Industrial floors are a long-term investment; how well they hold up directly impacts downtime, repair costs, safety, and operational efficiency. Resin coatings and polished concrete are both widely used, but they behave very differently over time.
While resin systems offer fast install and good chemical resistance, polished concrete excels in lifecycle performance, maintenance simplicity, and cost predictability. This page compares the long-term ROI of both systems based on real-world use in warehouses, factories, and logistics hubs.
Resin systems form a film over the slab that eventually fails; concrete polish is the slab. This eliminates reapplication costs, coating failures, and long shutdowns. Even if a polished surface dulls, it can be re-burnished or retreated without rebuilding the system. That structural integration is what makes polished concrete far more reliable over time.
Once polished concrete is installed, routine maintenance consists of daily dry sweep and periodic neutral scrub, no specialist coating teams, no patch kits, and no slip-resistance rechecks. Resin needs recoating, cleaning downtime, and surface prep, which all carry recurring cost. For most facilities, this adds up to thousands in avoidable spend every few years.
Epoxy and polyurethane coatings can’t be patched during operation; curing requires downtime and blocked zones. Polished concrete, on the other hand, is always traffic-ready. Maintenance can happen overnight or in phases without full closures. For high-throughput sites, that operational flexibility is often worth more than the upfront material cost.
Heavy wheels, tight turns, and pallet dragging take a toll on coatings. Peeling and wear-through in forklift paths is a top complaint with resin floors. Polished concrete resists abrasion by design, especially when hardened and sealed properly. Even under hard tyres and tracked equipment, it holds up with far less visible wear.
Polished concrete contains no solvent or resin binders, meaning no VOCs, toxic fumes, or long cure times. It’s safe to install while other trades are working, and doesn't require ventilated cure zones. Resin systems can only be applied during shut-downs or under specific H&S controls; that makes concrete easier to install, especially during fit-outs or phased upgrades.
If you'd rather skip the stress and get a flawless concrete floor polished by professionals, we’ve got you covered. From precision prep to polished perfection, we handle it all.
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