A warehouse in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, had accumulated several layers of paint over the years. All of them had started to flake and delaminate. The owner asked us for a floor coating that would not fail. The first thing we told them was that there was no shortcut.
Why "another coat on top" was never going to work
If the existing paint is lifting in flakes, any new coating laid over it is structurally tied to those flakes. The new system can be the most expensive resin on the market — it will still come up with the layer underneath when forklift tyres or pedestrian traffic catch a loose edge. We see this on roughly half of the failed-floor enquiries that come into the business.
The only proper solution on a job like Hitchin is mechanical removal. The old layers have to come off until the floor is back on a sound substrate. Anything else is a waste of the client's money.
The 500kg quad grinder
For Hitchin we brought in a 500kg quad grinder. It is a heavy machine built for stripping coatings efficiently across large floor areas. It grinds the layers off down to clean concrete and at the same time creates a textured profile for the new resin to bond to. Lighter equipment can take the gloss off a coating but cannot strip layered paint at warehouse scale — we have seen contractors try, and the result is patchy preparation that produces patchy results.
Once grinding was complete, the full area was vacuumed to remove dust and debris before any coating went down. Dust contamination is one of the silent causes of resin failure; if it sits on the surface when the first coat is applied, it sits in the bond line for the life of the floor.
The coating system
We applied 2 coats of a high-build resin coating, with plenty of filler used to lose minor surface imperfections left after grinding. High-build systems give a thicker film than standard floor paints, which buys real chemical resistance, real impact resistance, and real longevity in a working warehouse environment. The finished surface is smooth, sealed, and built to handle heavy foot and vehicle traffic without breaking down.
The honest answer about cost
Mechanical stripping costs more upfront than a coat of paint. It also delivers a floor that lasts years rather than months, which is the only metric that matters once you account for downtime and re-doing the work. We talk most clients through this calculation before we quote — if a job needs full removal and the budget cannot stretch to it, we would rather decline than put our name on a coating system that is going to fail.
Read the full Hitchin warehouse case study or get in touch with our resin flooring team if you have a floor with multiple failed layers and need an honest assessment.