Restaurant flooring has many requirements. Flooring in your commercial kitchen needs to meet OSHA standards for the safety of your employees with dependable slip resistance even when wet. There are also health code standards for cleanliness. The floor needs to stand up to the wear and tear that is common for a busy kitchen.
As a property owner, you likely have your own standards as well, including cost effectiveness and ease of maintenance. One of the top options that meets all these requirements in a commercial kitchen is polished concrete. Made by honing concrete with increasingly fine diamond grit, polished concrete has a smooth, non porous finish that looks great while still providing the natural resiliency of concrete in your kitchen space.
Why Use Polished Concrete for Commercial Kitchen Floors
A commercial kitchen in your restaurant is a busy place. You have dozens of chefs, line cooks, and waitstaff moving about throughout the day. Regular spills of water, splashes of hot oil, and other commonplace incidents are going to leave debris on your floor. The temperatures that your floor needs to withstand can vary significantly from one moment to the next.
Meanwhile, the kitchen environment needs to stay safe and clean throughout service. Although you have multiple options for flooring in this space, few offer all the benefits of polished concrete:
- Slip Resistant – Polished concrete resists slippage even when wet, meaning it meets OSHA requirements and will keep your employees working safely and quickly.
- Spill Resistant – Water, cooking ingredients, hot oil, acids, or any other materials on your floor will not easily damage polished concrete. Polished concrete is also resistant to almost all of the solvents and cleaning materials you use in your kitchen.
- Traffic Resistant – Concrete is also durable enough to withstand hundreds of feet crossing over as well as dragging tables and carts over the surface without scratching.
- Sanitary and Easy to Clean – Because a polished concrete floor is non porous, dirt and spills do not get trapped under the surface. Cleaning at the end of the day is as simple as sweeping and mopping, especially when you can use your preferred cleaning products. This makes it easy to meet health department standards and serve quality food.
- Tolerant of Temperatures – Temperatures in kitchens can reach extreme levels, but polished concrete stands up to the heat and will maintain its warmth and function even when installed underneath your ovens, grills, and other heat-emitting appliances.
- Low Cost – Unlike alternatives like vinyl or tile, polished concrete is a highly cost effective option to install in a commercial kitchen of any size. In addition to the initial cost savings, the long lifespan of polished concrete will also give you ongoing cost reduction.
Another leading benefit to polished concrete for restaurants is its professional appearance. While the flooring may not be highly visible to customers in the majority of kitchens, it still brings professionalism to your back end operations.
It is possible to use polished concrete in your dining areas as well for all of the same benefits and a sleek and attractive aesthetic. You can also use a similar option, such as epoxy restaurant floors, to add further durability or customization to your front of house.
If you are interested in epoxy or polished concrete flooring for your Denver area restaurant, Colorado Concrete Repair is the leading concrete flooring contractor in Denver, Aurora, and beyond. Reach out to learn how we can help you customize the right kinds of floors for the different areas in your restaurant and install high quality, long lasting kitchen floors that will meet all of your requirements.
