Urethane Mortar

[joeswamp]

Spoke with a commercial flooring contractor today and he described a garage flooring system I'd never heard of before -- a "urethane mortar". The way he described it was basically fine cement mixed with urethane instead of water. You put this stuff down about 1/8" thick (it self-levels), then you follow up with a coat of 100% solids epoxy and then a coat of aliphatic urethane for UV resistance. He explained that the material costs of this system is much higher than epoxy, but the labor is much less (you get the quality of a five step epoxy application with only three steps), so he recommends it for floors under 2000 square feet.

According to the contractor, this stuff has traditionally been used in commercial kitchens because it has much better thermal resistance than epoxy. However it used to be much more difficult to install (you had to lay it down with a screed box) but now that it's easy it's become much more popular. He told me to visit my local supermarket because they'd installed it behind the deli counter there a couple years ago.

The specific urethane mortar he likes to use is "Poly-Crete" by Dur-a-flex:

http://www.dur-a-flex.com/our_products/flooring_detail.aspx?sid=30

Also scroll to the bottom of:

http://eaglestoneflooring.com/products.asp

So... I did a quick search here and didn't see anything. Has anybody heard of this stuff??

 

[PAToyota]

I used to do design work in the food processing business and spec'ed a lot of those floors. Very durable. I didn't consider using it in my own shop due to the cost (at the time - sounds like it is much more reasonable now) and that I would be welding, plasma cutting, and such and was more than a bit worried about stuff catching in it and smoldering. However, the epoxy I put down hasn't fared much better.

 

[thegarageguy]

There are few versions of Dura-Flexe's Polycrete. I use it as a resurfacer when the slab is heavily detiriorated. Its a great product. It can be poured and spread from 1/8 to 1/2 inch thick, dependant on version. No need to prime and you can broadcast right into it. You can take a hammer to this system and it will not crush, shatter or crumble. It will only dent. Its amazingly strong.