FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

Claiming your products are proven is more than just a buzz word. To us, it means we will never supply a product we haven’t developed or fully tested ourselves, and we will never substitute or compromise the quality of our raw materials. We know exactly what’s in the bucket and through real-world results have great confidence it will do what we say it can do.  

We have been told by our own customers that we’re the worst salespeople in the world! That’s because getting the job done right - the first time - is our goal. We will never push you with sales talk or pressure you to buy anything and will always be completely honest about the suitability of our products. If we don’t think it’s the right fit for the job, we’ll tell you so. 

Complete systems have several advantages, but perhaps the biggest relate to warranties and the ability to genuinely support our installers. Many warranties are worthless because floors are being installed as a “mish-mash” of different products and film thicknesses. If something goes wrong, there’s no way a manufacturer can honour it - or even help troubleshoot - because the floor is simply not the same as the one they’ve tested, proven and know inside-out.

The dangers of solvents are well established and by removing them you can eliminate major workplace health and safety risks. We also formulate our products without any nasty toxins, heavy metals or known carcinogens like crystalline silica. Despite these measures, however, the chemical nature of resin flooring materials means there are still hazards, and health issues such as skin sensitisation must be taken seriously. 

We are formulators and manufacturers, not just suppliers. All our products are made in Australia (at an ISO9001 accredited facility), and most importantly, we know exactly what is in the bucket. This means we can deliver on our promises of providing proven, high-quality products and strong support, which are things the middle men and marketers of our industry can’t.  

Not at this stage. We have installers all around Australia that we service with epoxy supplies from our Brisbane warehouse through our transport partners Chemcouriers and Toll Ipec, who offer efficient and affordable shipping to most metropolitan and regional areas.  

To get pricing on our products you can email info@realworldepoxies.com or call our office on 1300 EPOXIES (1300 376 9437). 

Yes. We have a number of online epoxy flooring courses, ranging from quick How To Videos that show a variety of systems being applied, right through to the Silver Card Course that equips experienced installers with a skill set on thin-film rollcoat and thin-film broadcast flooring systems. We can also arrange practical training and product familiarisation sessions on request. 

Yes. Epoxy flooring can be applied over tiles if they are clean, in good condition, and stuck down well. There are also a number of other things you need to consider to ensure the end result looks as good and lasts as long as it would if applied directly to concrete. 

We like to be upfront and honest with the tough questions, and in our opinion ALL materials weather with outdoor/UV exposure. Some may be quicker to show signs such as fading, discolouration or loss of gloss, however installers should be wary when it comes to claims of non-yellowing resin floors. Rather than try to avoid or eliminate weathering altogether, we recommend an approach that looks to minimise the impact of UV on epoxy floors.  

Putting pigment into a clear coating/binder and using it as a basecoat under flake is a very common practice, however it isn’t without risk. These types of products are typically more prone to settling, colour separation, patchiness and other defects, so we recommend using a proper epoxy rollcoat on epoxy flake floors.

Yes. Artepoxy Liquid Crystal is a specialist decorative resin with strong de-foaming and self-smoothing properties and has been proven to consistently deliver the type of glossy, high-end finish required on plain white, high-gloss floors in residential settings. Unfortunately, a beautifully flat film alone doesn’t guarantee you success in these projects, so we like to make sure installers are aware of all the traps before they proceed.

The use of metallic pigments is fun, exciting, and can produce some stunning resin floors on commercial and retail projects, however like anything, it does come with its own set of challenges. Our advice to installers always starts with making sure the subfloor is completely flat because metallic epoxy floors are very good at finding low spots. Beyond that, you can read a more complete list of the metallic flooring tips in separate articles we've posted on this site.

Yes. We have product options that can deliver anything from a basic “grind and seal”, right up to a genuine polished concrete look that’s more like what you’d get from doing the traditional 10-12 passes with a grinder. While product selection is an important factor with these floors, perhaps the biggest obstacle is the condition of the slab and whether surface preparation interferes with the look you’re trying to achieve. 

While there are basic good and bad practices resin floors, different systems have different needs to make sure they perform as well and last as long as they should. Unfortunately, it’s effective epoxy flooring maintenance is not as simple as running a mop over them occasionally. The good news is our systems come with a quick, one-page maintenance guide you can hand out to clients to tell them everything they need to know about caring for their floor.

All the products we offer have a natural curing cycle of between 15-24 hours, which means you can get back onto the previous coat the next day after letting the film harden overnight. While we have been asked a lot about “same day” systems with polyaspartics and understand their speed is appealing, we feel they have certain application and performance challenges that aren’t in line with our approach to resin flooring.

On concrete slabs that have been poured correctly (i.e. minimum 25mPa) and are in otherwise good condition, our rollcoats are designed to penetrate for strong adhesion, without soaking in too much and looking patchy. In these situations, priming is generally not required. However, on porous, powdery or rain-affected slabs, we do recommend applying an epoxy concrete sealer first to seal off the surface. 

The goal of surface preparation doesn’t change for industrial work – you still need a clean, sound, flat substrate with the right concrete surface profile (which will be a CSP of 2-3 in most cases). While dustless diamond grinding is the norm in Australia, there are other pieces of surface preparation equipment that might be more suitable in certain situations. Crack repair is a slightly different story as you need something more durable than the builder’s bog that’s used regularly in some lighter applications.  

With non-slip epoxy flooring, much of the ability to hold up well in busy warehouses, loading zones, workshops and other industrial flooring projects comes down to the choice of particle. In these applications, we use aluminium oxide because it has a Mohs hardness of 9, which is far superior to 6 for sand, and only bettered by diamond at 10. In addition to that, we also make sure we get the coating side of things right to give our floors the best possible chance of success. 

Using products with moisture tolerance can be huge benefit to installers because it means fewer delays and fewer defects. With our moisture tolerant products, you won’t be twiddling your thumbs every time it rains, or a slab has the slightest bit of surface wetness. Plus, you don’t have to worry about relative humidity or dew point ruining an otherwise beautiful floor through defects like amine blushing.