Aircraft hangars are some of the toughest flooring environments a coatings contractor will ever touch. The floor sees jet fuel, hydraulic fluid, brake fluid, tire scrub from heavy gear, and the occasional dropped wrench. In the Carolinas, hangars at airfields from Columbia Metropolitan to smaller fields in the Pee Dee and Lowcountry are increasingly choosing high-build epoxy and polyaspartic systems over bare concrete or paint. The reason is simple: a properly specified coating protects the slab, makes spills visible and easy to clean, and gives a maintenance crew a fighting chance against fluid contamination.
Why hangar floors fail without a coating
Bare concrete is porous. Jet-A and AvGas penetrate quickly, and once they soak in, the slab smells, stains, and breaks down at the surface. Standard porch paint chips under tire scrub from a tug or tow tractor in weeks. Single-coat epoxies sold at big-box stores will not survive a hangar environment, period. What works is a multi-layer system: aggressive mechanical prep, a chemical-resistant primer, a high-build epoxy body coat, and a polyaspartic or aliphatic urethane topcoat rated for fuel exposure.
Carolina-specific considerations
Humidity is the big one. Coastal hangars near Charleston and Myrtle Beach see slab moisture readings that would fail a residential garage installation. A moisture-tolerant primer, or a calcium-aluminate moisture mitigation layer, is often non-optional. Inland Carolina hangars are easier but still benefit from a moisture test before specification. Temperature is the other factor: polyaspartic topcoats cure in cold weather better than standard epoxy, which matters for late-fall hangar refits when an aircraft has to be back on the floor in 24 hours.
What to ask your contractor
Ask three questions: what is the dry film thickness of the body coat, what is the chemical-resistance rating of the topcoat against Jet-A and Skydrol, and what is the cure-to-traffic and cure-to-aircraft-load time. A reputable Carolina contractor will hand you a written spec sheet with all three answers. If they cannot answer, keep looking.
