HOW TO
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BY JAYSON BARNHART
About the Retail Grocery Polished Concrete Floor
Advice from Exposed Design Group on how to address and what to consider for densified/ polished concrete floors in a retail and grocery setting.
W
ith enough people walking through retail stores, especially in a grocery setting, the polished concrete floor will eventually need attention—more than the standard maintenance it had been receiving (hopefully). Whether a new construction or not, sooner or later the owner or designer will decide between installing old traditional tile, epoxy, or a durable and economical concrete floor. In my experience, generally speaking, the overall cost of a polished concrete floor is a fraction of the cost of tile or epoxy over the life of the building. Should you win the bid and the project swings your way, here are a few key matters to address. Initially, you need to consider if the concrete floor is going to be newly placed concrete or if it’s an existing slab. If it’s going to be a newly placed slab and you are given the opportunity to provide input for the mix design and finish, it would be beneficial to
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suggest the following. These criteria will generally give you a good start towards providing the customer with a greatlooking densified and polished floor. • Avoid air-entrained concrete if possible. • Minimize fly ash and other fillers (ideally less than 20%). • Concrete with PSI strength between 3,500 and 5,000 is optimal. • When finishing, the flatter the better and preferably not burned in. Often, the concrete floor has already been placed or you’re working with a 2nd generation concrete floor, and you’re left to deal with the concrete as-is. In that case, observation and preparation become the key. Once you have determined the age and condition of the concrete floor that you’ll be working with, it’s important to know what the customer or client’s expectations are. If there’s a specification, you generally have a good understanding of what is desired. If there is no specification, it’s a good idea to ask a few key questions: • What kind of traffic or activity is the floor going to be subjected to? • What is the budget? • What type of appearance is desired? • Does the customer want a ground concrete floor and if so, what kind of aggregate exposure is required? • Does the customer desire a glossy
appearance or is a matte finish preferable? Determining the answers to these questions will allow you to identify the processes required to help you succeed and give your client the best floor for their project. Once you have determined the means and methods to achieve the desired look, the fun begins! THE FUN BEGINS: PREPARING THE FLOOR If the client has decided that a simple cleaned and sealed floor is the desired finish, the process is simple. Our standard cleaning would include abrasive pads, application of a concrete cleaner and an auto scrubber. If the floor has excessive residual curing compound or bond breakers, a mechanical cleaning may be required using sanding screens or diamond tooling. Once the preparation is complete and the floor is determined to be ready to accept a densifier treatment, you have several options to choose from including lithium, sodium, and blended products. All products vary in application methods and it’s important to understand the differences, but they all provide a dustproofed, densified, and durable surface. After all contaminants have been removed from the surface, your concrete densifier can be applied. Typically, densifiers are
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2/16/22 9:05 AM
