The ‘industrial look’ is tremendously popular right now.  Many people and businesses are moving away from traditional types of flooring and toward plain gray concrete.  This may just be the next big design trend, and the durability and low maintenance are hard to beat.  So when a 50 million dollar a year commercial manufacturing facility calls and they want to redo a section of warehouse floor in a room that all of their potential clients tour, and that gets heavy use and abuse, industrial seems appropriate. When they mention they really want to make it stand out and be memorable, it doesn’t really fit the bill. After some discussion we proposed a metallic epoxy floor with a polyaspartic topcoat.

A Hallway with Failing Floor Paint
The Failing Painted Concrete Hallway

Our  first task on the job was to remove the old concrete paint in the hallway.  We ground the floor to remove it and to create a good profile for the new epoxy.  In the room they call the ‘ink kitchen’ our plan was to clean the existing floor and re-coat the existing epoxy. 

After everything was cleared out, it was apparent that the old epoxy had a very poor bond to the concrete substrate.  We had no choice, but to remove it.  It was so badly adhered that it was easily removed with only a hand scraper and some elbow grease. We ground the concrete in this room as well. The numerous holes were patched, and a primer coat was installed as a base for our new metallic epoxy floor.  We used a 100% solids epoxy with two different colors of metallic pigments. This ensured the floor would have a one of kind look that would turn the heads of potential clients.

Failing Epoxy Floor in an Ink Kitchen
The Failing Epoxy Floor in the Ink Kitchen

To take this beautiful floor from a fashion statement to a functional industrial surface, we installed a polyaspartic topcoat.  The durability and chemical resistance of the polyaspartic made it a great choice to hold up to the 500 pound ink carts they wheel through regularly.  It also offers an easy to clean surface that won’t be damaged by any spilled ink or the cleaning compounds use to remove the spilled ink.  The superfast cure time and quick return to service properties of the polyaspartic also made it the perfect choice.

Completed Designer Epoxy Floor in Hallway and Ink Kitchen
Completed Designer Epoxy Floor in Hallway and Ink Kitchen

The client was thrilled to have a floor that would hold up to their rigorous industrial use, but was even more excited that the dingy and dirty old floor was now transformed into something they could proudly show off to the prospective clients.  They were so impressed with the new floor they decided to fully renovate the entire room!