Urethane Cement, from Spartan Coatings in St. Augustine, FL
Urethane Cement for Hot Washdowns and Cold Rooms
A troweled floor of cement and urethane for kitchens, breweries and food rooms, where hot water, steam and freezer doors would break an epoxy floor apart.
Urethane cement is the heaviest floor we put down. It’s urethane resin, cement and aggregate mixed on site and troweled onto the slab far thicker than any epoxy coating, then finished with a texture that holds grip when the floor is wet. It looks plain. Most of these floors come in a short list of utility colors, and people put them down for what they put up with.
That means hot water from a washdown hose, steam cleaning, boiling liquid off a kettle, and a freezer door opening onto a warm kitchen all shift long. Swings in temperature like that crack and lift epoxy. Urethane cement moves with heat at close to the same rate as the concrete under it, so the bond holds through the swings. It also takes more moisture coming up through the slab than epoxy will, which counts for a lot on Florida concrete.
So this is the floor for commercial kitchens, food and beverage production, breweries, bakeries, walk-in cooler and freezer areas, and any back room that gets hosed down hot at closing time. It’s more than one day of work and a bigger job than any epoxy floor, so Matt will tell you straight whether your room truly needs it. Call Matt at (904) 671-3930.
That means hot water from a washdown hose, steam cleaning, boiling liquid off a kettle, and a freezer door opening onto a warm kitchen all shift long.
Why epoxy cracks where the hot water hits
Epoxy is a hard, rigid plastic, and it starts to soften as it heats up. Hit it with near-boiling water or steam every night, then let a cold mop or a blast of freezer air hit the same spot, and the coating and the concrete grow and shrink at different rates. The bond takes that strain over and over until the epoxy cracks, then lifts at the edges, and water gets under it. Moisture rising out of a damp slab speeds the whole thing up. That’s how a nice new epoxy floor starts coming apart by the dish pit and the kettles long before anyone expected.
It’s still more floor than most rooms need. A dry storage room, an office, a dining room or a garage has none of those temperature swings, and epoxy, quartz or flake will serve those rooms with less time and less disruption. Plenty of kitchens end up split: urethane cement on the cook line, the dish area and the walk-in thresholds, something lighter everywhere else. Matt looks at where the heat and the water actually go before he draws that line.
Keyed in, troweled thick, coved at the walls
Moisture test and grind
The slab is tested and diamond ground to sound, open concrete. Old coatings and grease-soaked concrete around drains and fryers come up first, because nothing bonds to a slab full of cooking oil.
Anchor cuts
Saw cuts go in along every edge where the floor stops: doorways, drains, the lip of a walk-in, the end of a run. The urethane cement locks into those cuts so its edges stay down.
Slope and drains
Low spots that hold water get built up and the floor is pitched toward the drains. Standing hot water is exactly what this floor is meant to get rid of.
Troweled body
The urethane cement is mixed on site, troweled on thick and textured. This layer is where the heat resistance and the impact strength come from.
Cove base
Where the floor meets the wall, the material turns up a few inches in a rounded cove, so hose water and food scraps have no corner to sit in.
Seal coat
A final urethane coat with grit set for the room: more texture where it stays wet and greasy, less where carts and racks roll.
Wet slabs, washdown nights and walk-in doors
Plenty of commercial kitchens around here sit in older buildings, on slabs with no vapor barrier under them, over sandy soil and a high water table. Moisture keeps coming up through that concrete no matter what goes on top. Epoxy traps it and blisters. Urethane cement tolerates far more of it, and in a Florida back room that’s often reason enough to choose it before the hot water is even considered. Matt still tests every slab, because a floor that’s truly wet has to be dealt with first.
Then there’s the cold side. A walk-in cooler or freezer door opens from a humid kitchen into a cold box all day, so the threshold sees the biggest temperature swing on the floor, with condensation on top of it. Breweries add hot cleaning cycles, spilled wort and the acids in beer and cleaners. Restaurants near the beach add sand ground in through the back door. Urethane cement handles that whole range, and its texture keeps a wet floor under a cook’s boots from turning into a slide.
Urethane cement handles that whole range, and its texture keeps a wet floor under a cook’s boots from turning into a slide.
Hosing it down every night for years
Clean it the way the room already gets cleaned: scrub with a deck brush or an auto scrubber, rinse hot, squeegee to the drain. That’s the routine this floor was built for. Use a degreaser made for floors, and don’t let fryer oil pool for days in one corner, because even this floor does better when grease gets picked up.
Expect a longer install than any garage. Grinding and saw cuts come first, then the troweled body and the coves, then cure time before the hose comes back out. We plan around your closures, often in sections so part of the kitchen keeps working. Over the years the texture wears smoother in the walk paths, and a fresh seal coat with grit brings the grip back without tearing anything up.
Want to see finished floors before you decide? See all of Matt’s floors.
Next to urethane cement on the list
Matt puts this down across all six counties we cover, including Penney Farms, Interlachen, Vilano Beach and Flagler Estates. Most jobs start with a look at the slab, then a choice between systems like these.
Retail floors, offices and showrooms where the owner needs something that looks sharp, cleans fast and takes steady foot traffic for years.
Built for working bays with brake fluid, antifreeze, dropped tools and the point loads under a lift, and picked by shop owners who are done patching.
Kitchens and back of house see hot water, grease and a scrub every night, and owners pick this so the floor still looks clean after a Saturday rush.
Heavy builds for warehouses and plants running carts, pallet jacks and chemicals over the same slab, specified by people who count every hour of downtime.
Questions people ask about urethane cement
How long does a urethane cement floor take to install?
More than one day. The slab has to be ground, saw cut and repaired, then the cement goes down, the coves get formed at the walls and the seal coat goes on. Each step needs its own cure time, and a big kitchen may be done in sections. Matt gives you a real schedule once he has seen the room and knows how your closures work.
Can it go down on a slab that stays damp?
It handles more moisture in the slab than epoxy will, which is one of the main reasons it gets picked in Florida. It still has limits. A slab with water pooling on it, or a leaking line under the floor, has to be fixed first. Matt tests the concrete and tells you what he finds before any material is mixed.
Does urethane cement come in colors?
A few, and they lean practical: grays, reds, tans and similar working colors. It’s a utility floor, so the color is mostly about hiding stains and marking zones. Some colors can shift a little over time, especially in sunlight, which is one more reason this floor belongs indoors. If looks matter more than heat, Matt will point you to a different system.
Is a urethane cement floor rough to work on all day?
It has texture on purpose so wet boots don’t slide, and that texture is adjustable. We set the grit in the seal coat for each area: rougher by the dish pit and the fryers, smoother where carts roll and staff walk dry. Matt brings sample textures so you and your kitchen manager can feel the difference before anything is decided.
Do we need urethane cement in the whole kitchen?
Often not. The cook line, the dish area, the walk-in thresholds and anywhere the hose runs hot are where it earns its keep. Dry storage, offices and a dining room can take a lighter system. Splitting a floor like that saves time, as long as the joins between the two are cut and keyed so the edges stay down. Matt marks the zones with you.
Can you put urethane cement in a brewery?
Yes, and a brewery is one of the floors it suits best. Brewhouses see hot cleaning cycles, spilled wort and beer, caustic and acid cleaners and water everywhere, with tanks and forklifts on top of all that. Drains and slope matter as much as the material, so Matt looks at how water moves across your floor first and builds pitch where it’s missing.
Show Matt your floor
Tell Matt what the room has to handle. He will come out, test the slab and tell you straight whether urethane cement is the right call.
Want to see more first? See all of Matt’s floors.