Resinous Floor Coatings for Cannabis Facilities and Grow Rooms
Although cannabis has been around for a while, recent legislation legalizing cannabis throughout parts of the country means that the industry is on the rise. It is no longer a basement or backyard business and the added regulations to keep things legitimate mean that running to the local hardware store to pick up floor paint at the last minute in place of installing quality grow room floor coatings simply won’t cut it.
Michael Greenblatt, long-time resinous flooring professional, and founder of Surface Technology, Inc recently spoke on The Red Bucket podcast to share his experience with epoxy floor coatings and resin surface coatings for facilities working with cannabis.
You can access the podcast, Resinous Flooring Systems for Cannabis Facilities here.
Similarities Between Cannabis and Other Industries
There are certainly similarities between the cannabis industry and others that typically see a benefit from resinous flooring systems. When the Surface Technology team goes to install grow room floor coatings in a facility, they are finding that these facilities have similar needs for spaces in both the pharmaceutical as well as the food and beverage industries.
There are a few elements that are similar between these industries:
- Facilities growing and processing cannabis for commercial consumption are often creating edible products, just like food and beverage processing plants.
- The other side of this is that the standards of cleanliness needed for grow rooms can resemble levels that we’ve applied to pharmaceutical spaces.
- All of these industries have to follow certain processes, rules, and regulations that can overlap to create safe, hygienic surfaces. Because the environment needed for cannabis grow rooms is completely indoors, the grow room floor coating that gets applied has to decrease the potential for contaminants.
Challenges for Cannabis Companies Facilities
Cannabis companies are coming up against challenges when setting up clean, but durable workspaces. Many of the facilities are retrofitted, renovated existing buildings. Some of them, especially in the Northeast, are old mill buildings and often require significant work to bring the floors and walls up to standard. Seamless floors are a perfect alternative because they can be customized on-site to any potential environment.
Some businesses play with the idea of skipping coatings like urethane cement or epoxy to their grow room floor, but that ultimately costs more time and money than it’s worth.
Resinous coatings over a concrete floor act as a protectant for the substrate. Without that protection, facilities up the chances for chemical corrosion, increased wear and tear, and potential mold and mildew growth. Also, cannabis processing involves fats, sugars, and regular room cleaning, which have the ability to chemically corrode floors and cause damage over time. Keeping up with that amount of maintenance means more disruptions to operations, which cost companies money. Scheduling resinous flooring installations with Surface Technology allows facilities to spend less time dealing with maintenance issues – their floors are properly protected quickly and with the precision only industry experts can provide.
The Future of the Cannabis Industry
The future of the cannabis industry looks promising and industrial surface and flooring professionals are gearing up to grow alongside it.
“With the current regulations in certain states, there are companies and businesses that have to build out their cannabis facilities very quickly and create grow rooms that are sanitary and hygienic in a short amount of time… And that’s where Surface Technology comes in. We’ve done that for past clients and we definitely understand how to do that kind of work and perform full-service turnarounds for our clients in the cannabis industry,” Michael shares.
“And now we’re also able to work within secure areas. Many of these facilities require security, which means that we have to work really fast to get the job done and to do the work within a certain amount of time to minimize disruption to operation so that logistics can get back up and running quickly.”
Surface Technology is the leader in epoxy and resinous flooring installation. The majority of our work is in high-performance industrial flooring, but the team gets involved in the installation of wall, and ceiling systems as well. Since the company’s start in 1988, Michael has been involved in the industry. The Surface Technology team is able to work throughout the continental United States.
Michael says that “the focus is traditionally on food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and other heavy manufacturing facilities, but recently – within the last few years – we have developed a new division specifically to go after the cannabis and hemp markets.” That includes installing wall and flooring resins and epoxy for grow room floors, as well as flooring solutions for other industrial spaces in these facilities.
Listen to the full podcast episode about resinous flooring for cannabis facilities (including why urethane cement can be the ideal flooring solution over epoxy) here.
Get in Touch
We know you’re busy. We’re here to get you the information you need as quickly as possible. Whether you just want a quick estimation on your project specifications or want to talk to an expert about your project, we are here to help you.
