Static Control (ESD) Flooring

Less than 1.0 x 10⁹ ohms for the whole system, measured to ANSI/ESD STM97.1 with a person standing on the floor in their work footwear. The floor on its own gets measured to ANSI/ESD STM7.1. Those are two different tests and passing one does not mean passing the other.

2.5 x 10⁴ to 1.0 x 10⁶ ohms is conductive. Greater than 1.0 x 10⁶ and less than 1.0 x 10⁹ ohms is static dissipative. Conductive moves charge off fast, dissipative bleeds it off in a controlled way. Which one you need is set by what you build and by how close your people work to live equipment.

No, and this is the one that catches people. Since the 2014 revision of ANSI/ESD S20.20 there is also a walking test, ANSI/ESD STM97.2, and the system has to stay under 100 volts peak. A floor can measure 3.5 x 10⁷ ohms, look compliant on paper, and still put a person over 100 volts when they walk on it.

It is the ESD control program standard your facility gets audited against. For flooring it sets two pass criteria: system resistance under 1.0 x 10⁹ ohms per STM97.1, and peak body voltage under 100 volts per STM97.2.

Yes, and it is the first thing worth doing. ANSI/ESD STM7.1 measures what you have now. Plenty of floors sold as ESD years ago have drifted out of band, and plenty of plants replace a floor that was still inside it.

Most plant floors run 3 to 5 days from grind to return to service, driven by square footage, how much coating has to come off first, and cure time between coats. A phased install keeps part of the floor working while the rest goes down.

Foot traffic is typically 24 hours after the final coat and forklift or rack loading typically 72 hours, with the exact window set by the system and the slab temperature. Cold slabs cure slower, which matters in a Pittsburgh winter.

Yes. ASTM F1869 (calcium chloride) or ASTM F2170 (relative humidity probes) before anything goes down. Moisture coming up through a slab is the single most common reason a coating lets go, and it is not visible when you are standing on it.

Diamond grinding to a CSP 2 to 3 profile in almost every case, not acid etching and not a light scuff. The grounding network and the conductive layer only work if they are adhered to sound concrete.

A copper grounding strip run into the conductive layer and tied to building ground, typically one connection point per 1,000 square feet. Without it the floor is just a coating with carbon in it and it will not test.

No, and this is the most expensive mistake a facility makes on its own. A standard floor wax or acrylic sealer is insulative, often 10¹¹ ohms or higher, and one coat of it takes a compliant floor out of band. Cleaning procedure has to change the day the floor goes in.

Neutral pH cleaner and clean water, no wax, no acrylic sealer, no solvent degreaser. A build-up of ordinary cleaner residue reads as insulation and will push resistance up over time.

Annually at minimum for an S20.20 program, and after any change to cleaning chemicals, footwear or process. Most audit findings on flooring are drift, not a bad install.

It is the system, not the floor. ANSI/ESD STM97.1 measures floor, footwear and person together. A compliant floor with the wrong shoes fails, which is why the standard stopped letting anyone test the floor alone.

Typically 20 to 60 mils for a coating system and 1/8 inch or more for a mortar or urethane cement build, chosen by traffic and impact rather than by the ESD requirement. The static control performance comes from the conductive layer and the grounding, not the thickness.

Yes. Impact and abrasion are a separate spec from resistance, handled with a thicker build or a urethane cement body under the conductive topcoat. Ask for both numbers, because a floor can be compliant and still be too soft for your traffic.

That is a resin question, not an ESD question. Urethane cement and novolac systems take steam, thermal shock and aggressive chemistry. Ask what the system is rated for by chemical family, not whether it is chemical resistant, which means nothing on its own.

Colors are available across the range, with the caveat that the conductive carbon in most systems limits how light the floor can go. Line striping and traffic marking go down in the same install.

Aggregate can be broadcast to reach the traction you need, and it is a trade-off worth naming out loud: more texture is more grip and a harder floor to keep clean, which matters because cleaning method affects your resistance readings.

Cost is driven by four things: square footage, how much existing coating has to come off, whether the slab needs moisture mitigation, and which band you have to hit. A grind-and-coat over sound concrete and a full mitigation build on a wet slab are different projects. We quote after we have seen the slab and know the band, not before.

Yes, in phases, nights and weekends. Most plants cannot give up a whole floor at once, so the floor gets sectioned and the grounding network gets tied together as the sections join.

Electronics assembly and repair, printed circuit board handling, cleanrooms, data centers, pharmaceutical and medical device production, munitions and energetics, and any space where solvent vapour and an ignition source share a room. If you have an ESD control program on paper, the floor is part of it.

An ordinary epoxy floor typically measures 10¹¹ ohms or higher, which is insulative. It holds charge instead of moving it. A static control floor carries a conductive layer tied into building ground, which is a different build, not a different colour of the same one.

Yes, across the Pittsburgh metro including Cranberry Township, Robinson Township, Moon Township, Monroeville, Warrendale, North Strabane Township and the surrounding Butler, Allegheny, Washington and Beaver county corridors.

Four things: square footage, the band you have to hit (conductive or dissipative, and whether an audit sets it), what is on the slab now, and your traffic. If you do not know the band, that is a normal place to start and it is worth settling before anyone quotes you.