Our contractors faced with short customer down times, often ask us how to best apply our decorative quartz floors within very narrow window, sometimes as little as 36 hours. Typically, a color quartz floor entails two broadcast coats with an additional single clear coat to seal the system. With our regular PM DBS system, using our resin and our ICO Sealer top coat, intervals between coats are typically 12-24 hours depending on temperatures.
Of course, the contractor could apply the color quartz as a one-step trowelled system, but this method is dependent on installer skill and experience and may not look as good as a double broadcast floor and it still requires a clear seal coat. A better choice would be to use our Floor Coating FC clear coating or PM fast cure resins for all three steps. Jobs that have been installed with this system at ambient conditions have been completed in as little as 36 hours, from shutdown to start up. These materials broadcasted to refusal with color quartz can be ready for the second coat within about six hours. The same material can also be used as the final sealer coat, as it has excellent clarity and also cures fast enough to return the floor back in service 12 hours after the last application. It’s a tight squeeze but can (and has) been done in several retail establishments, notorious for short windows. In cases where UV resistance is key use ICO Ure Guard 80 or PM 500 urethane.
The slight extra material cost (about $.25/SF for the 1/8” double broadcast system) is well worth it when it means you can accommodate a good customer’s wishes. The other advantage of stocking this Floor Coating FC clear material is that, in conjunction with one of our tint concentrates, it can be easily converted to a pigmented coating as needed. All you need to do is stock quart containers of our ICO Tint (each quart is sufficient for a 4 gallons of the clear coat).