Commercial Flooring: Expected Cost

Until some­thing goes wrong, you might not think about how impor­tant your floors are for your busi­ness. But with­out durable com­mer­cial floor­ing, your employ­ees and mobile machin­ery will have a hard time get­ting any­where. Your facil­i­ty could also be exposed to all kinds of envi­ron­men­tal harm, includ­ing mois­ture, ther­mal shock, and bac­te­ria. Not to men­tion, your work­place will not look very appeal­ing to your employ­ees or customers.

So, your floors mat­ter a lot. The ques­tion remains: how much should you invest in main­tain­ing, repair­ing, and/​or replac­ing your com­mer­cial or indus­tri­al floor­ing? The answer will, of course, vary from one busi­ness to anoth­er. How­ev­er, every com­pa­ny should at least be aware of the costs and ben­e­fits asso­ci­at­ed with keep­ing up its floors.

What to Expect in Floor­ing Costs

Costs to Con­sid­er Upfront

Let us begin by exam­in­ing the most obvi­ous and com­mon costs to con­sid­er involv­ing com­mer­cial floors. There are repair costs, instal­la­tion costs, and pre­ven­tive main­te­nance costs.

No mat­ter how well you take care of your floors, or how durable they are, all floors will begin to break down over time. Even­tu­al­ly, you will need to invest in some repair work. These repairs can vary from minor patch­ing like fill­ing in cracks with epoxy filler, to more exten­sive projects like replac­ing the top­coat via con­crete floor resur­fac­ing.

Some­times, if ongo­ing repairs are neglect­ed a floor gets so dam­aged that it is not fea­si­ble to repair and you are faced with the cost to install a new floor. New com­mer­cial floor instal­la­tions should be han­dled by pro­fes­sion­als who will install each step prop­er­ly and per­form the right tech­niques for the best out­come. There are plen­ty of floor­ing options, such as com­mer­cial epoxy floor­ing, ure­thane cement, or polyas­par­tic coat­ings. Each floor­ing type will vary in price and require dif­fer­ent instal­la­tion techniques.

Of course, you must also invest resources into main­tain­ing your floors so few­er large repairs are nec­es­sary down the road. This pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance includes reg­u­lar clean­ing (sweep­ing, mop­ping, etc.), deep clean­ing quar­ter­ly (or more depend­ing on your facility’s needs), and fre­quent inspec­tions for cracks, bub­bles, or chipping.

Hid­den Costs and Risks

If all of the afore­men­tioned costs do not seem appeal­ing or worth­while, you must also con­sid­er the hid­den costs asso­ci­at­ed with neglect­ing to main­tain or repair your floors. You will find that plen­ty of addi­tion­al costs may be hid­den from view, such as health/​safety costs, lost time, and lost productivity/​revenue.

For instance, if you fail to clean and main­tain your floors on a reg­u­lar basis, your employ­ees will be at greater risk for injury on the job. You are liable for these slips, falls, and oth­er injuries. These health costs will out­weigh com­mer­cial floor clean­ing costs in the long run.

As for lost time, you may need to tem­porar­i­ly shut down oper­a­tions to address a seri­ous issue with your floors. This down­time can hurt your bot­tom line. Every minute your facil­i­ty is inac­tive is anoth­er minute it is not gen­er­at­ing rev­enue for your business.

This ties direct­ly to anoth­er hid­den cost: lost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. When your work­place is shut down, your employ­ees have less work to do, if any. These oppor­tu­ni­ty costs can be mit­i­gat­ed by invest­ing in reg­u­lar main­te­nance and repair of your com­mer­cial floors.

Ben­e­fits of Tak­ing Care of Your Com­mer­cial Flooring

This invest­ment in your floors is not sim­ply a sunken cost. There are many ben­e­fits to tak­ing care of your com­mer­cial floor­ing, improved aes­thet­ics, increased safe­ty and morale, and enhanced dura­bil­i­ty or ROI.

Whether or not you invite cus­tomers and guests into your facil­i­ty, you want your floors to look as good as pos­si­ble. No one wants to spend time in a dusty, dirty room after all. Clean­ing and main­tain­ing your floors will bol­ster your rep­u­ta­tion and keep employ­ees hap­py and pro­duc­tive dur­ing the workday.

Employ­ees will also work hard­er know­ing that they are work­ing in a safe envi­ron­ment. Invest­ing in non-slip tex­tured floor­ing, will reduce the risk of slips and falls, if you have harsh chem­i­cals in your oper­a­tion chem­i­cal resis­tant floor­ing will not dete­ri­o­rate and help keep the work envi­ron­ment clean and safe. This increased safe­ty will allow you to retain more employ­ees and cut costs relat­ed to health con­cerns and on-site injuries.

Last­ly, tak­ing care of your floors will keep them around longer. No floor is com­plete­ly invin­ci­ble, but invest­ing in con­crete floor repair when nec­es­sary, clean­ing your floors fre­quent­ly, and tak­ing the time to inspect them can add years of func­tion­al­i­ty to them. This means you can avoid some of those larg­er, more cost­ly repairs and replace­ments in the long run.

There is no avoid­ing it: your com­mer­cial floor­ing will cost you no mat­ter what. How much it costs you depends on your will­ing­ness to select the right floor­ing for your oper­a­tions, then main­tain them prop­er­ly and hire the right con­trac­tors to install and repair your floors. Kaloutas takes pride in improv­ing our clients’ com­mer­cial and indus­tri­al facil­i­ties through our floor­ing, paint­ing, and main­te­nance ser­vices. To learn more about us, con­tact us and give us a call at 978−532−1414.

Kaloutas is New Eng­land’s pre­mier con­trac­tor for com­mer­cial & indus­tri­al paint­ing, floor­ing, and relat­ed ser­vices. Estab­lished in 1987, Kaloutas has become a trust­ed resource for gen­er­al con­trac­tors, facil­i­ties man­agers, and build­ing own­ers from Con­necti­cut to Maine. Our team prides itself on high qual­i­ty work­man­ship, jobs done on time & bud­get, and tack­ling com­plex projects that oth­er con­trac­tors don’t have the expe­ri­ence or resources to han­dle. Con­tact us today for a paint­ing or floor­ing esti­mate, or give us a call at 978−532−1414 to learn more.