Self-levelling or roller-applied epoxy: which do I need?
Roller-applied FloorGuard R50 seals and colours a sound slab at 0.3 to 0.5 kg/m² a coat, for storage, workshops and garages under normal to medium-heavy wear. Self-levelling LevelShield SL120 goes down at 1.6 to 2.0 kg/m², several times the material, for forklift aisles, loading bays and production floors under mechanical loading, and wherever the floor must be seamless and smooth.
Many floors take both, split by zone: SL120 where wheels turn and loads drop, R50 in the racking zones and store rooms. The survey maps the zones, and the quotation prices each one.
How thick is a self-levelling epoxy floor?
The LevelShield SL120 data sheet gives a consumption, not a thickness: about 1.6 to 2.0 kg/m² as a self-smoothing wearing coat, depending on the filling grade, how porous and how level the slab is, and wastage. The specification sets the build for your traffic.
Self-levelling epoxy follows the slab: it smooths the surface but does not correct falls or deep dips. Where a floor is out of level, or water must run to the drains, the levels are corrected in a screed before the epoxy goes down.
How long before the floor is back in use?
At 30 °C, LevelShield SL120 takes foot traffic after about 18 hours and light traffic after 2 days, with full cure in 5 days; at 20 °C it needs 24 hours, 4 days and 7 days. It is solvent-free, with no solvent odour, so it can be laid in enclosed rooms.
The work is planned in sections around those times, so production or dispatch keeps running in the other zones. Forklifts and heavy loads return when the specification allows.
Is self-levelling epoxy the same as resin flooring?
Resin flooring is the family, and self-levelling epoxy is one member. The family runs from roller-applied epoxy coatings through self-levelling epoxy to polyurethane-cement screeds, each cured on the slab from a liquid resin.
Where hot washdown, steam or heavy chemical spillage set the brief, the resin floor to specify is PU-cement instead. Rayson makes all three, so the specification follows what the floor has to do.
Can self-levelling epoxy go outdoors or in the sun?
No. Like every epoxy, LevelShield SL120 is not colour-stable in sunlight: its data sheet rules out exterior UV exposure, so it is an interior floor. Indoors it needs a slab at 5 °C or warmer and cures between 10 °C and 35 °C.
Showrooms with strong daylight through glass usually take a coloured epoxy body coat under a UV-stable polyurethane topcoat instead, as the PU flooring page explains. Open porches and decks take another system: send a photo and Rayson tells you which.
