Coating a Cannabis Lab Floor with Ecodur

The Canadian cannabis industry is booming and owners and operators of labs and production spaces like them to be pristine and easy to clean. With concrete washable floors, over time cracks often develop that make keeping them spotless more and more difficult to the point where surfaces simply need to be renewed.

In Fredrickton, New Brunswick, one such lab, BGC Engineering, was in need of a revamp. The floor had small cracks and the surface coating was a dull gray.

Problem.
The lab management wanted the floor coated with the minimum of disruption, no VOCs, and a finish that would be attractive to users and visitors alike. With the trend for permanent showroom standard finishes on concrete, they wanted a similar result.

Aside from the cosmetic appeal and safety aspects, they also wanted it to be robust, permanently adhere to the concrete substrate, and cope well with the use of industrial cleaning solutions over a long period.

Solution.
VOC-free, non-toxic Ecodur was chosen. It is made from castor oil and soft rock gypsum and has exceptional adhesion on concrete as evidenced by its extensive use in garages, private and public multi-storey commercial ones over the past 25 years.

Importantly, Ecodur has permanently retained elasticity which not only copes with foot and a vehicular traffic such as a cars and fork-lifts, it is also Class A flame retardant and ANSI/NSF-61 certified for contact with human drinking water. Having been used to protect oil and production water tanks, it is also highly resistant to harsh cleaning products.

Application Results.
Preparation was key for a successful result and maximizing adhesion. The concrete floor with its original coating, was rigorously abraded with a high-power industrial grinder to remove all anomalies, eliminate the original coating, fully expose cracks and provide a perfect substrate surface for the application of Ecodur.

The Lifetimes Coating team then applied the Ecodur manually to an average depth of 30 mils. Its self-leveling properties quickly established a smooth and even surface which set up within 40 minutes during which time decorative flakes were distributed with a sprinkler machine. A final hard, glossy topcoat was applied for the showroom finish and to protect and seal in the flakes.

Ecodur is, effectively, one of the very best primers for today’s new generation of decorative and cool coat finishes because of its exceptional adhesion and elimination of micro-cracking failures that beset many conventional epoxy coatings over time, especially where there is heavy foot and machine traffic as well as torquing as experienced on large vessels.

Within 24-hours of application, the Ecodur was fully cured and, shortly thereafter, the entire floor was declared fit for use.