Commercial Breweries - Flooring

Is there a particular reason why most if not all commercial breweries have a ceramic floor on the brew floor?

I noticed the other day when I went through a dairy they had the same type of floor, maybes its the age of the building, or sanitary reasons, I don't know but figured I'd ask....

I thought ceramic tile was porous so that doesn't make for a great sanitary flooring in my opinion, but I'm not a floor expert.......

I think it has to do with corrosion. The sanitizers used are pretty acidic and I think it eats most normal concrete floors. There are other ways of sealing the floor like epoxies and special paint.

Tile will handle more traffic and abuse from the water pressure than sealed cement will. It is due to the glazing on the tile floor.

Ease of cleaning, durability, slip resistance, etc...

But mostly, it's prolly what the health department told them they had to have.

Just to **** with you.

We have an epoxy coated floor in our brewroom.

It is peeling badly and needs redone. They tried to do it themselves about a year ago and it isn't holding up well because the concrete holds so much moisture it seeps back up under the epoxy paint and causes it to bubble and peel.

I am hoping to be able to convince them it is a necessary improvement, mainly because the chips wash down the drain and clog it regularly.

If it is laid correctly from the start it should last quite a while with little to no maintenence. Spots that get hit regularly with boiled water or cleanout I would probably reinforce with a little tile right where it hits the floor so it doesn't directly hit the epoxy. Also if you are setting up a drain system do a center trough with drop through grating and a catch befor the water enters the actual drain, this will save you so much headache over a standard drop drain setup.

Something like this



The only thing I don't like is the use of brick for the floor, although it looks nice the brick will probably end up wearing poorly after dumping boiled water from the drainout on the same spot over and over.