How Polished Concrete Aids Slip-Resistance and Safety | Kaloutas

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How Polished Concrete Aids Slip-Resistance and Safety

Newly polished concrete floor in a facility. How Polished Concrete Aids Slip-Resistance and Safety

Slips, trips, and falls account for the major­i­ty of work­place inci­dents. While many of these acci­dents don’t result in severe injury, some can lead to sprains, bro­ken bones, or even death. To main­tain a safe work envi­ron­ment and remain com­pli­ant with OSHA reg­u­la­tions, facil­i­ty own­ers and man­agers must invest in mea­sures to reduce this par­tic­u­lar liability.

It should come as no sur­prise that one of the best ways to reduce the risk of slips, trips, and falls is to pay atten­tion to your facility’s floor­ing. More specif­i­cal­ly, prop­er­ly pol­ish­ing your con­crete floor­ing can cre­ate a much safer work envi­ron­ment for every­one. Let’s explore how pol­ished con­crete improves slip resis­tance and over­all safe­ty at your facility.

How Pol­ished Con­crete Improves Slip Resis­tance and Safe­ty at Your Facility

Enhances Trac­tion

There’s a rea­son the phrase slips, trips, and falls” starts with slips.” Most of the inci­dents that fall under this broad­er umbrel­la result from slick sur­faces. Where­as most trips result from an unseen obsta­cle or uneven por­tion of floor­ing, slips can occur just about any­where so long as the con­crete sur­face is slip­pery. Iso­lat­ed spills cause plen­ty of slips, but some floors are slick all around (often from dust build-up or mate­r­i­al wear and tear), great­ly increas­ing the odds of such an inci­dent. Con­crete pol­ish­ing reduces the like­li­hood of slips by keep­ing dust at bay and, as we’ll dis­cuss next, facil­i­tat­ing the clean­ing process.

Facil­i­tates Floor Maintenance

As allud­ed to above, dirty floor­ing is a major con­tribut­ing fac­tor to slips, trips, and falls. When a floor is wet, dusty, or cov­ered in debris, employ­ees have a much hard­er time get­ting from point A to point B in a safe, effi­cient man­ner. Main­tain­ing clean floors is a must if you wish to keep all occu­pants safe. That said, reg­u­lar­ly clean­ing floors requires sig­nif­i­cant resources, espe­cial­ly for facil­i­ties with a lot of square footage to cov­er. As such, any mea­sure that reduces the strain on main­te­nance staff is wel­come – this is where con­crete pol­ish­ing solu­tions come into play. 

A sealed or pol­ished con­crete floor is much eas­i­er to keep clean than a worn down or bare con­crete floor. These solu­tions pro­vide a smooth, non-porous, even sur­face that not only pre­vents dust accu­mu­la­tion but also com­bats mois­ture intru­sion, abra­sions, and more. Ulti­mate­ly, though pol­ished floors still require ongo­ing main­te­nance, this main­te­nance is eas­i­er to perform.

In the video below, Doug Blake, our Direc­tor of Floor­ing, talks about the advance­ments in pol­ish­ing con­crete and uti­liz­ing pow­er trow­els to increase effi­cien­cy and safe­ty dur­ing the con­crete pol­ish­ing process.

Increas­es Visibility

Vis­i­bil­i­ty is anoth­er key com­po­nent of facil­i­ty safe­ty. Peo­ple need to see where they’re going at all times – oth­er­wise, they risk trip­ping over or run­ning into an obsta­cle. A prop­er­ly pol­ished con­crete floor offers a bright, reflec­tive fin­ish that ampli­fies a room’s light­ing, keep­ing your facil­i­ty high­ly vis­i­ble through­out the day. As an added bonus, this high light reflec­tive­ly val­ue (LRV) saves your facil­i­ty mon­ey over time by reduc­ing ener­gy costs. The more reflec­tive your floor­ing, the less ener­gy you have to spend on crank­ing up your inte­ri­or lighting.

Pol­ished Con­crete Floor­ing FAQs

Have more ques­tions about con­crete pol­ish­ing? We have answers.

How Safe Are Pol­ished Con­crete Floors?

Pol­ished con­crete floors increase facil­i­ty safe­ty by improv­ing trac­tion, sim­pli­fy­ing main­te­nance, increas­ing vis­i­bil­i­ty, and more. They also do not release harm­ful volatile organ­ic com­pounds (VOCs) in the air dur­ing instal­la­tion (unlike epoxy and ure­thane floor coatings).

What Are the Ben­e­fits of Pol­ished Concrete?

Pol­ished con­crete floors make facil­i­ties safer, clean­er, more appeal­ing, ener­gy-effi­cient, and eas­i­er to main­tain. They’re also high­ly resis­tant to chem­i­cals, foot traf­fic, equip­ment, and oth­er threats, mak­ing them valu­able long-term assets.

How Do You Pro­tect Pol­ished Concrete?

The great thing about pol­ished con­crete floors is that they’re extreme­ly durable, mean­ing they don’t need much addi­tion­al pro­tec­tion once installed. That said, it’s impor­tant to main­tain these floors with basic clean­ing prac­tices like reg­u­lar dust­ing with microfiber cloths and clean­ing with non-cor­ro­sive substances.

What’s the Lifes­pan of Pol­ished Con­crete Floors?

Pol­ished con­crete floors are built to last and can endure for 15 – 20 years when installed pro­fes­sion­al­ly and prop­er­ly main­tained over the years.

Kaloutas: Your Con­crete Pol­ish­ing and Restora­tion Experts

A safer facil­i­ty starts with your floors. At Kaloutas, indus­tri­al floor pol­ish­ing is just one of our many spe­cial­ties. We offer a wide range of facil­i­ty improve­ment and main­te­nance ser­vices to keep your work­place safe, effi­cient, and func­tion­al — this includes indus­tri­al fire­proof­ing, con­tain­ment, clean­ing, seal­ing, and more. To learn more about us and all that we do, con­tact us online or give us a call at 9785321414 today!

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Kaloutas simplifies facility management by offering comprehensive services including industrial flooring, cleaning, coating, fireproofing, and containment. We streamline your operations, ensuring compliance, safety, and aesthetics while reducing complexity in the process. Our Hard Work Made Easy solution eliminates the need for multiple contractors, guaranteeing minimal downtime and expert execution. With over 30 years of experience, we make facility maintenance effortless. Contact us to discover how we can meet your needs and save you time through our consolidated approach.

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