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Suggestions for plating room wall/floor treatment?

 

Can anybody recommend a floor/wall treatment to prevent floor/wall decay from electrolyte?

Pete Graham
- Middlesbrough, England, UK

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I'm assuming you are talking about floor and wall treatment for a plating shop, but that's not clear from your letter. Epoxy or vinylester trowel-on monolithic linings are probably the most populal chice.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Hi Pete,

I have a few suggestions for you. Call BBC TV's "Changing Rooms" and let them worry about it.

Or

You could put up splash guards and improve the ventilation.

Or

You could use Ted's most "populal chice". Sorry Ted, couldn't resist.

I am going to be visiting England next Christmas and I have agreed to the do the Lyke Wake Walk (for the fifth time or is it sixth. The memory starts to go after a couple of crossings) For those of you unfamiliar with this little jaunt it is a 42 mile walk across wild country that must be completed in 24 hours. It is across the North Yorkshire Moors which are just south of where Pete lives. The walk ends at Ravenscar where Dracula landed in England. Look it up on the web. If you are both fit and stupid or you have sniffed too many acid fumes you too may decide to do the Lyke Wake Walk. If you complete the walk in the required time you are permitted to call yourself a dirger. Yup, that is the only thing that you get out of it (plus bragging rights). Save me a Newcastle Brown at the end Pete.

Dirger John of York

John Holroyd
- Elkhorn, Wisconsin

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That's the thanks I get. Fix misspellings and unintelligible grammar on 50 people's letters every day, but make one little mistake myself... I'll take the Newcastle Brown but skip the 42 miles, thanks :-) People who haven't walked that distance have no idea! I was in high school when Kennedy was promoting 50 mile walks. We boys walked from dawn to dusk and made it 27 or 28. We stopped when we realized we wouldn't make it, and phoned for a mom to pick us up. After the wait and the slow ride home, our legs, feet, thighs, and butts were so cramped that none of us could get up the stairs to our houses except by sitting on our backside, and ascending bottom first, a step at a time. I've walked 14 miles many times since and it's quite easy even as an old man; but like they say, extrapolation is dangerous. Twice that was terrible when I was young; another 50% unthinkable :-) Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Pete,

What Ted says makes sense.

For walls, well, new ones ... a couple of German Companies came out with interlocking panels in PVC and PP. These had 'mushroom' protrusions every 9" or so in order to be able to be locked to the concrete. Yes, I've even seen floors done that way. After installation the panels were welded together.

For a less expensive approach for walls, just use some epoxy paint but the hi-build type which gives a heavier coating. If you don't mind black walls, use pitch, i.e., asphalt. Very inexpensive. Very acid resistant. Ideal for under, yes, UNDER roofs, too, where condensate corrosion occurs.

Floors are more of a problem and hence a grout made from an epoxy or a vinylester would be better due to tracking & wear.

Freeman Newton [deceased]
(It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away
April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend).
2002