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An epoxy coating does not fail suddenly in a single day. It wears gradually: colour fades along vehicle routes, the surface becomes rough in places and then glossy in others, and dirt starts to cling after every clean. The hardest part is not recognising that the floor has worn, but deciding at the right moment: this spot can still be used, that spot has reached the point where it must be recoated. This article does just one thing — it helps you assess the level of wear and establish the threshold for recoating — and does not go deep into the recoating process.
If you have already established that recoating is needed and want to know how it is done, read the article Recoating an Old Epoxy Floor: Grind Off the Old Coat or Overcoat It?. If your problem is a floor that is slippery when wet, see the article Anti-Slip Epoxy Floors: Quartz Sand or Aluminium Oxide Grit?.
1. How does wear differ from scratches, peeling, and blistering?
Correctly distinguishing the type of failure helps you avoid treating the wrong spot. Wear is the gradual loss of the topcoat through repeated friction — wheels, footsteps, dragged pallets — occurring slowly and spreading along traffic routes. A scratch is a cut or shallow drag mark, usually isolated and localised at one point. Peeling is the coating separating from the substrate or delaminating, usually accompanied by curled edges and blistering. Wear has no separation edge: the surface remains continuous, only thinner, paler in colour, and changed in surface character.
Therefore, a floor with a few scratches is not necessarily worn to the point of needing a recoat, and conversely, a floor that still looks “continuous” but has had its topcoat worn away along a forklift route may need recoating sooner than you think. Wear must be assessed by zone, not by one overall level for the whole floor.
2. Where does wear usually start?
Wear is uneven. The following locations almost always wear first, and they are also the places you should inspect first:
- Forklift and light truck routes: wheels repeatedly following the same track, combined with turning forces and braking forces. Wear tracks usually run along the route, clearest at bends and stopping points.
- Entrances, warehouse doors, junctions between areas: high traffic density, together with sand and dust carried in from outside — sand itself is an abrasive agent.
- Forklift turning areas and loading/unloading areas: wheels rotating in place and pallets dragged along create concentrated friction.
- Main pedestrian walkways, corridors, areas in front of racking: steady foot traffic, wearing slowly but over a wide area.
Conversely, hidden corners, the space under rarely moved racking, and static storage areas usually remain almost as originally delivered. Comparing a worn zone with a little-used zone on the same floor is the fastest way to see the degree of difference — you need no measuring equipment for this step.
3. How to assess the level of wear on site
You can assess by observation and simple checks, in the following order:
3.1. Look: colour, gloss, and wear tracks
Walk along vehicle routes and pedestrian walkways in adequate light, looking at an angle across the floor surface. Signs of wear include: colour paler or uneven compared with little-trafficked zones; wear tracks running along the direction of travel; the surface in the wear track glossier or much duller than the surrounding area. If there is only slight colour fading, without a change in surface feel, that is usually an early stage.
3.2. Touch and wipe test: is anti-slip still there, is it still easy to clean?
These two properties are lost before the floor “looks damaged”. Use your hand (dry and slightly damp) to feel the roughness in the wear track compared with a little-worn zone. Wipe-test a commonly encountered stain: if it used to wipe clean easily but now the stain clings and soaks faintly into the surface, that is a sign the topcoat has thinned considerably. For areas requiring anti-slip, check carefully when the floor is wet — this point relates directly to safety and should not be assessed only when the floor is dry.
3.3. Check the layers: has a lower layer or the substrate been exposed?
This is the most important boundary. Observe whether the wear track has exposed a different-coloured layer beneath the topcoat, or whether the concrete substrate is already visible. Wear down to a lower layer but not yet to the substrate is quite different from wear that has exposed the substrate: the lower layer still covers the substrate, whereas exposed substrate means the concrete is directly subjected to abrasion, soiling, and moisture ingress. If you see concrete substrate, do not classify the floor in the “monitor further” group.
3.4. Delineate zones: localised or widespread wear?
Walk the whole floor and sketch a simple plan: mark lightly worn zones, clearly worn zones, and zones where a lower layer or concrete substrate is exposed. A long wear track along a forklift route is a different matter from wear spread across the whole floor. The decision to recoat individual zones or the whole floor depends heavily on this plan.
4. Decision thresholds: monitor, recoat by zone, or recoat the whole floor?
The table below is a qualitative assessment framework. The threshold does not lie in “how many years of use” — with the same coating system, a forklift route wears far faster than a pedestrian walkway — but in the condition of the coating and whether the floor still meets its functional requirements.
| Level | Identifying signs | Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 — Monitor | Only slight colour fading, surface still evenly rough, cleaning still effective, no lower layer exposed. Floor function unchanged. | No recoat yet. Increase inspection frequency on vehicle routes, clean correctly, avoid dragging heavy objects. |
| Level 2 — Recoat by zone | Clear wear tracks on vehicle routes, doors, turning points; reduced roughness or harder cleaning in that zone, but no substrate exposed; other areas still sound. | Recoat the worn zone; the whole floor need not be redone. Treat exactly the worn zone to avoid creating steps or overly obvious colour differences between zones. |
| Level 3 — Recoat the whole floor | Widespread wear, many zones with a lower layer or concrete substrate exposed; or loss of anti-slip in an area with safety requirements; or a floor so hard to clean that it affects factory operation and hygiene. | Recoat the whole floor under the old-floor renovation process. This is the time to read the article on recoating an old floor to prepare correctly. |
There are three cases that should move straight to level 3 even when the worn area is not yet large: first, concrete substrate already exposed on a main vehicle route — the substrate is under direct abrasion; second, loss of anti-slip in a wet area, on a slope, on an escape route, or where pedestrians share space with forklifts — the safety risk outweighs appearance; third, a floor serving a high-hygiene area (food, pharmaceuticals, cleanroom) whose surface is already hard to clean, with persistent soiling — wear is then no longer merely a surface matter.
5. Signs easily misjudged
- Looking only at colour: fading may be due to light, dust, or cleaning chemicals — not necessarily deep wear. Always compare with roughness and cleanability.
- Checking only one point: floors do not wear evenly. Checking a hidden corner and then concluding the whole floor is still sound is the most common mistake.
- Mistaking dirt for wear: long-standing dirt marks look like wear. Wipe-test a small area thoroughly before concluding.
- Waiting until the substrate is exposed before acting: recoating when wear has only reached a lower layer is usually much simpler than waiting until the concrete substrate is damaged and needs substrate treatment first.
- Assessing when dry and ignoring the wet condition: anti-slip only shows itself correctly when the floor is wet. If your area is frequently wet, check in exactly that condition.
6. Periodic inspection checklist
You can use this list for each inspection, with no specialist equipment needed:
- Walk the whole forklift route, main pedestrian walkway, and door areas — note which zones have faded colour and where wear tracks run.
- Compare each zone with a little-used zone on the same floor (a hidden corner, under static racking).
- Feel the roughness when dry and when wet in the wear track, compared with a still-sound zone.
- Wipe-test a commonly encountered stain — does it still clean easily, or does it cling persistently?
- Check whether any lower layer or concrete substrate is exposed anywhere, especially at bends and turning points.
- Mark the worn zones on a floor plan: is wear localised or already widespread?
- Compare with the thresholds in section 4 to classify: monitor, recoat by zone, or recoat the whole floor.
Forklift-trafficked areas should be inspected more frequently than little-trafficked areas; wet areas and high-hygiene areas should also be inspected more closely.
When inspection results show exposed substrate, loss of anti-slip in a safety area, or widespread wear, you should ask an installer to survey on site before deciding on a plan. An on-site survey helps establish the remaining coating, the substrate condition, and the scope of work needed — things that visual observation only suggests but does not fully confirm.
7. Once the level of wear has been established
If the result is level 1, you need do nothing more than monitor and clean correctly. If it is level 2, look into the option of recoating by zone and preparing the surface correctly for exactly that zone. If it is level 3, the next step is to read the article Recoating an Old Epoxy Floor: Grind Off the Old Coat or Overcoat It? carefully, to understand the two main remedial directions before requesting a survey. Depending on function — an ordinary roller-applied floor or a load-bearing self-levelling floor — the suitable system for the recoat may differ, for example the RollCoat roller-applied system or the LevelFlow self-levelling system; the final choice should rest on an actual survey, not only on this article.
Note on specifications
Kadier had not published an official technical data sheet (TDS) for its coating systems. This article therefore gives no figures for wear rate by year of use, remaining thickness, or committed service life for any product. All thresholds in this article are qualitative assessment guidance based on coating condition and floor function, applying generally to epoxy floors, not technical specifications specific to a Kadier system. Once an official TDS exists, quantitative thresholds will be updated in line with those figures.
Illustration: a warehouse aisle with racking on both sides — aisles are where coatings usually wear first. Photo: Patrice Werner on Pexels.
Have you mapped the worn zones on your floor but are not yet sure whether to recoat by zone or recoat the whole floor? Contact Kadier for a survey and advice on a suitable plan.
