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. A second documented project sits in that hospitality overlap — a 40,000 square foot hotel parkade membrane, phased so the hotel never stopped trading.
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?
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
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 (236) 873-2580 · Second (604) 230-0256 · estimating@westpacificcoatings.com