Question 1

What resistance does an ESD floor have to hit?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 2

What is the difference between conductive and static dissipative flooring?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 3

Does an ESD floor pass just by hitting the resistance number?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 4

What is ANSI/ESD S20.20?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 5

Can my existing floor be tested before I replace it?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 6

How long does an ESD floor take to install?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 7

How long before we can walk on it and run equipment?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 8

Does the concrete have to be tested for moisture first?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 9

What surface prep does an ESD floor need?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 10

How does the floor actually get grounded?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 11

Will an ESD floor still work if we wax or seal it?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 12

How do we clean an ESD floor?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 13

How often should the floor be retested?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 14

Does the footwear matter or is it just the floor?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 15

What thickness does an ESD floor go down at?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 16

Can we get an ESD floor that stands up to forklifts and pallet jacks?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 17

Will it hold up to wash-down and chemicals?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 18

Can we get color, or is ESD flooring always grey?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 19

Is ESD flooring slip resistant?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 20

What does ESD flooring cost?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 21

Do you work around our production schedule?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 22

What kind of facilities need static control flooring?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 23

How is this different from ordinary epoxy?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 24

Do you serve plants outside the city of Pittsburgh?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 25

What do you need from us to quote a static control floor?

Accepted Answer

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.

Band	Resistance	In plain numbers	Test method	Specified when
Conductive	2.5 x 10⁴ to 1.0 x 10⁶ ohms	25,000 to 1,000,000 ohms	ANSI/ESD STM7.1	Charge has to leave the floor fast and the operation handles parts that fail at low voltage. Common in electronics assembly and munitions or energetics work.
Static dissipative	greater than 1.0 x 10⁶ to less than 1.0 x 10⁹ ohms	1,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 ohms	ANSI/ESD STM7.1	Charge has to bleed off in a controlled way rather than dump. The usual choice where people work around live equipment and a hard path to ground is a shock risk.

Static Control (ESD) Flooring

Why Static Control (ESD) Flooring

A floor can measure right and still fail the audit

The two bands the standard defines

Every standard on this page, by name

Static Control Questions

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