How to Speed Up Cure Times

With the ever-increasing time pressure on contractors to return the floor to service as fast as possible, there are increasing requests to speed up the cure times.  While fast cure hardeners are helpful, as application temperatures drop down to 50°F and even below, turnaround times become much longer.  One way to speed things up a little is to allow the mixed product to sit in the bucket (“induct”) for several minutes prior to applying.  This will generate more heat and thus, will accelerate the cure times, especially when applied on relatively cold floors.   Obviously, this induction process cannot be carried out too long as it will greatly reduce working times, as well.  The last thing you need is for the material to start gelling as soon as you apply it!  While this is by no means a standard operating procedure, it has proven helpful, particularly in trowel-applied floors, in shortening the cure times.

In many thin film applications, the winning bidder will have figured out how to cut his installation times compared to his competition.  One way to do this is to cut labor costs on the job by minimizing the number of coats.  While many applicators prefer to apply a primer and then two top coats to ensure best adhesion and hide, there are some useful short cuts.  One is to thin the first coat with solvent, thereby improving the penetration and hence, the adhesion.  However, this has the disadvantage of producing an odor and always could result in entrapped solvent weakening the film.  Perhaps a better way is to order our low viscosity primer tinted so that just one top coat will be needed to provide the desired hide.  In this way, you have provided the customer with the best possible adhesion, without having to apply a costly third coat.

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