Almost every factory project in Bangladesh starts with the same fork in the road: should the floor be epoxy or polyurethane? Contractors will happily quote either, and both look identical once cured. The difference only shows up eighteen months later, when one floor is still intact and the other is blistering around the wash-down area.
Here is a practical, non-marketing comparison of the two chemistries, written from the perspective of what fails on real sites in Bangladesh.
The short answer
Epoxy gives you hardness, compressive strength, chemical resistance and a lower cost per square foot. Polyurethane gives you flexibility, thermal shock tolerance, better resistance to organic acids, UV stability and faster return to service. If your process is dry and mechanically demanding, epoxy usually wins on value. If your process involves water, steam, temperature swings or food acids, PU is the safer engineering choice.
Where epoxy performs best
Mechanical load and abrasion
Epoxy screeds cure to a very hard, dense surface with high compressive strength, which is exactly what you want under pallet trucks, steel wheels and static point loads from racking. In warehouses, garment production floors, electronics assembly halls and packaging areas, a 2 to 3 mm self-levelling epoxy screed is difficult to beat on cost-to-performance.
Chemical resistance in dry conditions
Epoxy handles most solvents, oils, mineral acids at moderate concentration, and alkalis well. In chemical storage, battery rooms and workshop areas, novolac epoxy topcoats push that resistance considerably higher.
Appearance and decorative work
Epoxy is the base chemistry for metallic effects, flake systems, and 3D floors because it flows beautifully, wets out pigment and image media evenly, and cures glass-clear. Nearly all decorative resin flooring in showrooms, restaurants, salons and residences in Dhaka is epoxy based.
Budget-driven projects
Per square foot, epoxy systems generally cost less than an equivalent PU screed, both in raw material and in application labour.
Where epoxy struggles
Three conditions consistently defeat epoxy floors in Bangladesh.
Thermal shock. Epoxy has a relatively high thermal expansion mismatch with concrete and limited flexibility. Repeated hot water wash-down, steam cleaning or contact with freshly cooked product causes stress at the bond line, and eventually delamination.
Organic acids and dairy. Lactic acid, acetic acid, fruit juices, blood and fats attack standard epoxy over time. Food processing floors coated in ordinary epoxy typically soften and discolour first at the drains.
Moisture in the slab. Epoxy is a relatively closed film. On slabs without an effective damp-proof membrane, rising moisture vapour builds osmotic pressure under the coating and lifts it in blisters. This is extremely common on ground-floor slabs in our climate.
Where polyurethane performs best
Wet processing and hygiene areas
Heavy-duty PU screed, often called PU concrete or cementitious urethane, is the default specification for dairy plants, beverage bottling, poultry and fish processing, bakeries, commercial kitchens and pharmaceutical wet areas. It resists organic acids, tolerates constant water and steam cleaning, and can be laid with integral coving so there is no dirt-trapping junction at the wall.
Thermal cycling
PU screeds handle a very wide service temperature range and cope with sudden hot and cold cycles, including cold store floors and areas near ovens, autoclaves and blast freezers. This flexibility is the single strongest technical argument for PU.
Breathability over damp slabs
Because PU screed systems are more moisture-tolerant than epoxy films, they can often be installed over slabs with residual moisture where an epoxy system would blister. This alone saves many renovation projects.
UV stability and outdoor use
Epoxy ambers and chalks under sunlight. PU topcoats hold their colour and gloss, which matters for open car park decks, ramps, walkways and terraces.
Speed
Many PU systems are foot-trafficable within hours and take full service loads far quicker than an equivalent epoxy build, which in a running plant can be worth more than the material price difference.
Where polyurethane struggles
PU screeds cost more. The finish is typically matt to satin with a fine texture, so it will not give you the deep mirror gloss of a metallic epoxy. PU is also more sensitive to application conditions such as humidity and temperature during cure, which means it demands a genuinely trained crew rather than a general painting contractor.
A quick decision table
| Condition on your site | Recommended system |
|---|---|
| Dry warehouse, forklift traffic, racking loads | Epoxy self-levelling screed |
| Garment sewing and finishing floors | Epoxy coating or screed |
| Daily hot water wash-down | PU screed |
| Dairy, beverage, poultry, fish, bakery | PU screed with coving |
| Cold store or blast freezer | PU screed |
| Showroom, salon, restaurant, residence | Metallic or flake epoxy |
| Open-air car park deck or ramp | PU topcoat system |
| Electronics and ESD-sensitive assembly | Conductive epoxy or PU |
| Damp ground-floor slab, no DPM | PU screed or epoxy with moisture-tolerant primer |
| Chemical storage, solvents, mineral acids | Novolac epoxy |
Hybrid specifications are often the right answer
Real factories are not uniform. A single building may need epoxy screed in the dry storage bay, PU screed in the wash bay and processing hall, a conductive system in the electronics room, and a UV-stable PU topcoat on the external ramp. A good flooring partner zones the building and specifies per zone instead of selling one product everywhere.
Questions to ask before you commit
What is the maximum surface temperature the floor will see? Is there a damp-proof membrane under the slab, and what does a moisture test show? What chemicals are spilled, at what concentration, and how quickly are they cleaned? What is the heaviest wheel load and is it steel or polyurethane tyred? How many hours of shutdown can you afford? Answer those five honestly and the chemistry choice usually makes itself.
Talk to a specifier, not a salesman
Elite Crete Bangladesh has worked on industrial, commercial and residential floors since 2007 as authorised applicators for Elite Crete USA, BASF, DUCON, VIACOR and PIDILITE. We will tell you when the cheaper epoxy is genuinely enough, and when spending more on PU will save you a reinstallation.
Compare our systems: Industrial Epoxy Flooring, Industrial PU Flooring, Conductive Epoxy and PU Flooring, Flake Epoxy Flooring and Industrial Flooring overview.