Choosing between epoxy, PU and hygienic vinyl

Resin flooring arguments usually start with the finish and should start with the failure. What is going to attack this floor, how hot does it get, and how is it cleaned.

Epoxy is hard, chemically broad and economical, and it is the default for warehouses, workshops and light production. It is also rigid, which means thermal shock — a steam clean on a cold slab — will crack it at the bond line.

Three questions settle it

Polyurethane screeds flex and tolerate thermal cycling, which is why they belong in food production, cold stores and anywhere with regular hot washdown. Hygienic vinyl is a different answer again: welded sheet with coved skirting, specified where the cleaning regime and the auditor matter more than abrasion.

• Chemical exposure: what is actually spilled, at what concentration, and for how long before it is cleaned
• Thermal: the delta between the slab and the cleaning water, not the ambient temperature
• Regime: pressure washing and steam decide the system more often than traffic does

The substrate decides whether any of it works. A slab with rising damp and no membrane will lift an epoxy off in sheets, and no primer specification fixes that — it is a waterproofing job before it is a flooring one.