Richmond · Since 2001
Epoxy and warehouse floor coatings in Richmond.
A high water table, soft soils and a lot of distribution and light-industrial floor area — which together make vapour drive the defining design condition.
Richmond
In Richmond, assume vapour drive until you have measured otherwise
Richmond is built on the Fraser delta, and the water table is shallow enough that slabs on grade are frequently in contact with moisture year-round. Vapour moves up through the concrete continuously, and when it reaches the underside of a coating that cannot breathe, it lifts it off in blisters.
This is the failure we are called to fix most often in Richmond, and almost always the original installer either did not test slab moisture or tested it and ignored the number. We test with RH probes before specifying, and where the reading is high the answer is a moisture-tolerant primer or a full vapour barrier coat, priced in from the start.
The other Richmond factor is differential settlement in the soft delta soils, which opens cracks and steps at joints. A rigid coating over a moving slab cracks along with it, so crack-bridging capability matters more here than the datasheet comparison suggests.
- Design condition
- Vapour drive
- Testing
- ASTM F2170 RH probes
- Largest local pour
- 30,000 ft²
Services
What we install in Richmond
Parkade waterproofing
Traffic-bearing membranes for Richmond parkades, ramps and roof decks.
Learn more →Local conditions
Richmond floors sit a metre above the water table
Richmond is built on Fraser delta silt, essentially at sea level, and its concrete knows it. The water table sits high under the whole city, which makes slab moisture the defining local condition: a slab-on-grade in Richmond can read wet enough to blister a coating fifty years after it was poured, because the ground below it never stops supplying moisture. This is the one municipality where we would call moisture testing at depth non-negotiable before any floor system is named — and one of our documented projects proves the point: a 30,000 square foot distribution warehouse floor here, installed successfully over measured elevated vapour transmission, designed for the condition rather than surprised by it.
The work follows Richmond's economy: warehousing and logistics across the Bridgeport, Crestwood and river-road industrial lands feeding YVR and the port; food processing and commercial kitchens in one of the region's densest restaurant cities; and the City Centre condo growth around the Canada Line, which has added years of new strata parkade stock on top of the existing inventory.
Winter freeze–thaw is gentler here than on the North Shore, but chloride still arrives in every parkade on wet tyres, and exposed decks near the river face wind-driven rain with nowhere for water to drain away naturally — falls and drainage detailing carry extra weight on the flat.
Where the work is
Logistics floors, kitchens and parkades on the delta
Richmond's mix runs from the documented projects above to the everyday: epoxy builds with moisture-mitigating primers where the readings demand them, urethane cement kitchens through the restaurant corridors of Alexandra Road and City Centre, and parkade membranes under the Canada Line towers. The moisture story — what the readings mean and how systems are chosen over damp slabs — is explained in our moisture testing guide, and the warehouse duty on our warehouse and distribution page.
Neighbouring Delta shares the delta geology and gets the same first question: what does the slab read at depth?
Three West Centre on No. 3 Road, Richmond City Centre, 2013: the crew rolling out the parkade traffic coating after dark (left), and level P4A freshly coated (right). More on the projects page.
Three West Centre, 2013: a coated level glossy under the lights, the red-banded columns beyond (left), and a freshly coated drive aisle (right).
Three West Centre, 2013, the top of the parkade: the open roof deck finished in a dark grey textured coat (left), and the ramp at level P5A (right). More on the projects page.
Trail Appliances on Sweden Way, Richmond, 2016: the store with its parkade under the building (left), and the parkade floor after shot blasting, wet under the lights (right). The concrete was shot blasted and treated with a densifier for an anti-slip surface. More on the projects page.
The BCIT Aerospace Technology Campus in Richmond: double yellow urethane lines down the hangar walkway, past an engine on its stand (left), and a polished concrete corridor, the polishing machine beyond (right). More on the projects page.
A mechanic shop in Richmond, 2017: the finished light grey floor under the four-post hoist (left), and across the shop, glossy up to the racking and the wall (right). More on the projects page.
A printing company owned by Kodak in Richmond, 2017: the grey ESD floor coating spread by squeegee over the ground slab (left), and the finished high-gloss floor running to the windows (right). More on the projects page.
Recent work in Richmond
Mazda Richmond Automall, service shop
Richmond's automotive strip puts a particular demand on concrete: hoist loads, dropped tools, oil and coolant, and tyre scuff at every turn, on a floor customers can see from the service desk. This one was bare, patchy and stained — porous concrete that could not be kept looking clean however often it was swept.
Rebuilt in a ResinTech EWS-S system, finished light. More on this kind of work on our automotive floors page.
- Client
- Mazda Richmond Automall
- Setting
- Mazda service shop
- System
- ResinTech EWS-S
- Completed
- Winter 2025
Earlier work in Richmond
MTU Canada, epoxy and urethane
In 2011 we coated the floor of MTU Canada's building in Richmond in epoxy and urethane. The work went in while the interior fit-out was still under way, with steel stud walls going up along both sides of the hall. The bare concrete slab, marked with saw-cut joints and layout lines, was prepared and then finished in high-gloss light grey.
MTU Canada, Richmond, 2011: the same hall before coating, bare concrete with saw-cut joints and red layout lines (left), and after, in high-gloss light grey epoxy and urethane (right). More on this kind of work on our industrial floors page.
- Client
- MTU Canada
- Setting
- Open floor, during fit-out
- System
- Epoxy and urethane
- Completed
- 2011
At the airport
YVR: a slippery concrete floor made non-slip
The concrete floor of a baggage handling area at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), on Sea Island in Richmond, had become slippery, on a floor used by baggage carts and ground crew. The answer was not another coating laid on top but a change to the concrete surface itself.
We shot blasted the slab. A shot blaster throws steel shot at the concrete and recovers it as it goes, stripping the smooth top of the slab, with the grime on it, and leaving an even, open texture across the floor: that texture is what gives grip. A sealer was then spread over the blasted concrete, sealing it while keeping the texture, so the finished floor is non-slip rather than glossy. The work went one taped-off section at a time, with the baggage hall in use around it.
YVR, Richmond: the sealer spread over the shot-blasted slab (left and right), one taped-off section at a time. More on shot blasting on our surface preparation page.
- Client
- Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
- Setting
- Baggage handling area
- Work
- Shot blasting and sealer
- Result
- Non-slip concrete floor
YVR, Richmond: the sealed, non-slip floor through the baggage handling area, past the bollards (left), and the shot blasting that gave it its grip (right).
Also on Sea Island
MTU Maintenance Canada, Building 2
In 2013 we coated the floor of Building 2 at MTU Maintenance Canada, the aircraft engine shop beside Vancouver International Airport. The slab was ground back with the dust extractor running, edges and columns included, inside plastic containment walls, then coated in high-gloss grey. The finished floor now carries engines on their stands under the gantry cranes, with the aisles and bays marked out in yellow.
MTU Maintenance Canada, Building 2, 2013: edge grinding around a column under dust extraction (left), and the finished high-gloss floor by the overhead door (right). More on aviation floors on our hangar flooring page.
- Client
- MTU Maintenance Canada
- Setting
- Building 2, aircraft engine shop
- Work
- Grinding and high-gloss floor coating
- Completed
- 2013
Questions
What Richmond clients ask us.
Richmond is built on soft soil. Does settlement affect floor coatings?
It can, and it is the honest local complication. Differential settlement on Richmond slabs-on-grade produces cracking and slab movement that a rigid coating will telegraph. Where we see evidence of ongoing movement we detail cracks with reinforcing fabric or specify a system with more flexibility, rather than laying a hard coating over a slab that is still moving and calling it done.
We run a food processing facility. What do we need for CFIA and audits?
In practice, a urethane mortar floor with integral coving at the wall junction, correct falls to drains, and a surface with real slip resistance when wet. Urethane mortar is specified for thermal shock, which is what daily hot wash-down actually is. Auditors tend to focus on the coving and the drainage as much as the coating, so we build those into the scope rather than treating them as extras.
Do you work airside or in the airport-area logistics buildings?
We work throughout the Richmond logistics and light-industrial belt around the airport lands. Airside and secure-area work carries its own access, security clearance and scheduling requirements, so tell us early if a site is inside a controlled area — it changes the programme far more than it changes the specification.
Does the high water table affect coating a Richmond slab?
Yes, this is the one to test for. A slab over a high water table with an inadequate vapour barrier can drive moisture up into the back of a new coating and lift it off. We run an in-situ relative humidity test before quoting, and where the slab reads high we either specify a moisture-mitigating primer or a system that tolerates the condition. Skipping that test in Richmond is asking for a blistered floor.
Site assessments
Have a slab in Richmond you're worried about?
Photographs and a rough area are enough to start. We'll come out, test moisture, and scope it properly.
Main (604) 968-2040
Second (604) 230-0256
estimating@westpacificcoatings.com