Why Surface Prep?

The Key to a Successful Project

When talking coatings, the industry widely agrees that surface preparation is the most important step for any successful coatings job. Whether you are working with concrete floor coatings, epoxy coating metal or any other coating for that matter, the quality of the preparation work will determine if your project will be a successful one.

Proper surface preparation will save you time, money, and ensure the coatings adhere to your surface. There are several different methods and tools that can be used for surface preparation.

Vapor Abrasive Blasting should be the preferred method of surface preparation. Not only is it easier on you, it is also easy on the environment. This can be the most cost effective method and it helps save you time. Vapor Blasting strips, cleans, and profiles all at the same time so your surface is ready and prepared immediately after.

WHY IS SURFACE PREPARATION SO IMPORTANT?

The most important part of a coating system - is the surface preparation. Why? Because it directly affects the performance of the coating more than any other variable. Given that the correct coating system is selected, if the surface preparation is poor, coating performance is usually going to be poor. If surface preparation is good, then the coating applied over it is likely to perform well.

Vapor Abrasive blasting both cleans a surface and roughens it. This roughness is called anchor profile. The specification will specify how rough the surface must be before the paint is applied. A coatings lifespan is longer on a blast-cleaned surface than on a hand-cleaned surface.

It is useful to know the reasons why surface preparation is so important, because knowing why can help the coatings applicator do a better job.

CONCLUSION

There's an old cliché that still holds true - a top quality coating put on a marginally prepared surface will perform no better than a cheap coating applied to a squeaky clean surface. This statement is an oversimplification of the problem, but there's still a great deal of truth in the statement as well.