MC-Bauchemie Dreitop FH
The non-metallic dry-shake hardener that turns ordinary cast concrete into a rust-free, abrasion-resistant wearing surface, at a fraction of what a resin topping costs.
What is it?
A ready-to-use, non-metallic dry-shake floor hardener – a polymer-modified cementitious binder blended with graded, cubical carborundum (silicon carbide) aggregate rated 9 on the Mohs hardness scale.
Where is it used?
Broadcast onto freshly floated concrete, or onto a bonded compensating screed over an existing old floor, in factories, warehouses, workshops, loading bays, car ramps and any floor built for heavy wheeled or foot traffic.
Why use it?
Being non-metallic, it never rusts or streaks brown the way old-style steel-filing hardeners do, so it goes into wet rooms, dairies and outdoor floors without staining while still standing up to rolling loads, impact, abrasion, oil and de-icing salts.
How is it applied?
Dry-shaken by hand or scoop over two passes at right angles, floated in as it darkens with surface moisture, then power-floated to a dense, non-skid finish and cured – by our own crews or under our technical supervision.
About MC-Bauchemie Dreitop FH
Dreitop FH is MC-Bauchemie’s dry-shake surface hardener for concrete floors, built on a simple idea: instead of coating a floor with a resin film that can peel or wear through, you harden the top few millimetres of the concrete itself. The powder is polymer-modified cement blended with well-graded, cubical carborundum aggregate, broadcast onto fresh concrete (or a bonded screed over an old slab) and trowelled in while the base is still green. It bonds monolithically with the substrate rather than sitting on top of it, so there is no delamination risk the way there sometimes is with applied coatings. Because the hardening aggregate is mineral, not steel, the finished floor genuinely does not rust – the whole reason non-metallic hardeners exist as a category.
For an Indian industrial floor – a component store with fork-lift traffic, a dairy hall washed down daily, an ancillary shop floor with trolley movement – Dreitop FH sits in a useful middle ground. It costs meaningfully less per square metre than a multi-coat epoxy or PU system, goes down fast because it is applied while the pour is still fresh, and skips the moisture-testing and curing windows resin toppings demand. It will not give a seamless, chemical-resistant membrane the way epoxy self-levelling systems do – it hardens concrete, it does not coat it – so specifiers should choose between the two on that basis, not on price alone. As an authorised MC-Bauchemie distributor and applicator, Space Arc supplies Dreitop FH ex-Mumbai stock into Delhi NCR and pan-India projects, and can also carry out the broadcast-and-float application with trained crews where a contractor wants it turnkey.
The technical insight
Performance in a dry-shake hardener comes down to aggregate hardness and grading. Dreitop FH uses carborundum at Mohs 9, just below corundum and diamond, which is why abrasion loss comes in under 2 mm when tested to IS 1237-2012. The cubical, well-graded particle shape packs tightly against the cement paste for a denser, lower-permeability surface than a random aggregate blend would give – which is what keeps oil, water and de-icing salts from working their way in and undermining the bond over time. The polymer modification adds plasticity during the two dry-shake passes and helps strength gain, but the aggregate is doing most of the structural work.
Where it is used
- Automobile assembly and ancillary manufacturing plants
- Aircraft hangars and MRO facilities
- Foundries, steel mills and metallurgical plants
- Dairies, breweries, food and pharmaceutical processing floors
- Warehousing, loading bays and cold-chain distribution centres
- Multi-level car parks and vehicle ramps
- Railway platforms, stadiums and public buildings
- Workshop and shop floors under trolley or fork-lift traffic
Key advantages
- Non-metallic aggregate – no rusting or brown staining, even in wet or outdoor floors
- Abrasion resistance under 2 mm to IS 1237-2012
- Bonds monolithically with the base concrete, no membrane to delaminate
- Resists de-icing salts, petrol and mineral oil spills
- Non-skid finish for both pedestrian and vehicle areas
- Considerably cheaper than multi-coat epoxy or PU flooring systems
- Works on new monolithic pours and on old floors via a bonded screed
- Dust-free, physiologically harmless once cured
Limitations & considerations
- Application timing is unforgiving – too early and aggregate sinks and dusts, too late and the binder never hydrates, so it needs a trained crew
- It hardens concrete, it does not coat it, so chemical resistance in aggressive spill areas trails a resin system
- Comes essentially in grey – where colour or a seamless look matters, epoxy or PU is the better fit
- Full traffic loading needs roughly a week of curing, longer than most liquid coatings need
- Improves the wear surface but does not fix an underlying cracked or moving slab
- On old floors it needs a proper bonded screed underlayer, an extra step a direct coating avoids
Selection & best practice
Get the timing right first – Dreitop FH goes down once the base concrete has taken initial set and firms enough to leave only a 2-3 mm footprint underfoot, with bleed water evaporated. Broadcast half to a third of the material by hand, let it darken as it draws up surface moisture, float it in, then repeat the balance at right angles and float again; over-working the surface between passes weakens the finish. On old floors, prepare a 25-30 mm bonded screed (50:50 blend of 0-4 mm and 4-8 mm aggregate, 400 kg/m3 cement) and broadcast once it has taken initial set. Cure promptly with a membrane-forming compound such as Emcoril, and hold off heavy trolley or vehicle loading for at least a week even though light foot traffic can resume within a day. Always mix full bags rather than part quantities – the aggregate grading is calibrated per bag.
Specifications
| Type of product | Non-metallic dry-shake floor hardener |
| Form | Grey powder |
| Aggregate hardness | 9 (Mohs scale) |
| Abrasion resistance | Less than 2 mm, as per IS 1237-2012 |
| Consumption – heavy traffic | 7 kg/m² |
| Consumption – medium traffic | 5 kg/m² |
| Consumption – light traffic | 3 kg/m² |
| Shelf life | 6 months from manufacture, unopened pack, protected from rain, sun, heat and frost |
| Pack size | 30 kg sacks |
Industry use cases
Automotive & auto-ancillary manufacturing
Shop floors under fork-lift and trolley movement specified for abrasion resistance at a lower cost than a full epoxy build-up
Dairy & food processing
Non-rusting property suited wash-down floors where a metallic hardener would have stained and corroded
Warehousing & logistics
Loading bays and internal roadways broadcast during the concrete pour, avoiding a separate coating stage on the schedule
Renovation of old industrial floors
Worn concrete upgraded with a bonded screed plus Dreitop FH topping instead of a full slab replacement
Multi-level parking & car ramps
Non-skid, oil- and petrol-resistant surface for ramps and decks with mixed pedestrian and vehicle use
Frequently asked questions
How is Dreitop FH different from a metallic floor hardener?
How much Dreitop FH do I need per square metre?
Can it be applied on an existing old floor, or only fresh concrete?
How soon can the floor be used after application?
Is it suitable for areas with chemical spills or aggressive cleaning agents?
Does Space Arc only supply Dreitop FH, or can you apply it too?
How we position MC-Bauchemie Dreitop FH
Dreitop FH sits alongside MC-Bauchemie’s MC-DUR epoxy and PU flooring systems and the Emcoril curing compound range that Space Arc also stocks – the practical choice when a project needs a hard-wearing, economical, rust-free wearing surface rather than a seamless resin finish. Where a specification calls for a genuinely equivalent non-metallic dry-shake hardener from another brand, Fosroc’s Nitoflor Hardtop is the closest match and one we also carry – worth considering when a project’s approved-vendor list or existing specification is Fosroc-specific.
Fosroc Nitoflor Hardtop — A specifier locked into a Fosroc-approved vendor list, or working from a spec that already references Fosroc’s flooring range, would choose Nitoflor Hardtop as the equivalent non-metallic dry-shake hardener.
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