Epoxy Floors for Breweries

A brewery is a company that makes and sells beer. Commercial breweries date back as far as 2500 BC; in those days, most beer production occurred in people's homes. But by the ninth century, farms and monasteries started producing beer in much larger quantities for personal use and then selling the excess. This led to a substantial expansion of breweries over the next hundred years, leading to individual breweries being explicitly built for beer production and sales. Today's breweries match the diversity of these early breweries and include nano-breweries, micro-breweries, regional, craft, and macro-breweries.

While the size of a brewery varies, the brewing process remains similar. Typical breweries are divided into specific areas, with each being designated for a particular part of the brewing process. These areas are grain handling and milling, brewing, fermentation and aging, filtration, conditioning, and packaging. Because of the vast variance in the type of work done in each area, commercial epoxy floor coatings must be all-encompassing. Industry professionals like Creative Maintenance Solutions, Inc. suggests considering all areas of a brewery when choosing or updating your brewery floor.

Commercial breweries use a slew of bulky equipment, despite the size of the facility. Some of the machines and tools used include the things you generally think of, like the colossal stainless-steel kettles where the beer brews. But breweries also use devices to crack grain, cap and label bottles, seal cans, and mix ingredients. In addition to that, large, temperature-controlled vessels called fermenters are needed to cool and pump beer, and stacks are used to carry steam out of breweries as part of their ventilation system. Each of these machines puts different stress on the brewery floor. There may be other non-production areas of your building that you'd like to consider applying commercial epoxy floor coatings, like administration offices, tasting rooms, or sales floors.

When choosing your commercial epoxy floor coatings, think of each area and the machines used in them. Ask yourself if the floor in a particular area will be exposed to a lot of moisture due to spills, cleaning, or condensation from the machinery. Will there be a risk of mold, mildew, or other contamination concerns? Is the area vulnerable to temperature changes, or is one place hot and another cold? How close are these areas to different types of flooring? Does your facility offer tours to the public? Does your current brewery flooring meet their safety needs?

While some companies have the luxury of choosing a floor based solely on its appearance, businesses in the food and beverage industry are different. Breweries primarily are held to a high set of rules and regulations from how they are built, designed, set up, and run. Every aspect of the facility and process needs to meet legal requirements. If these standards are not met, breweries risk losing the ability to operate legally. This includes the type of flooring system that is installed throughout the brewery. Some of these requirements relate to the following;

Hygiene: Because of the hygienic requirements of a brewery, flooring must be made of a non-porous material. This means there cannot be any gaps, spaces, cracks, or penetrate-able areas of the flooring. The flooring system needs to have antimicrobial characteristics to minimize the risk of growing bacteria that could affect the integrity of the brewing process.

Chemicals: Brewery floors need to be able to withstand repeated exposure to moisture and chemicals. Chemical-resistant floors do not degrade quickly. Premature degradation of brewery floors makes bacteria growth more likely and creates an uneven, unsafe floor for employees and visitors. In addition to protecting against chemicals in your brewery, commercial epoxy floor coatings should also possess green properties, minimizing any harmful environmental impact.

Safety: Flooring systems in breweries must be able to adapt to both dry and wet conditions. Because breweries deal with excessive liquids, the flooring will be exposed to a tremendous amount of moisture. While the hygienic aspect is essential, so is the safety of your staff and customers. Brewery floors need commercial epoxy floor coatings that stand up to these circumstances while providing additional skid resistance. The most common type of injuries reported in breweries are slips and falls.

Now that you've answered the questions above, considered the different areas of your brewery, and researched the rules and regulations surrounding brewery floors, Creative Maintenance Solutions, Inc. recommends learning more about commercial epoxy floor coatings.

Epoxy: Epoxy flooring is a popular option for many reasons. It's cost-effective, extremely durable, easy to install, and fast-curing. Because of the ease of installation and fast cure time, flooring can be fixed or replaced with minimal disruption to your brewery. However, epoxy does wear over time and needs to be reapplied. Epoxy can be applied in varying thicknesses, depending on the needs of the brewery and, more specifically, the needs of each area of the brewery. From light-duty to medium to heavy-duty applications, professional concrete flooring installers will provide a high-performance flooring system perfect for the brewery's needs. A bonus of commercial epoxy floor coatings is the unlimited decorative options. Concrete experts like Creative Maintenance Solution pay close attention to the textures and colors added to make your brewery floor pleasing to the eye and functional.

Urethane: Urethane cement flooring was formulated to handle the daily cleaning and temperature changes that occur daily in the food and beverage industry. This flooring system's design allows it to absorb high-impact abuse and thermal shock without damaging the floor's structure. If your brewery experiences this type of environment, urethane cement flooring could be a good option for you. Like epoxy, urethane flooring systems help prevent the build-up of bacterial contamination and have decorative additive options.

Now you'd probably like to know which is a better choice. Should you use epoxy or urethane flooring in your brewery? The knowledgeable contractors at Creative Maintenance Solutions understand this is an important decision. This is why they suggest getting as much information as possible before deciding. According to CMS, both materials have pros and cons that apply to commercial buildings like a brewery. Let's learn more about the similarities and differences between the two.

In the brewery industry, as with any other, it's essential to be able to concentrate on running your business and focus on the day-to-day operations. The more time you spend on cleaning and maintaining your concrete flooring system, the less time you have to run your business. Installing a floor with commercial epoxy floor coatings minimizes the need to worry about upkeep, spills, and fixing damage to your floor. Here are a few of the significant benefits explored a little more in-depth.

Durability

Epoxy and urethane floor coatings are durable, hard, and strong. They will stand up to heavy machinery and vehicular and pedestrian traffic and protect against scratches, scrapes, and cracks. Moisture is no issue for these floors. Spills do not penetrate the surface and are mopped up without any fuss. When your business requires large, bulky equipment, hauling kegs of beer, spills, drips, and drops, epoxy or urethane floors are the way to go.

Safety

Floor coating like epoxy and urethane provides a multitude of safety features. These floor coatings are shiny and instantly increase the brightness and visibility in a room because they reflect light. In addition to being an overall mood booster, the brightness highlights walkways and work areas, reducing the risk of workplace accidents. The non-skid properties of epoxy and urethane contribute further to this added safety. Textured areas prevent slips and falls by adding grip support. Potential hazards like debris and spills are easily swept and mopped away, leaving behind a clean, dry surface.

Low Maintenance

Coated concrete floors are extraordinarily low maintenance. Considering that breweries have the added work of sloped floors and drainage systems that other businesses don't have to contend with, you need floors that are easy to care for. Epoxy and urethane floors require very little maintenance and are almost effortless to keep clean and sterile.

Cost-Effective

Creative Maintenance Solutions understands the importance of your bottom line. That's just one of the reasons they recommend epoxy and urethane flooring. These affordable options, especially when compared to vinyl, wood, or tile floors, spare you an unnecessary expense. The ease on your pocketbook combined with the ease of care and installation make the flooring choice easy: epoxy or urethane is the way to go.

When your brewery floor doesn't give you the look or benefits you desire, epoxy and urethane floor coatings provide the solution. A professional installation by knowledgeable industry professionals leaves you with a worthwhile, sustainable investment for years to come.

If you've been thinking about installing, upgrading, or replacing the flooring system throughout your brewery, contact Creative Maintenance Solutions to help guide you. Since 1989, Creative Maintenance Solutions, Inc. has provided high-quality concrete floor coating solutions to breweries throughout southeastern Wisconsin. CMS meets their client's needs, from choosing the perfect flooring option to a seamless installation, all while making sure to meet deadlines and budgets so you can keep brewing!