Anyone selling this product can quote you a resistance number. The number is the easy part. A floor passes on paper and fails in service because nobody specified the earth path, the test points, or the footwear that would stand on it — so this page is about the parts that decide the outcome.
Conductive and static-dissipative are not "better" and "worse". They discharge at different rates, and which one you want depends on whether a fast dump protects the process or damages the device. Anything above 10⁹ Ω is not either band — it is an insulating floor that happens to have been sold as anti-static.
10⁴–10⁶ Ω
written on supplier sheets as 10^4~10^6 ohm
Areas where a charge has to leave fast: explosive and flammable processing, hydrogen and solvent handling, munitions, some semiconductor diffusion areas.
Shunts a discharge quickly, which is what you want for ignition risk and what you do not want next to a device being handled — a fast dump can itself damage the part.
10⁶–10⁹ Ω
written on supplier sheets as 10^6~10^9 ohm
The band most electronics assembly, SMT, test, server rooms, imaging suites and pharmaceutical packing actually specify. Charge leaves, but gently enough that the floor is not the event.
Slow enough that a genuinely high-ignition-risk area is not covered by it — that is what the conductive band is for.
above 10⁹ Ω
written on supplier sheets as > 10^9 ohm
Not a specification — a diagnosis. A standard sealed epoxy floor, or an ESD floor that has been waxed, sits here.
Nothing to trade off: at this resistance the floor is holding the charge it was supposed to remove.
Both ranges are quoted as a design target for the finished floor, measured on your slab against an earth-point log — not as a factory certificate. Anyone who ships you a certificate for a floor that has not been poured yet is certifying the ink.
A single "surface resistance" figure is the one most specification sheets ask for and the one that hides the most. These three answer different questions, and a floor can pass two of them and still be useless.
| What is measured | What it reads | What it catches | When it fails, the usual cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| System resistance to earth | Floor → earth terminal, through the whole conductive path | Whether the grid is actually bonded. A floor that measures fine point-to-point but fails here has a broken earth, not a broken topping. | Missing or unbonded earth point; grid laid but not tied to the terminal; terminal painted over during finishes. |
| Point-to-point resistance | Two points on the finished surface, same zone | Whether the surface itself is continuous. This is the number a supplier sheet usually quotes, and it is the one that can pass while the floor still fails commissioning. | Construction joints left unbonded; a patch repair done in standard epoxy; wear coat applied over an insufficient conductive layer. |
| Person-to-floor / charge decay | A person standing on the floor, in the footwear they will actually wear | The only one of the three that describes the real system. A perfect floor under a person in insulative shoes still builds charge. | Footwear not specified alongside the floor; trolley castors replaced with standard ones after handover. |
We do not print standard numbers on this page. A resistance band without a test method attached to it is a decoration, and a supplier who names a standard they have not been tested against is worse than no number at all. Specify the measurements above with your own ESD consultant, and we will build to them and log the results.
Conductivity in this floor is a property of the whole stack, not of one component. Every layer below the wear coat is part of the path, which is why the quantities are published rather than described.
Figures are typical values measured in our laboratory. Substrate, climate and workmanship affect the result — we confirm the final specification in writing before your order.
These are not hypothetical, and in most cases the floor material is fine — what failed is the path. This is the section worth forwarding to whoever runs the site after handover.
An insulating wheel sitting on a conductive floor electrically isolates the equipment it carries. The floor still measures good; the cart does not.
What to do Specify ESD wheels with the floor, and re-check after any castor replacement.
They lay an insulating film over the surface. Point-to-point climbs above the band while the earth path is untouched — which is why a floor can 'pass' a partial test.
What to do Neutral or dedicated ESD cleaners only. Never wax. Re-measure after any change of cleaning regime.
The repair breaks the conductive network locally. One patch is invisible on a room-average reading and obvious on a grid of test points.
What to do Repair with the conductive kit, and log the location against the test-point map.
A high-gloss topcoat selected from the decorative range can sit above the dissipative band. The build-up is only conductive all the way through.
What to do Use the conductive wear coat. Colour and gloss are constrained by the carbon loading — that is a physics limit, not a preference.
Current leaves through the slab and the earth, not through the coating alone. A dry, high-resistivity screed can hold system resistance up even with a perfect grid.
What to do Measure and record slab resistance during the survey, before any material moves.
Written to be handed to your ESD consultant and argued over, not accepted as-is. Anything that commits us to a number you have not agreed is deliberately left out.
What we do publish, with documents behind it: ISO 9001, SGS tested, CE / DoC, French A+ VOC, PICC product liability.
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Paste the resistance band, the area, the slab condition and whatever your consultant has already written. We will come back with a build-up, the test-point layout and the quantities — and we will say plainly which parts we cannot evidence.
