Floor comparison
Resin Floors Compared With Microcement
Resin and microcement are the two realistic answers when somebody wants a jointless floor. They are chemically unrelated, they look different in person, and each one is clearly better than the other in specific rooms.
Different chemistry, different behaviour
Resin floors are polymer systems, typically epoxy, polyurethane or polyaspartic, poured or applied and then cured chemically. The finished floor is essentially a plastic surface: uniform, impermeable and, in the right formulation, extremely resistant to chemicals and abrasion.
Microcement is a cementitious coating with a polymer modifier, trowelled by hand and protected by a sealer. It reads as a mineral surface, it holds visible trowel character, and its resistance comes from the sealer schedule rather than from the body of the material.
- Resin
- Polymer system, cured chemically, uniform and impermeable
- Microcement
- Cementitious coating, hand trowelled, sealed at the surface
Choose resin when
In garages, workshops, plant rooms, commercial kitchens and industrial areas, this is not a close call. A correctly specified resin system will outperform a decorative coating by a wide margin, and it is designed for exactly that duty.
- ✓The floor faces chemicals, oils, solvents or frequent hosing down
- ✓There is wheeled or industrial traffic and impact
- ✓A specific slip resistance rating has to be achieved and documented
- ✓Hygiene requirements call for an impermeable, coved surface
- ✓Uniform colour matters more than surface character
Choose microcement when
In living spaces, bathrooms, kitchens, hotels and retail interiors, microcement generally reads better. Resin in a domestic living room can look and feel plastic, and that is a difficult thing to unsee once a client notices it.
- ✓The floor is part of an interior design scheme rather than a work surface
- ✓You want the same finish to run up walls, steps and into a shower
- ✓A mineral appearance with subtle hand-worked movement is wanted
- ✓Build-up height is critical and every millimetre counts
- ✓The floor connects visually to other decorative finishes in the property
Practical differences worth knowing
Thickness is similar in the thin systems, so neither imposes much build-up, though heavy-duty resin screeds are considerably thicker than a decorative coating. Both work well over underfloor heating provided the screed has been commissioned properly first.
Repair favours resin for uniform colours, because a poured system can often be patched and re-coated to a consistent finish. Microcement patches are harder to hide on a plain pale colour and easier to hide where the finish has strong movement. Cleaning favours resin, which shrugs off products that would strip a microcement sealer.
The most common specification error is choosing on appearance alone and putting a decorative floor into a room that needed an industrial one.
Using both in one building
On commercial projects this is usually the right answer. Microcement front of house where the surface is doing aesthetic work, resin back of house where the floor is doing physical work. The transition can be detailed at a natural threshold so neither material is asked to do the other's job.
The same logic applies in a large house with a garage, a plant room or a utility. There is no prize for using one finish everywhere, and specifying by room is how the whole building ends up performing.
Resin and microcement questions
Specify room by room
Tell us what happens in each space, what gets spilled and what rolls across the floor, and we will tell you where a resin system belongs and where a decorative finish is the better choice. Mixing them is normal and usually correct.