Hanger Floor Coatings

[eric_marsh]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this - if it's not I'm sure it will be moved.

First of all, let me apologize for using the wrong spelling of hangar in the title.

I make a living applying polyurea coatings. This is a high build elastomeric technology with good physical properties. Sometimes I coat the polyurea with a polyaspartic top coat and sometimes I just apply the polyaspartic by itself. The particular combination of these materials depends on the job.

Most of my work has been related to water containment but lately I've been looking at doing floor coatings for things like warehouses, garages and so forth. As an experiment I did a checker board pattern in my shop's motorcycle bay and recently coated my home office's floor. (See attached photos.) I also attached a photo of an institutional wet area that I did but the floor is not glossy because we added an aggregate as an anti-slip measure.

I'm looking at hangar floors and wondering if they are worth pursuing. Becoming a pilot should provide me with sales opportunities but this kind of work starts out somewhat expensive ($4 a square foot) and goes up from there. On the other hand I can create the kind of a glossy surface that you see in high end hangers and my materials hold up well to most chemicals, though you wouldn't want to leave some in puddles for extended periods of time. Also, a polyurea basecoat will hold up to forklift and other heavy equipment use. Normally the concrete under the polyurea will fail before the polyurea itself.

So my question to you guys is do you think this is an opportunity that is worth pursuing? Are there enough high end operations that would be willing to pay for this kind of floor treatment to make it worth while?

I'd be interested in any thoughts and observations.

[Ron Lee]

A 40' x 50' hangar would cost $8,000 USD. Knowing that pilots are frugal, I doubt that many would pay that.

[CNEJR]

new hangar at Conroe done, but this is just to pricey for me. Will probably use something else. What do you recommend that is cheap?

[9GT]

Way too expensive! A local company around her will do a 2 car garage floor in commercial epoxy for $895. That includes scarifying the concrete first. That works out to $1.70 per sf.

[eric_marsh]

Originally Posted by CNEJR

new hangar at Conroe done, but this is just to pricey for me. Will probably use something else. What do you recommend that is cheap?

Epoxy is cheap - I can get a low end product for as little as $30 a gallon. On the down side it's not color fast when exposed to U/V so a white floor would eventually turn yellow. Epoxy also is not an elastomer.

[eric_marsh]

Originally Posted by 9GT

Way too expensive! A local company around her will do a 2 car garage floor in commercial epoxy for $895. That includes scarifying the concrete first. That works out to $1.70 per sf.

The polyaspartic top coatings cost $90-$110 a gallon plus another $40 a gallon for the primer. That's $1.10 a square just for materials. A polyurea base coat is another $1.50/$2.00 a square and then there is the expense of shot blasting the concrete, equipment expenses, labor costs, etc., etc. So no, I can't compete with a basic epoxy.

But that's why I'm asking the question. Better to see what people think than to spend a lot of time and money barking up the wrong tree.

[RVbySDI]

This is one of those "It would be nice to have, but. . . " products.

Whenever dealing with these type of products the underlying primary motivator is going to be the price of the product/installation. Cost is going to drive the demand. Since the cost is very high the demand is going to be very low.

[Ron Lee]

My experience with do it yourself products is less than good. I used a one part product that has not proven to be very durable. Another person used a two part epoxy product that is holding up much better. However, use/traffic may not be the same.

For value, I would spend more and get the epoxy brand. Whether the offered material is worth it is unknown but that is the only way you might sell it. Your market may be high end users.

[eric_marsh]

I think it's clear that my market would be the high end crowd. Most of my business is lining koi ponds and water features and when your customer is willing to pay $40,000 for a fish then cost isn't a driving concern.

Reminds me of a Mercedes SL 500 that I bought for my wife. It was an older car and while it was very stylish underneath the sheet metal it was, in my opinion, a piece of junk. When the car was new, back in 1992, it had cost $98,000. Wow! That was a big lesson for me about the difference between the priorities of the well heeled vs. the rest of us.

[caryr]

this product looks good.

I have seen a demo on the entrance to the local ACE hardware.

http://www.gulfsynthetics.com/shop