Cement Coatings

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There are a lot of ads for cement coatings; however what it actually is covers a multitude of products. In essence, cement coatings are some kind of colored or non colored resurfacing material that is created out of Portland Cement, adding Silica sand and blending it all with an acrylic bonding agent or agents. Thickness of these cement coatings varies since it can be applied thinly or thick, but in general one sees about 3/16” thickness, and usually a portion of it will have been sprayed and a portion will have been troweled.

The normal application sequence is that a base coat will be squeegeed or sprayed on old concrete, then allowed to dry. A texture coat will then be sprayed in tiny drops. That will then be troweled until it is smooth, at which point the finish seal coat, which may also be colored, is then applied.

The ordinary cement coating job will take approximately 3 days, give or take a day. This is because it takes the base coat 24-48 hours to dry completely. The texture coat is then applied and it takes approximately 3 hours to dry, thus the finish coat will ordinarily be applied the following day, and this takes about 2 hours to completely dry. The results will definitely be harder than concrete, but the addition of the Silica will make it susceptible to sharp objects, however it will wear better than ordinary uncoated concrete.

Now we come to Silikal cement coatings, which are entirely different than what was described above. First, you must realize that Silikal is a cement floor covering reactive resin system. Thus, Silikal bonds deeper to the cement than let’s say urethane concrete does. In addition, Silikal is not a rigid product. Thus, it will flex with minor stresses, unlike others that crack and then crumble.

Both epoxy and polyurethane floors will inevitably have pinholes in them due to their chemical makeup. Those porous pinholes unfortunately will allow bacteria and dirt to enter under the coating and then an odoriferous problem develops.

Silikal on the other hand will have no pinholes, thereby remaining monolithic throughout. In addition remember those 3 days described for an ordinary cement coating to take place? Silikal flooring can be put back in service after a mere hour has passed since the last coat was put onto the floor.

Remember too that only Silikal utilizes enhanced MMA, thus you now have a choice: a Silikal floor or a floor that allows bacteria, odors, mold, dirt, bugs and possibly rodents to live with your floor. Silikal is so much better than the ordinary cement coating!