When a major fuel distribution operator in the Houston metropolitan area needed to bring a 15-year-old secondary containment system into full EPA compliance, they turned to a team of American Polyurea member contractors led by Southwest Industrial Coatings. The project — 80,000 square feet of seamless polyurea secondary containment across a complex berm-and-floor system — was completed in four working days and passed EPA third-party integrity inspection on first attempt.
Project Overview
The facility stores multiple petroleum products across 14 above-ground storage tanks, each requiring its own contained berm plus a shared facility-wide secondary containment basin. The existing system used a 1990s-era coal tar epoxy coating that had developed hundreds of cracks, delaminated sections, and pinhole failures. A dye penetrant test identified over 340 discrete failure points in the existing system — none large enough to trigger an immediate enforcement action, but collectively representing a serious compliance risk.
The project specification called for complete removal of all loose and delaminated epoxy, repair of concrete substrate cracks greater than 1/16″, application of a two-component moisture-mitigating primer, and a minimum 120-mil polyurea topcoat forming a seamless membrane across all floor areas, berm walls, and floor-to-berm transitions. The final system was to be tested using a modified ASTM D4541 adhesion protocol and a spark test (holiday testing) at 1,500 volts to verify membrane continuity.
Execution
Two plural-component proportioning machines operating simultaneously allowed the four-person application crew to maintain consistent production rates. Day 1 was dedicated entirely to surface preparation — scarification of all floor areas, hand-tool preparation of berm walls, and crack injection on 47 concrete cracks identified in the pre-application survey. Days 2 and 3 were spray days, with the primer applied in the morning and the polyurea topcoat applied after a 4-hour cure window. Day 4 was dedicated to edge detailing, transition zones, and penetrations — the areas most prone to failure in secondary containment systems.
The 120-mil average build was achieved across all areas, with transitions and inside corners receiving up to 160 mils for added protection. Holiday testing identified three areas requiring additional material — all in inside corner transitions — which were addressed before the inspection.
Results
The EPA-hired third-party inspector completed the integrity assessment in one day and issued a passing certificate with no deficiencies noted. The facility manager reported that the entire project — from initial site visit to passed inspection — took 11 days, compared to an estimated 6–8 weeks for a traditional epoxy re-coat project of similar scope.
Read more about secondary containment applications in our dedicated article: Polyurea for Secondary Containment: Protecting Facilities and the Environment. This project contributed to Marcus Webb’s 2025 Project Excellence Award.
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The 4-day timeline for 80,000 sq ft is impressive but not surprising to me — I’ve seen well-run polyurea crews do extraordinary things with two machines running simultaneously. The key is that pre-application survey Marcus described. You can’t make up for poor prep with fast spray speed.
Thanks for the feature. The inspection prep is honestly half the project. Day 4 detailing work on transitions is where lesser crews cut corners — that’s also where 90% of secondary containment failures originate. We spent almost as much time on transitions as we did spraying the open floor.
Thanks for featuring this project. The Day 4 detailing on transitions is where lesser crews cut corners — that is also where 90% of secondary containment failures start. We spent almost as much time on transitions as on the open floor.