How to Remediate Old Concrete Flooring in Your Commercial Facility

Con­crete floors are com­mon­place in many com­mer­cial and indus­tri­al set­tings thanks to their dura­bil­i­ty, longevi­ty, and rel­a­tive­ly low main­te­nance require­ments. As time goes on, how­ev­er, even the tough­est con­crete floor will begin to wear down and reveal its age. Poor aes­thet­ics aside, an old, worn down con­crete floor can become a major lia­bil­i­ty for your busi­ness, inter­fer­ing with oper­a­tions and putting the health and safe­ty of all occu­pants at risk. So, is it time to final­ly over­haul your facility’s con­crete floors? Let’s explore some dif­fer­ent meth­ods for reme­di­at­ing the old con­crete floor­ing in your com­mer­cial facility.

Ways to Reme­di­ate Old Con­crete Floor­ing in Your Com­mer­cial Facility

Fill Cracks and Holes

The most basic way to keep your con­crete floors in decent shape is to sim­ply fill any cracks on the sur­faces. If your floor only suf­fers from some minor, iso­lat­ed frac­tur­ing, these stan­dard repairs will do the trick for the time being. Select­ing the right tools and prod­ucts is cru­cial, of course, as is prop­er­ly prepar­ing each sur­face in ques­tion. Epoxy and latex filler com­pounds are suit­able for nar­row­er, shal­low­er cracks, where­as mor­tar mix­es are ide­al for larg­er cracks and chipped edges. To pre­pare the cracked area, clear away any loose con­crete mate­r­i­al with a ham­mer and chis­el before rins­ing it and scrub­bing it with a wire brush. Then, after mix­ing your patch­ing com­pound prop­er­ly, it’s time to fill the cracks and smooth them down with a trow­el or put­ty knife.

Repair Expan­sion & Con­trol Joints

The saw-cut cracks between con­crete slabs are called expan­sion or con­trol joints, and they’re meant to pro­vide some relief to your floor­ing to pre­vent frac­tures in the future. Of course, these joints require main­te­nance, too. If your old con­crete floor’s joints are begin­ning to form new, deep­er cracks, it’s imper­a­tive that you remove the old mate­r­i­al between the joints and replace it with a new backer rod and apply fresh, high-qual­i­ty caulk.

Grind and Polish

Some­times a con­crete floor restora­tion project war­rants a more com­pre­hen­sive approach. Today, more and more facil­i­ties are begin­ning to invest in con­crete pol­ish­ing and restora­tion, a process that involves grind­ing down old con­crete sur­faces with a dia­mat­ic con­crete floor grinder and apply­ing a con­crete den­si­fi­er for supe­ri­or dura­bil­i­ty and shine. Con­crete pol­ish­ing is a rel­a­tive­ly cost-effec­tive and effi­cient process, requir­ing vir­tu­al­ly zero down­time after the process is com­plete. When installed prop­er­ly, a pol­ished con­crete floor will make your floors brighter, stronger, and eas­i­er to clean and main­tain, all while enhanc­ing your facility’s aes­thet­ic on the whole.

Seal with Epoxy Con­crete Coatings

How else can you resur­face a con­crete floor? Before con­crete pol­ish­ing real­ly took off, the most com­mon method for con­crete floor restora­tion was epoxy resur­fac­ing. Epoxy coat­ings and sim­i­lar mate­ri­als such as ure­thane cement are installed direct­ly on bare con­crete, seal­ing pores and cre­at­ing a smooth, even sur­face that’s easy to clean and main­tain. An qual­i­ty epoxy floor resists mois­ture, chem­i­cal spills, impact, abra­sion, ther­mal shock, and more. More­over, these coat­ings come in a vari­ety of col­or options, so you can trans­form your inte­ri­or design while pro­tect­ing your con­crete floors for years to come.

Kaloutas Offers Con­crete Solutions

There is no short­age of ways to reme­di­ate your com­mer­cial facil­i­ty​’s old con­crete floors. For­tu­nate­ly, Kaloutas can do it all. In addi­tion to serv­ing a wide vari­ety of indus­tries, our var­ied floor­ing ser­vices include:

• Antimi­cro­bial flooring

• Anti-sta­t­ic flooring

• Repair­ing con­crete expan­sion joints

• Con­crete floor prep and polishing

• Floor­ing demolition

• Epoxy floor­ing instal­la­tion or resur­fac­ing, includ­ing seam­less epoxy systems

• …and more!

We have over 30 years of direct floor­ing sys­tem expe­ri­ence and more than 3 mil­lion square feet of instal­la­tions under our belts. Our con­trac­tors are also cer­ti­fied in a vari­ety of spe­cial­ized floor­ing solu­tions, includ­ing FloRock, Dur-A-Flex, Retro­Plate, Koester mois­ture mit­i­ga­tion, Sikafloor, and much more. No mat­ter your spe­cif­ic needs, we work the way you work to avoid cost­ly shut­downs and ensure that your facil­i­ty is set up for suc­cess. To learn more about us and all that we do, con­tact us online or give us a call at 978−532−1414 today.