System · Urethane cement
Urethane cement, for Chicagoland floors that get cooked and washed
A cementitious urethane mortar is the system you specify when the floor has to survive things a straight epoxy will not: boiling wash-down, thermal cycling between a cooler and a cook line, and acids that come off food rather than out of a drum. Our crew works out of Chicagoland, with finished floors in Chicago, Gurnee, Kenosha and Milwaukee.
Urethane cement at a glance
- Best for
- Food & beverage, pharma, coolers, wash-down areas
- Thickness
- 3/16" – 3/8" mortar
- Finish
- Matte, slip-resistant broadcast optional
- Return to service
- Typically next day
What it actually is
Urethane cement is a hybrid. Portland cement gives it the body and the alkaline tolerance of concrete; a urethane binder gives it flexibility and chemical resistance that cement on its own has never had. Graded aggregate is mixed in on site and the result is trowelled or screeded to depth as a mortar, not rolled out as a coating.
That distinction matters more than any product sheet. A coating is a film sitting on a slab, typically 10 to 30 mils, and it moves only as much as the film can stretch. A mortar at 3/16 to 3/8 of an inch is a monolithic layer with its own mass, and it expands and contracts at close to the same rate as the concrete beneath it. That single property is why it survives thermal shock and why almost nothing else does.
Where it belongs
Food and beverage production, dairies, breweries, commercial kitchens, pharmaceutical manufacturing, coolers and freezers, and any wash-down area where a hose and hot water are part of the daily routine. If the floor is steam cleaned, caustic cleaned, or runs from a freezer into a cook line within the same bay, this is the specification.
It also earns its place on slabs that would fail a moisture test for anything else. Urethane cement is breathable — it passes vapor rather than trapping it — so it can be placed over concrete carrying moisture that would blister a 100% solids epoxy off the deck within a season.
Where it does not belong
It is the wrong answer for a dry warehouse or an office. You would be paying mortar money for thermal and chemical performance nobody will ever call on, and the matte, faintly textured finish is not what a showroom or a lobby is asking for.
It also will not read as a decorative floor. Colour range is narrower than epoxy and the surface is deliberately functional. Where appearance leads and the environment is mild, solid color epoxy or a quartz broadcast is the better specification.
Thickness, cure and return to service
Typical placement is 3/16 to 3/8 of an inch depending on traffic and thermal load, with the heavier end reserved for direct thermal shock and steel wheel traffic. A slip-resistant broadcast can be worked into the surface where the floor runs wet.
Return to service is usually next day for foot traffic, with full chemical cure taking longer and depending on ambient temperature. That is the practical reason it suits production floors: the shutdown window is a night or a weekend, not a week.
The prep it demands, and the detail people miss
The slab is profiled mechanically — diamond grinding or shot blast — to an aggressive ICRI 310.2R profile, materially rougher than a thin-film epoxy would need, because a mortar keys into the surface rather than wetting it. Curing compound, old coatings and laitance all come off first. Moisture gets measured rather than assumed, by in-situ relative humidity probes to ASTM F2170 or calcium chloride to ASTM F1869.
Then the detail that decides whether the floor lasts: urethane cement has to terminate into a saw-cut keyway, never a feathered edge. Every perimeter, every drain, every doorway gets a cut, and the mortar is carried down into it. Feather an edge and you have built a thin, unsupported lip that traffic will lift — and once it lifts, it lifts as a sheet.
Why our own mix matters here
We manufacture our own resin, which on a urethane cement job means the mix is proportioned for the slab, the temperature and the thermal range in front of us rather than pulled off a shelf at whatever ratio the pail was packed at. There is no middle manning between the person who specifies the floor and the person who mixes it.
We also own our grinders. On a production floor the prep is the schedule, and renting equipment by the day is how a two-night shutdown becomes a four-night one.
Urethane cement in place
Who specifies it
Where urethane cement gets called for
Warehouse & logistics
The wet and heavily loaded end of a distribution facility, where a breathable mortar beats a film.
Aviation & hangars
Wash bays and equipment areas that see fluids and pressure washing rather than aircraft parking.
Day, night and weekend shifts. Estimates are free. Covering Midwest, East Coast and Southern states — out of Chicagoland, with finished floors in Gurnee, Kenosha, Milwaukee and Chicago.
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Specifying urethane cement?
Tell us the square footage, the traffic and the downtime window. Estimates are free.