Equipment

Potential equipment requirments for each stage of Aspartech installation.

For a professional Aspartech installation, preparation should begin before the first container is opened. The equipment required will vary according to the Aspartech system being installed, the condition of the substrate and the size of the project, but installers should arrive with everything required to inspect, prepare, measure, mix, apply, finish, clean and protect the floor.

Environmental measurement is particularly important with resin flooring. Temperature, substrate temperature, relative humidity, substrate moisture and dew point can all influence application and curing. Industry guidance similarly recommends recording ambient conditions and checking moisture, relative humidity and dew point before application. Correct mechanical preparation is equally important; diamond grinding and shot blasting are commonly used to remove laitance and establish a suitable surface profile.

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Aspartech Flooring – Installation Equipment Checklist

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1. Site Delivery & Initial Set-Up

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• Retractable safety knife / utility knife – opening pallet wrapping and packaging

• Spare safety knife blades

• Pallet truck

• Sack truck / trolley

• Extension leads

• 110 V transformer where required

• Portable site lighting / LED work lights

• Cable protectors

• Warning signs

• Barrier tape

• Cones / barriers

• Floor protection sheets

• Polythene sheeting

• Dust sheets

• Waste bags / heavy-duty rubble sacks

• Waste containers

• Clean cardboard or sheeting for establishing a mixing station

• Product Technical Data Sheets

• Product Safety Data Sheets

• Site drawings / floor plans

• Batch and material recording sheets

• Permanent marker pens

• Pens / pencils

• Clipboard

• Camera or smartphone for recording substrate and installation conditions

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It is always good practice to take images or recordings of the base and site conditions prior to any installation.

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2. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

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The precise PPE must always be determined from the relevant product SDS and site COSHH/risk assessment.

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• Safety footwear / protective boots

• Chemical-resistant nitrile gloves

• Spare disposable nitrile gloves

• Suitable protective work gloves for preparation operations

• Safety glasses

• Chemical splash goggles where appropriate

• Face shield where splash risk requires it

• Disposable or reusable protective coveralls

• Long-sleeved workwear

• Knee pads

• Hard hat where required by site rules

• High-visibility clothing

• Hearing protection / ear defenders

• Suitable RPE for grinding and other dust-producing preparation

• Appropriate RPE where specifically required by the risk assessment

• Disposable dust masks where appropriate to the task and exposure assessment

• Skin protection / barrier cream

• Clean water for emergency washing

• Eye-wash kit

• First-aid kit

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Industry installation checklists similarly include safety footwear, goggles, protective and nitrile gloves, skin protection and eye-wash provision.

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3. Environmental & Substrate Testing Equipment

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This is one of the most important groups of equipment.

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• Digital hygrometer / humidity meter – relative humidity

• Ambient air thermometer

• Infrared surface thermometer

• Contact surface thermometer where greater accuracy is required

• Dew-point meter / digital dew-point hygrometer

• Concrete moisture meter

• Relative-humidity concrete moisture test equipment where specified

• Data logger for recording temperature and RH throughout larger installations

• Straight edge – typically 2 m

• Spirit level

• Laser level

• Tape measure

• Digital measuring device / laser measure

• Crack-width gauge

• Surface-profile comparator where required

• Pull-off adhesion tester where specified

• Dollies for pull-off testing

• Concrete hardness/scratch testing equipment where required

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A combined instrument capable of measuring relative humidity, ambient temperature, substrate temperature and dew point can simplify site checks considerably. Continuous environmental data logging is also recommended for applications where conditions need to be documented.

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4. Surface Preparation Equipment

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The exact equipment will depend heavily upon the existing substrate.

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• Industrial diamond floor grinder

• Hand-held diamond grinder

• Edge grinder

• Shot-blasting machine where appropriate

• Scarifier / planer where heavy preparation is required

• Appropriate diamond grinding discs

• PCD grinding discs for removal of existing coatings where required

• Angle grinder

• Diamond cup wheels

• Concrete cutting discs

• Floor scraper

• Long-handled floor scraper

• Hand scraper

• Chisel

• Bolster chisel

• Lump hammer

• Club hammer

• SDS drill / breaker

• Wire brushes

• Stiff-bristle brushes

• Abrasive pads

• Sandpaper / abrasive sheets

• Industrial vacuum cleaner

• M/H-class dust extraction equipment appropriate to the dust risk

• Vacuum attachments and spare hoses

• Sweeping brushes

• Dustpan and brush

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The objective is not simply to make the concrete look clean. The substrate needs to be sound and appropriately profiled; weak material, laitance and contamination can compromise adhesion. Mechanical methods such as grinding and shot blasting are therefore commonly employed.

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5. Crack, Hole & Substrate Repair Equipment

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For installations requiring Aspartech BASE or other preparatory work:

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• Angle grinder / crack-chasing equipment

• Diamond cutting discs

• SDS drill

• Chisels

• Scrapers

• Steel finishing trowels

• Small pointing trowels

• Margin trowels

• Filling knives

• Plastering trowels

• Straight edges

• Screeding bars

• Mixing buckets

• Measuring containers

• Brushes

• Small rollers

• Industrial vacuum

• Clean dry aggregate where specified

• Backer rod where appropriate

• Masking tape

• Repair shuttering/formwork materials where necessary

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6. Mixing Equipment

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Correct and consistent mixing is particularly important with multi-component resin systems.

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• Professional low-speed electric resin mixer

• Variable-speed drill/mixer

• Correct-size mixing paddles

• Spiral resin mixing paddles

• Spare mixing paddle

• Clean mixing buckets

• Graduated measuring containers

• Secondary clean mixing vessels for double-potting where required

• Digital weighing scales

• Bucket scraper

• Flexible plastic scraper

• Mixing sticks

• Stopwatch / timer

• Permanent marker for identifying mixes/batches

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Low-speed mixing is normally preferred for resin flooring because excessive speed can introduce unnecessary air into the material. Aspartech products specify low-speed mixing around 300–400 rpm.

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7. Application Equipment

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Depending upon whether PRIME, BASE, FLOOR-COAT, CLEAN-ZONE, CLEAR-COAT or LINE-MARKER is being installed:

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• Roller frames

• Extension roller poles

• Short-pile / low-pile resin rollers

• Medium-pile rollers where specified

• Mini rollers

• Spare roller sleeves

• Roller trays

• Roller buckets

• Paint scuttles

• Brushes

• Cutting-in brushes

• Disposable brushes

• Squeegee

• Notched / serrated squeegee

• Adjustable depth squeegee

• Rubber squeegee

• Flat steel trowel

• Notched trowel

• Serrated trowel

• Gauge rake

• Pin rake

• Spiked roller

• Roller extension handles

• Spiked shoes / resin flooring aeration shoes

• Floor-layer kneeling board where appropriate

• Clean buckets for decanting material

• Pouring jugs

• Scrapers

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Squeegees, trowels, rollers and spiked rollers are standard equipment for different types of resin-floor application, including spreading to controlled thickness and releasing entrapped air and bubbles.

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8. Film Thickness & Application-Control Equipment

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• Wet-film thickness gauge

• Depth gauge

• Notched/gauged application tools

• Coverage calculation sheet

• Calculator

• Digital scales

• Tape measure / laser measure

• Chalk

• Chalk line

• Floor-marking pencil

• Temporary floor markers

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A wet-film gauge is particularly useful because it allows the installer to verify during application that the intended material thickness is actually being achieved rather than discovering a coverage discrepancy after the floor has cured.​