Tanhurst Estate raises a glass to Watco's concrete floor solutions

Project details

Tanhurst Estate is located on the western slopes of Leigh Hill in the stunning Surrey Hills. Already a successful holiday cottage business, the owners started an exciting new family venture in 2020 from the estate’s main farm - a vineyard.

1.8 hectares of Pinot Noir were originally planted, followed by a further 11,000 Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir Précoce vines in 2021. It takes at least three years for the vines to mature sufficiently to produce the first harvest, so while the family patiently waited for the vines to grow, they tackled the next important step, building and setting up the winery.

A winery is a complex facility and needs a lot of careful planning to make sure it functions as well as it can. Before building their winery, Colin Grimes, Owner at the Tanhurst Estate winery, researched design requirements and the problems that can arise if the building is not built properly.

It became clear that if the flooring wasn’t right from the onset, it would be very difficult to put it right later on. In addition to being easy to clean and maintain, winery floors must be able to cope with varying temperatures and be durable enough to withstand daily wear and tear as well as heavy loads from the  wine-making equipment.

After the main building work had been completed, Colin noticed that the concrete floor surface had been damaged, particularly in two areas where a digger bucket had scraped the floor, causing deep surface scratches. The floor was also generally very dirty from the building work and dust and mud had worked into the cracks.

“I had been told that I needed a chemical resistant epoxy resin for the floor so I started to look for suppliers. Watco came up immediately. I had no experience of using an epoxy resin and was worried that I would have to do some major repairs to the floor first. I was impressed with the website and the company’s long history of experience, but the major bonuses were that Watco came out to advise me and then supplied me with everything I needed to clean, repair and paint the concrete floor.”

The Watco solution

Before the epoxy resin mortar could be applied, the floor needed to be cleaned, dirt and debris removed from the surface and then any damaged areas repaired. This was easily done by sweeping the concrete surface with a stiff broom and then applying Watco Cleaning Solvent, a biodegradable degreaser that removes dirt and dust prior to painting.

Watco Concrex Fine Filler was then used to repair cracks and other damaged areas. Concrex Fine Filler dries in about 2 hours so the floor was ready in no time to be primed with just a single coat of our easy to apply Epoxicote High Build Primer. Finally, Watco Epoxicote High Build Rapid was applied to provide the exceptional performance and superior protection that was required for the winery’s flooring.

Elsewhere, a combination of Watco Tack Coat, Concrex Fine Filler and Concrex Vertical was used to carry out repairs to the winery pillars.

The end result

“The floor looks stunning and the repairs have really worked. The resin is so thick that it covered over minor scratches and gave me a smooth finish. This makes it easier to keep clean and, crucially, lets me add further coats if necessary in the future.”

“I had been really worried about the state of the floor, but Watco sorted it out for me. I hadn’t expected the job to be so easy. All the products came with simple to follow instructions, the repairs were easy to do and the resin went on very quickly with a roller. It went so smoothly that we completed the work in a week. My winery consultant was really impressed when he saw it and said the floor was as good as any winery floor he’d seen,” concluded Colin.