Technology is accelerating fast, with AI driving most of it. That acceleration requires more compute power, which demands more from the data centers built to provide it.

These facilities, increasingly called AI factories, are engineered from the ground up to support that demand. Specialized servers, advanced cooling systems, uninterrupted power supply infrastructure – the whole stack is designed to ensure zero downtime and hit the industry-standard five 9s of availability (99.999 percent uptime, or ~five minutes of downtime per year). Every decision, including coatings, made inside those walls matters.

Here is where the mindset shift needs to happen. Coatings are too often treated as a finishing touch, something you think about at the end of a project primarily for aesthetics. In a data center, that type of thinking is a liability. Coatings are functional, foundational elements that actively protect the facility around the clock. They are working every day to maximize operational readiness and efficiency. Coatings are not finishes - they are risk-control systems for uptime.

With that in mind, there are four critical coatings considerations every data center construction decision-maker needs to have on their radar before the next build.

Build for speed and modular construction

Modular construction is growing in data center design, and for good reason. It offers faster build timelines and greater project flexibility. However, that speed advantage quickly disappears if your coatings are not keeping up.

Materials need to be engineered for fast cure times and high durability, so they do not become a bottleneck. For exterior steel, inorganic zinc-rich coatings are a cost-effective alternative to hot-dip galvanizing. The key advantage here is that even if the coating gets scratched during modular construction or transport, the zinc actively protects the exposed steel. That kind of durability is not negotiable when components are moving around a job site.

Inside the modular units, a high-performance direct-to-metal polyurethane gives you a durable, cleanable finish on walls, doors, ceilings, and rack supports that hold up through transport, installation, and long-term use. For steel skids in direct contact with soil, a fast-setting urethane lining provides a barrier against moisture and corrosion from the ground up.

Coatings must also be engineered to meet the speed and throughput demands of OEM production environments, as modular equipment can often arrive with factory-applied coatings already in place. The right coating choice can directly accelerate manufacturing output and shorten time-to-delivery for critical data center components, while still delivering the durability required to withstand fabrication, handling, transport, and installation without field rework.

Eliminate the static discharge threat early

The demands inside an AI data center are unlike most facilities, with sensitive electronics everywhere, constant power draw, and zero tolerance for interruption. In that environment, the smallest static discharge can shut down an entire facility.

Electrostatic discharge control needs to be addressed early, not retrofitted. In server halls, an electrostatic dissipative urethane topcoat controls static discharge while also delivering a durable, chemical-resistant finish. This matters especially in rooms housing main switchgear and power distribution units, where uninterrupted power is the whole game. Getting the flooring specification and even OE-coated components, such as enclosures, racks, and panels, right in those spaces is a straightforward way to take a significant risk off the table.

Polished concrete might look fine, but it lacks inherent electrostatic dissipation unless treated, typically falling outside ANSI/ESD S20.20 control ranges. ESD events as low as <100 volts can damage sensitive electronics.

Protection across the entire campus

Each area inside the facility depends on the right protection.

• Battery storage: These chemically aggressive environments, where an acid spill can prove catastrophic, need durable flooring that can withstand not only potential acid drips and electrolyte spills, but also be able to deal with heavy equipment loads like battery racks and forklifts.
• Cooling towers: Critical to ensuring data centers can reject heat and maintain operations, cooling towers create a constantly wet and chemically aggressive environment that requires a lining that protects structures from constant moisture and chemically treated water that eats at unprotected steel.
• Electrical rooms: These rooms are critical to maintaining uninterrupted power to the data center and must have robust protection against corrosion to ensure the data center stays online.
• Mechanical rooms: These rooms house a lot of the associated piping and valving that supports the cooling throughout the data center and require protection against pipe condensation and consistent foot traffic.
• Fuel tanks: Protection for these critical energy assets requires corrosion resistance that works to extend the life of these assets.
• Roofing: The roof is the first line of defense for every mission-critical asset in the building, and it needs to be treated that way. Unpredictable weather does not care about your uptime commitments.
• Server/data halls: The heart of the data center requires a level of protection on the floors and walls that protects against a wide range of potential contaminants that could all cause hardware failures.
• Water treatment: These systems help control corrosion and contaminant growth in a data center’s cooling water loop and need linings that can provide protection and extend asset life against the treatment chemicals used in these processes.

Corrosion costs industry billions annually; this is where thinking beyond the initial build pays off. The coatings strategy you put in place on day one needs to last through the full facility lifecycle, including the maintenance phase. What protects the building at construction needs to still be doing its job years later.

A global specification partner that delivers

Hyperscale data center development is happening across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and beyond, and the coatings strategy behind those builds needs to work at that same scale. That means consistent specification alignment across markets, high-volume supply that does not buckle under large-scale demand, and localized technical support on the ground when and where it is needed.

This consistency must extend across both field-applied and OE coatings. Global data center builds rely heavily on equipment manufactured in multiple regions, making it critical that OE coating specifications are standardized and aligned with field systems to ensure performance consistency regardless of where components are fabricated.

Availability of materials matters a lot when construction timelines are aggressive, and delays are not an option. Global supply capability extends across structural steel, modular systems, and critical infrastructure components, the full scope of what these projects require.

Beyond the build itself, data center owners and operators need a partner that can support the broader data center ecosystem, including the water and power infrastructure that keeps these facilities running.

The bottom line is that a coatings partner for hyperscale AI data center work needs to operate at hyperscale too, with consistent global specifications, localized technical service and field support, and the supply capacity to back it all up. That combination is what makes a specification actually executable across a global portfolio.

How to get it right

Integrating these considerations into the next build comes down to three things. First, start early. Coatings decisions belong in the initial design phase, not the final stretch. Second, work with an expert partner who can navigate material selection and application for the specific demands of an AI data center environment. Third, think lifecycle.

The right strategy does not just get the building constructed and open, it keeps it running. AI data centers are purpose-built for some of the most demanding workloads in the world. The coatings protecting them should be purpose-built too. A fully aligned coatings strategy ensures that every surface, whether coated in a manufacturing facility or in the field, works together to deliver long-term protection and uptime.