intended use. Elastomeric Joint Sealants are cold-applied elastomeric single or multi-component materials used for sealing, caulking, or glazing operations on buildings, plazas, and decks for vehicular or pedestrian use, and types of construction other than highway and airfield pavements and bridges. The primary purpose of a joint sealant is to keep water, dirt, and debris out of the joint. Designed to be able to expand and contract along with the joint, sealants are relatively soft and flexible materials, typically polyurethane, silicone, or acrylic in composition.

Hard-wheeled vehicles, carts, and pallet jacks traveling over a sealant-filled joint will cause it to deflect, leaving the edges of the joint unprotected. Leading to edge cracking and spalling.

All those little chips in your floor joints weren’t a big deal at first. Now after years of traffic impact, they have gotten larger and now you have to address them. The rough travel is killing your forklifts but you don’t feel like you can shutdown traffic for an extensive repair. The truth is, if you have 4 hours at night or on a weekend, you can fix it permanently.

Check out a step-by-step guide to extensive joint repairs and do it yourself.

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Walk in coolers, freezers, and cold storage areas are integral parts to your facility’s productivity. Just like the processing area, these areas of sub-freezing temperatures are also subject to floor damage from normal wear and tear. If these cracks, spalls, or chipped floors go unfixed, it could lead to delays in production or even create a tripping hazard. Most repair materials cannot be applied in ambient temperatures and tend to lose their shore hardness. Selecting the correct application is just as important as the actual repair. Below are a few simple rules to follow when selecting a cold storage repair material:

4 Things to Consider When Selecting the Correct Materials for Repairing Floor Joints in Cold Storage Areas

1. Materials that can be applied in ambient temperatures

You’ve spent the money to get the right flooring for your production areas. It’s perfect. Now you have to maintain it’s like new condition to make sure it can do the job of protecting your concrete floors. 

The new surface will be subjected to impact, normal wear, dragging pallets, cleaning chemicals and high temperature water. These conditions will attack the new surface and will eventually compromise some part of it. It’s not what you want to happen, but it will. The key is to address the failures immediately. Any damage left un-repaired could get worse given the harshness of the service.

These areas can be a path to water getting under your flooring leading to bacteria growth that could cause the flooring to fail.

Take some simple steps to make sure you have a plan

Concrete floors in almost any industry take a real beating on a daily basis. And with all of the traffic in a modern operation, they have to be in service as close to 24/7 as possible. Nobody can justify changing the traffic flow for any length of time unless there’s no other choice. 

Fortunately, there are many innovative options designed to repair floors and joints that require only a minimal time out of service. Most areas can be repaired and opened back up to service in as little as a matter of minutes. 

Even with all kinds of options, most people aren’t focused on these repairs. Some think that it’s just something that’s too complicated for them to tackle. Others don’t think they have the time to do it. The truth is, most of the time, these repairs are done with whatever is available. Give us a call when you