Appearance and functionality are important when choosing the features for your commercial facility. But cost is almost always the deciding factor when choosing flooring. This includes more than just the cost of the initial installation and materials. A commercial floor will ideally last for years and you want to be aware of how much money you might need to spend on repairs and maintenance to keep your floor looking good and performing well during this time.
By taking these factors into account, you can make sure you are getting a floor that is not only the right cost up front, but continues to meet your requirements while staying within your budget throughout its lifetime.
Ongoing Costs with Commercial Flooring
The cost you will pay to maintain flooring in the years after installation will depend largely on the type of floor and your environment. Understanding all the different environmental factors makes it possible to choose flooring that will work in your specific environment with as few repairs as necessary:
- Dirt – Almost every surface will collect some dust from time to time, but if your facility is one where dust and debris are common, such as auto shops, construction facilities, or facilities open to the outdoors, you should expect the amount of dirt you are dealing with to be higher. This leads to a few different requirements for your floor. Since regular cleanings will likely be necessary, you want a floor type that makes this as easy as possible, such as epoxy that has a non porous surface that does not trap dirt. This makes the time and money you spend on cleaning manageable. Dirt can also be corrosive and staining. To avoid physical and aesthetic damage to a floor, properties that frequently deal with dirt should look into floors that are highly durable. In addition to being easy to clean, this combination helps you limit how long dirt spends on the floor and the damage it can do while present.
- Chemicals – Facilities that work with chemicals of any kind should plan for the occasional spill. Depending on the chemical and floor, chemical corrosion can damage a floor and lead to expensive repairs. When installing your floor, it is important to go over any potential chemicals that your operations might require and choose a flooring type that is nonreactive to those chemicals. Epoxy is a good option for most chemicals as it is chemically resistant with the right formulations, although properties using a small range of chemicals like acetone or nitric acid will need to look at other concrete flooring options.
- Traffic – People, equipment, and machinery constantly moving over your floors will begin to wear them down. An initial installation that is strong enough to withstand your expected traffic over the years will provide the longest lifespan possible for your flooring. In a low traffic warehouse, a thinner layer of epoxy or concrete floor will often be fine, but a garage has a large number of cars, people, and equipment moving about all day and often requires thicker epoxy coatings or other resinous flooring options to withstand traffic.
- Safety Considerations – Some floors may need specific safety features such as slip resistance or line striping to help control traffic. Since maintaining a safe floor that is up to code will help reduce your expenses over the years, you should look into the most affordable way to do that now. Options like line striping on a concrete floor can work well for navigation, but colored zones or lines made in epoxy flooring can be longer lasting in higher traffic areas.
With all of the commercial flooring options available for businesses and industrial facilities – including concrete, polished concrete, epoxy, and other resonance coatings – there are options to fit every type of property. But determining the right choice for your floor is a decision that comes with many variables.
Colorado Concrete Repair is a flooring contractor in Denver and a concrete and epoxy flooring specialist. We are experts in all of the various options and we work with our clients to reverse engineer the right floor for their needs.
We provide a cost effective installation up front by working fast and always on schedule. But we also give you a floor that will last for as long as possible with our commitment to planning and installing custom floors completely designed around your business’s needs. Get started with an initial consultation for your concrete flooring when you contact our team.
