Industrial wash rooms experience a lot of heat, moisture, and chemicals. All of which have corrosive elements that can deteriorate coatings and substrates. So here’s the coating application used by commercial painting contractors to increase the longevity of the substrate and paint system.
Industrial washrooms are subjected to abusive conditions. Hot water, mold, and corrosive cleaning agents. Collectively, all of these elements can be pretty damning for industrial coatings.
But despite all of these challenges, there is application techniques and material that can be applied in these challenging environments. And the combination of these techniques and material will help increase the longevity of the industrial coating.
Wash Room Paint Material
Choosing a paint for a food processing facility can be a delicate process. The paint can’t have any VOC’s, nor can it have a strong odor. Both of these can compromise the product, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost inventory for the customer.
But when you reduce the odor, you’re typically reducing the paint’s adhesive abilities. And when working in a wet room, with hot temps and chemicals, the applicator will need a product with excellent adhesion. Because chipping paint can be another hazard for a food plant.
And between all of these environmental challenges, elastomeric paints have proven to be a great solution.
Elastomeric coatings don’t have the odor that you’d get from an alkyd or urethane paint. Which is critical. And although the odor gets reduced due to reduced solvents, elastomeric coatings can still offer adequate adhesion so that it’s not flaking off the ceiling.
Elastomeric not only sticks to the ceiling, but it also sticks to itself. So if it disbonds from the ceiling, it will still be interlocked with the elastomeric membrane, preventing any paint chips from cracking and flaking.
And for these reasons, the elastomeric coating has proven to be the ideal coating for food plants.
Application Technique
Applying paint in food facilities is just as challenging is identifying the proper paint. Firstly, containment needs to be considered due to the prep required for the application.
And not only is prep and containment a large consideration but what is the substrate? An applicator can’t brush and roll material onto a corrugated ceiling or bar joists. And the elastomeric coating needs to be spray applied to get the proper thickness.
And since we’ve determined that the elastomeric coating is going to be the most beneficial paint, we have to spray apply it.
Elastomeric needs to be applied to a 25 DFT. Unfortunately, it’s 50% solid by volume, which means that half of the application will cure out of the material. What this means is that 2 coats of elastomeric will need to be applied.
In conclusion
Hot water, concentrated cleaners, mold, and mildew are all challenging elements for any painting application. The applicator needs to ensure that the proper paint is selected, to meet the needs and standards for the facility. As well as making sure that the material is applied correctly. And as long as those considerations are met, and discussed with the owner, then it’s more likely that the coating application will offer a greater longevity.