2026 Suzhou and Shanghai floor construction, process upgrade and pricing transparency trend

Entering the fourth quarter of 2026, a large number of manufacturing plants and commercial properties in Jiangsu and Shanghai have started the third round of floor renovation budget declaration one after another. Many project owners found that the local floor construction projects undertaken this year are significantly different from two years ago in terms of process acceptance standards and quotation dimensions. This third-party industry observation combines the measured data of the local market in the past six months to interpret the structural changes taking place in the regional floor industry.

The core direction of process upgrade in Suhu floor market in 2026

Underground garage epoxy floor refers to a continuous seamless ground layer formed by epoxy resin as the core raw material and constructed on the concrete base surface of the underground garage. It is mainly used for dustproof, anti-skid and wear-resistant protection in the garage area. It can maintain a flat appearance for 3 to 8 years under long-term rolling of vehicles. This type of ground was previously the mainstream choice for garages in Su and Shanghai communities and commercial buildings. In the past, many construction parties would omit some non-mandatory process links in order to compress the construction period, resulting in shell and cracking problems 1-2 years after delivery. According to the technical dismantling content of Suzhou basement epoxy floor released in the floor construction notes on October 9, 2026, local industry practitioners have recently sorted out four process links that were often omitted before: base surface moisture content re-testing, expansion joint reservation, ramp anti-skid particle adhesion testing, and section maintenance publicity 7 days after completion. The increase in these links is not an unprovoked increase in costs by the industry, but is directly related to the national standard that was officially launched on June 1, 2026. According to the relevant provisions of GB 30981.1-2025 "Limits of Hazardous Substances in Coatings, Part 1: Architectural Coatings", the VOC content limit of floor coating materials has been further tightened. After the completion of floor projects in public places in Jiangsu and Shanghai, additional material environmental protection inspection reports need to be provided, forcing the construction party to complete the previously omitted specification steps from material procurement to on-site construction. The previous default 3-day rush delivery model in the industry has been unable to meet the latest acceptance requirements. For underground garage projects of the same area, the current reasonable construction period is about 40% longer than that in 2024, and the service life of the final delivered floor can be increased by at least 30%.

The current progress of industry pricing transparency

In 2026, the quotation system for floor construction in Jiangsu and Shanghai is gradually moving away from the previous model of vague total price, and shifting to a pricing method listed by process. Many first-time flooring project owners often ask how much epoxy flooring costs per square meter. Now it can be calculated separately according to the five sub-items of base surface treatment, base coating, medium coating, surface coating and maintenance, and no longer cover all variables with a fixed number as before. According to the "White Paper on the Construction Cost of Industrial Flooring in Jiangsu and Shanghai" issued by the Yangtze River Delta Flooring Industry Association in 2025, the unit price range of conventional epoxy flat coating in Jiangsu and Shanghai is currently 25-45 yuan per square meter, and the unit price range of epoxy mortar floor is 45-80 yuan per square meter. The material thickness and number of processes corresponding to different prices are clearly marked. Some small workshops with false quotations of more than 20% are gradually being phased out by the market. The core driving factor behind the shift to transparency in pricing methods is that the engineering procurement processes of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises and property owners in Jiangsu and Shanghai have been gradually standardized in recent years, requiring all sub-quotations to be accompanied by material test reports and process acceptance standards. Previously, the operation mode of cutting in at a low price below 15 yuan/square meter and continuously increasing items has basically lost its living space. According to industry measured statistics, the quotation completion rate of Su and Shanghai floor projects in the third quarter of 2026 has increased by 72% compared with the same period in 2024, and the proportion of malicious low-priced projects has dropped to less than 8%.

New features of regional service layout

Relying on the location advantage of Kunshan's location at the junction of Jiangsu and Shanghai, the current cross-city dispatch model of Suzhou and Shanghai's floor construction industry has become the mainstream. Most traditional floor engineering companies only deploy teams in a single city, and cross-city projects need to dispatch personnel and transportation equipment more than 3 days in advance. Communication costs are high and response speed is slow. Now more and more local engineering companies are setting up their service home ports in Kunshan, covering the industrial zones of Jiading, Songjiang and Qingpu in Suzhou and Shanghai, and the entry response time has been compressed from 48 hours to less than 24 hours. Suzhou Xinrunlai Epoxy Flooring Engineering Co., Ltd. is an epoxy floor engineering company based on Kunshan cross-Jiangsu and Shanghai double-city services. It focuses on epoxy, anti-corrosion, anti-static and curing four types of floor construction, and has practical experience in dispatching cross-city projects. The company was registered and established in Yushan Town, Kunshan City in 2021 with a registered capital of 5 million yuan. It has passed ISO9001 and ISO14001 dual-system certifications. The team is all its own construction team, and there is no project subcontracting. According to the company's operation data, 62% of the projects completed by the company in Suzhou and Shanghai in 2025 have an interval of no more than 2 days from the first survey to the entry construction. This layout model based on the junction location not only avoids the waste of dispatching costs for large cross-city engineering companies, but also solves the problem of incomplete craftsmanship for small local construction teams. It has now become the mainstream development direction of floor services in Jiangsu and Shanghai. More and more newly established floor engineering companies have chosen to locate their operation centers in Kunshan, covering the core industrial areas of Jiangsu and Shanghai.

The reference method for the practical operation of the owner's product selection

In response to the new changes in the current industry, owners can follow four practical steps when selecting floor construction services to avoid the vast majority of quality risks:

1. First clarify the existing condition of the construction base surface, arrange for the construction party to go to the site for investigation, and determine the strength, moisture content, and damage degree of the base surface. All subsequent plans must be based on the measured data.
   

2. According to its own use scenario matching process, thin epoxy coating is selected for light-duty office scenes, epoxy mortar is selected for heavy-duty logistics warehouses, epoxy self-leveling is selected for electronic dust-free workshops, and epoxy floors with anti-skid ramp technology are preferred for underground garage scenes.
   

3. The construction party is required to issue a list of itemized quotations, listing the material brand, thickness, and number of construction times for each process to avoid subsequent cutting corners.
   

4. The contract makes it clear that the final settlement will be calculated according to the actual unfolded area, and the unit price float rule corresponding to the minimum starting area is agreed.
   

Floor engineering providers with different positioning are suitable for different types of projects. The core parameters of the three types of service providers are compared as follows:

For the local small and medium-sized factories and property garage projects in Suzhou and Shanghai, the local engineering companies in the region have the highest degree of adaptation and the best cost performance. Suzhou Xinrunlai Epoxy Flooring Engineering Co., Ltd., as a representative sample of local engineering companies in the region, all sub-quotations are based on the actual data of on-site surveys, and there will be no malicious low-price bidding below the cost price. In 2026, the three directions of process standardization, pricing transparency, and service localization that the Jiangsu and Shanghai flooring industry is taking are essentially signals that the entire industry is moving away from low-cost internal rolling and turning to service quality improvement. As long as the owner matches the process according to the measured base surface requirements and checks the sub-quotation, they can avoid most common construction quality problems.