What’s happening in this video… Control joints are an extremely important part of any concrete floor. A circular saw is used to cut floor joints at 1/4″ wide into newly applied urethane cement resurfacer to allow for movement in the floor.

Do food plant floors have special considerations in concrete floor joint preparation?

Food plant floors are like any other floor but it is the required floor surface preparation that sets it apart. And that involves using the right equipment to prepare the concrete slab for proper adhesion, patching and repairing and filling voids, cracks and joints, buckles, and floor defects prior to the floor coating system application.

And most importantly, having the right installer perform these components of this job properly according to industry standards.

Food manufacturing floors are like any other floor, except for one thing – They need to know that they are filling in all voids or any potential areas that may harbor bacteria and salmonella.

There are a lot of different issues that food manufacturers deal with that are different from the rest of the world.

Another big difference between food manufacturers and the rest of the standard industry is that food processors are concerned they have health inspectors coming in multiple times a year to inspect the facilities.

Some food manufacturing facility managers will actually paint white epoxy on the walls, two to five feet up from the floor around the entire floor area. They also paint white epoxy in the corners.

Facility managers want all of their floor/wall joints in corners coved and actually canted to the floor so when they are rinsing it down, they are going in. They are rinsing the walls, they are rinsing the cove; the perimeters; they are rinsing the floors.

They have much tighter regulations than most other industries because we eat their food and they must keep people safe. So when preparing a floor and then ultimately delivering the floor back to the food manufacturing facility owner, they want to give them a floor that’s really seamless, no start and stops on the floor, all floor joints honored and filled and covered; no breaks anywhere. “Bathtubbing” that floor, which is coving around the entire facility, is what they want.

Concrete floors are constantly shifting with movement and this movement, although imperceptible, can cause a lot of damage to the concrete slab if the movement has nowhere to go.

Control joints are added to help prevent additional cracking of the concrete slab

The result is usually cracks – thin to thick and short to long. And once they start, there is no way to slow down the deterioration process. These joints are added to concrete slabs to accommodate expansion and movement and to prevent additional cracking to the concrete slabs.

Expansion joints are movement joints. You can apply a concrete floor sealant right up to an expansion joint after filling with a flexible joint filler.

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	See why a concrete floor coating receives a cove application up the concrete wall.
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See more videos about control joints in floor coating applications.