Concrete Repair

What to Do With a Damaged Concrete Floor

Impact Flooring Services provide a full range of concrete floor repair products and systems, including cement-based polymer-modified mortars, epoxy resins, and polyurethane resins to repair old, damaged floors so they return to a usable standard. Further resin coating or screed systems may be subsequently applied to transform tired, old-looking slabs.

The picture above shows a floor that was heavily contaminated with adhesives from a previous occupant. Impact first prepared the slab using high speed, low dust diamond grinding, which revealed that the slab had been damaged extensively. Repairs were carried out, in this case using epoxy resin flooring repair mortar, prior to the installation of a polyurethane resin screed.

How to Repair Surface Cracks in a Concrete Floor

It’s a fact that concrete floors can and do crack. Concrete does not bend or stretch without breaking. With alterations in temperature, concrete does shrink and expand. And as a result of this, it cracks. This is exactly why it’s vital to have built-in expansion joints on a concrete floor. Expansion joints exist to encourage the occurrence of expansion along the grooves rather than over the floor surface. At Impact Flooring Services we utilise a cementitious resin solution to repair concrete floors when they crack. This resin solution is specially produced to level out damaged or rough concrete. Furthermore, it is fully capable of withstanding heavy traffic such as forklifts. We also use an epoxy polyurethane crack repair/ filling compound to fill unwanted grooves and dips in the concrete. This compound, when it cures, becomes even stronger than concrete. Additionally, it can be painted over and accepts floor coatings. Sometimes we will use non-cementitious products, though they are not as strong. Therefore, when the non-cementitious product is mixed with a cement mix or with dried sand it does create a very tough topping – a topping that is proven within many industries.

Repairing Holes in a General Concrete Floor

To repair holes in a general concrete floor any solution that we’ve mentioned above can be employed. Each of them comes with its own unique qualities. Nevertheless, we do avoid using products that tend to be fast curing in areas that are large or where the holes are deep. The resultant heat from the applicable product will have a tendency to cause cracking.

Concrete Floor Repair in Damp Areas

Dampness can occur almost anywhere though it is most common in areas where cracks have formed, at areas where expansion joints have been inserted, or around a building’s perimeter in places where dampness is either making its way through external walls or has started to track through the concrete from the exterior of the building. If the dampness has become a problem because it’s making its way through the concrete, we use a primer that provides an excellent long-lasting cure to the problem. Most frequently, primers are used for sealing and priming floors before a coloured topcoat is applied. However, primers can likewise be used as sealer coats and, by and of itself, the primer will handle plenty of wear and tear. If, on the other hand, dampness has started to penetrate the external walls and into the concrete floor, normally we find that this occurs within the first 300-400mm of the floor. In that circumstance, we generally coat a metre-wide strip right around the internal side of the building’s perimeter wall. When dampness is a problem at floor cracks or at the joints, we make sure that, before filling, the void is completely dry. If it’s necessary to dry the area fast, we introduce a hot air gun or a blowtorch since the weather in the U.K. is not always amenable to what we would like.