About STP ShaliFloor 3 ES

STP ShaliFloor 3 ES is a heavy-duty epoxy screed built for floors that ordinary concrete simply cannot survive. It arrives as three pre-weighed components – an epoxy base, an amine hardener and a bag of graded aggregate – which are blended on site and laid by trowel at a controllable 2 to 6 mm. Once cured, it behaves less like a coating and more like a new wearing slab: dense, seamless and bonded tightly to the substrate beneath it. STP has sold this system for years under the earlier names ShaliScreed and ShaliScreed 2000, so specifiers who remember those products are looking at the same chemistry with an updated label.

Where a thin roller-applied coating would wear through under forklift wheels or crack under a dropped die, ShaliFloor 3 ES carries the load in its body. Its compressive strength of over 75 MPa and adhesion to concrete of more than 3 MPa let it absorb impact and point loads while staying keyed to the floor. Because it is solvent-free it is low in VOC and can be laid in enclosed plant rooms without evacuating the area, and because it cures to a smooth, pore-free finish it resists the acids, alkalis and oils that would soak into and degrade bare concrete. For contractors it is a way to give a client a floor that looks new and cleans easily, without demolishing and recasting the slab.

The technical insight

The performance comes from how the three parts work together. The epoxy base and amine hardener cross-link into a rigid, chemically inert polymer matrix, and the graded aggregate is packed into that matrix to carry compressive load and resist abrasion – the same principle as aggregate in structural concrete, but with an epoxy binder instead of cement. That gives you a screed that is far denser and less permeable than a cement floor: there are effectively no capillaries for chemicals, water or bacteria to migrate through, which is why it stands up to spillage and washes down cleanly. The 2-6 mm build thickness is deliberate – thick enough to bridge minor surface defects and give a genuine wearing layer, thin enough to trowel and level by hand. Bond to the slab is engineered through the ShaliPrime 2E primer, which soaks into the prepared concrete and gives the screed a chemically compatible, high-strength anchor rather than relying on mechanical grip alone.

Where it is used

• Heavy manufacturing and engineering shop floors subject to forklift and pallet-truck traffic
• Chemical process and pharmaceutical plant floors exposed to acid, alkali and solvent spillage
• Food, beverage and dairy production areas needing a seamless, hygienic, washable surface
• Power plant, battery room and heavy-engineering floors with impact and point loading
• Warehouse and logistics aisles where dusting or worn concrete must be rebuilt
• Vehicle workshops, service bays and hangar floors exposed to oil, fuel and mechanical wear
• Overlay onto sound but damaged existing concrete to reinstate a level, load-bearing surface
• Laboratory and assembly-unit floors requiring a low-VOC, chemical-resistant finish

Key advantages

• Very high compressive strength (>75 MPa) carries forklift wheels, point loads and impact
• Strong bond to concrete (>3 MPa adhesion) so the screed stays keyed under heavy service
• Good resistance to a wide range of acids, alkalis, solvents and oils encountered in industry
• Seamless, pore-free finish that is hygienic, dust-free and quick to wash down
• Solvent-free and low-VOC – safe to lay in enclosed plant rooms and food areas
• Controllable 2-6 mm thickness lets one system level minor defects and give a true wearing layer
• Floor accepts foot and light traffic in roughly 24 hours at 25 C, cutting downtime
• Works as a new floor or as an overlay to rescue a damaged existing slab

Limitations & considerations

• Not UV-stable on its own – direct sunlight will chalk or fade the surface unless a top coat such as ShaliFloor TC 2PU is applied
• For external or sunlit areas a protective PU top coat is essential, adding a second product and step
• Must not be laid over asphalt, weak or friable concrete, unmodified sand-cement screeds, PVC tiles or substrates that move
• Requires proper mechanical surface preparation and priming – it will not bond to a dusty, oily or unprepared slab
• Short pot life once mixed means it must be laid in bays sized to what the crew can finish in time
• Chemical resistance covers mild-to-moderate exposure; continuous strong-acid immersion needs a specialist acid-resistant system

Selection & best practice

Specifications

Industry use cases

How we position STP ShaliFloor 3 ES

ShaliFloor 3 ES is the trowel-applied screed at the heart of STP’s epoxy floor system. It is designed to be built up with its own family: prime with ShaliPrime 2E, and where the floor sees daylight or needs a coloured, UV-stable finish, seal it with a ShaliFloor TC 2PU top coat; expansion joints are treated separately with ShaliSeal PS PG. Where a project needs a self-levelling rather than a trowel finish, STP’s ShaliFloor SL range is the sister option. Against our other brands, the closest genuine equal is Fosroc Nitoflor TF5000 – specify that when a job is standardised on Fosroc; for wet, high-temperature areas with steam and thermal shock, a PU-hybrid screed such as Fosroc Nitoflor TF120 UB is the better technical fit than any epoxy.

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