CPC Floor Coatings Blog

Have you ever walked into your company’s warehouse, manufacturing floor, or retail area to discover a large crack in your concrete floor that you're pretty sure wasn’t there the day before? Perhaps you’ve just had a brand-new concrete floor poured for your new facility, and a week later it’s covered in tiny cracks.

What happened? Is your floor weakened or damaged beyond repair?

Let’s take a look at some of the common reasons that concrete floors crack and what it means for your business:

Cracking is part of concrete’s natural tendency

When it’s first poured, concrete is a liquid. Over the course of a couple of days, it hardens into a solid, shrinking as it does so. This initial shrinking often results in hairline cracking within the first few days of installation. Different mixtures and ratios of the cement may minimize some cracking, but can’t eliminate it completely.

In the medical and pharmaceutical industries, there’s no cutting corners. Can you imagine a surgeon skipping sterilization before an operation? An X-ray technician neglecting to place a protective apron on a patient? Or a manufacturer deciding to mix a drug differently just because a key material ran out? The answer is an undeniable no. Precision is a must, and it’s built into every process.

So why isn’t it always the case when it comes to a medical research or pharmaceutical facility’s flooring?

You’ve seen it happen before — a concrete floor that looks clean and solid but quickly turns dull, dusty, and hard to maintain. Maybe it's in a warehouse where forklifts have worn it down, or in a retail space where every stain becomes a distraction. 

How many steps does your team take across the factory floor every day? Probably hundreds of thousands, if not more. If you have forklifts around, that means more hectic traffic on your floors. 

Epoxy coatings are a popular choice for protecting floors in industrial and commercial environments, and for good reason. They offer several advantages, including durability, chemical resistance, and a clean, professional appearance. But to get the most out of those advantages and extend the floor’s lifespan, proper epoxy floor maintenance is essential.

As of December 2024, the U.S. warehousing and storage industry employed over 1.85 million workers, continuing a post-pandemic employment surge. With this boom, the safety, efficiency, and longevity of warehouse operations have never been more critical. To put this in perspective, according to the Government Accountability Office’s late 2024 report, falls, slips, and trips rank among the top three hazards causing the most injuries and illnesses in general warehousing operations.

Most people reading this article are considering upgrading their facility with epoxy floor coating, and they want to know the bottom line: how long will it take for their epoxy floor to dry or cure? While there's a somewhat straightforward answer to that question, this is not the right approach to calculating the full project timeline. The truth is, given the scope of such a project, focusing only on dry or cure time can lead to costly planning errors.

Equipment performance, food storage protocols, sanitation procedures, temperature control, and employee hygiene — these are just a few of the many elements under the microscope during a food safety audit. But have you taken a moment to consider what’s right beneath your feet?

Concrete floors are bound to crack over time. They cure, and then they settle, sometimes resulting in a cracked surface or slab.

Once a crack exists, it can be worsened by other routine activities and common events. Things like moisture seeping into the cracks, exposure to oils or chemicals that contaminate or corrode the floor, poor cleaning due to existing cracks, and vehicles driving over the cracked surfaces will all aggravate cracks in a concrete floor.

There are many reasons why concrete floors crack. The important thing is that when it happens, you know what you should and should not do. 

Don't you hate it when you don't have all of the facts? What's even worse is when you ask a question to get the facts, and then you get a roundabout answer that doesn't really answer the question.

We hate that, too — which is why we always try to be direct with our customers at CPC Floor Coatings. We want you to not only have accurate information, but also complete information. That's why we're sharing four facts that are often withheld from customers on the hunt for floor coatings.