Schools are a great example of high traffic environments. Corridors, classrooms, restrooms, lockers, kitchens and cafeterias all get a lot of use and abuse.

Polished Concrete Floors and Epoxy Floors are the best options for high use areas given their durability, lifetime value, and sanitary nature. Let’s look at some of these benefits in more detail.

Health & Safety

Seamless epoxy flooring is impervious to bacteria and mold reducing the spread of germs, and, fostering student health. Epoxy flooring, specifically, is anti-microbial and inhibits pathogen growth. This is especially important in sports facilities and locker rooms.

Science laboratories benefit from hard wearing, resilient epoxy resin coatings more than any other flooring type. This is because epoxy resin withstands a gamut of toxic and corrosive chemicals, cleaners, water in addition to foot and equipment traffic. Similarly, cooking facilities are also well suited to epoxy surfaces due to stain and heat resistance.
Polished and stained concrete, as well as epoxy floors, can be customized with slip-resistant coatings. This additional safety measure is helpful in kitchens, restrooms, locker rooms, and hallways.

Both epoxy and polished concrete are environmentally friendly and sustainable. Neither contains harmful VOCs and both preserve indoor air quality with easy to clean surface and antimicrobial properties.

Cost & Value

Epoxy and polished concrete flooring are relatively inexpensive. Both epoxy and concrete can last for decades with proper maintenance, far outperforming other flooring materials. Epoxy and polished concrete offer value add with their ease of maintenance. They are easily cleanable with water or a ph neutral cleaner, a soft bristle broom or a blue commercial dust mop, or automatic floor scrubbers. This keeps janitorial costs low. Looking in more detail at lifetime value of floors, you’ll see epoxy floors and polished concrete floors offer the best return on investment.

Aesthetics

Epoxy and polished concrete floors can transform the look and feel of a school or campus. High sheen and customizable design options span a large array of colors and include options such as adding mascots or name, motivational quotes, and more which can be incorporated right into the floor.

Urethane Cement is sometimes referred to as urethane concrete, urethane mortar or cementitious urethane. In layman’s terms, it’s a type of floor coating; but it also happens to be one of the best coatings on the market today for a number of reasons.

Urethane Cement is a modified urethane with portland cement, water, aggregate and other fine materials. The product was originally designed and formulated for the food and beverage industry to handle the daily wash downs and thermal shock of the facilities.

Let’s look at traditional epoxy floor systems for comparison. Epoxy floors are created by mixing a resin and hardener together to create a reaction. That reaction cures the flooring and creates the great coating that epoxy is known for. Cementitious urethane, on the other hand, uses two liquids mixed with common cement, known as Portland cement, to create a solid surface.

Let’s explore three of the main benefits:

Liquid Barrier: Unlike concrete, this system is impervious to water and various other liquids. This quality makes it the perfect solution for the food and beverage industry when it was created. It is also a great option for any industry that requires a daily wash down and/or sterilization, such as the pharmaceutical industry.

Seamless Application: This system can also be installed with a seamless application. Maintaining a seamless floor throughout the entirety of a facility can help decrease the level of bacteria or harmful chemicals getting stuck in the seams.

Thermal Stability: Able to withstand extreme temperature swings from -330°F to +240°F, cementitious urethane offers a thermal stability that is unparalleled to anything on the market today. These urethanes can also expand and contract at the same rate as concrete, allowing for a very low risk of bending, buckling, or cracking.

The product has double the strength of concrete and can be installed in thicknesses varying from 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch, depending on the facility’s need. It is also self-leveling and can be laid as a stand-alone product or decorative quartz and flake can be added. This coating can also be installed with additional topcoats to provide for additional wear protection or non-skid properties.

Another great advantage this system has over traditional epoxy floors is that you can install it over green concrete. This means you don’t have to worry about any residual moisture in the concrete slowing up your new construction schedule.

When trying to decide between polished concrete vs. epoxy flooring, what’s the best choice for your space? It can be tough to make a decision, since there are several different factors to take into consideration. Many contractors, business owners and property managers know they would like something low-maintenance, long-lasting and durable that will enhance the style and appeal of their space, but beyond that, they may have a tough time determining whether polished concrete or epoxy flooring is the best choice for their particular needs.

The decision primarily comes down to two factors: your budget and how your space will be used. If cost is the primary driving factor in making your decision, you’ll probably choose polished concrete, because this can represent as little as half of the investment when compared to applying an epoxy coating. Business owners and property managers often opt for polished concrete when the surface will only be subject to light or medium use. This is why you usually see polished concrete in offices, retail spaces and other settings which are subject to mostly foot traffic.

For facilities that require a chemically-resistant surface that can withstand exposure to dangerous substances and the kind of wear and tear that heavy machinery can have on flooring, epoxy is often the best choice. Epoxy coatings are highly versatile, so they can be customized to fit your needs. Given these considerations, you are more likely to see epoxy in restrooms, commercial kitchens, car dealerships, food processing plants and a wide array of other industrial settings.

Since polished concrete and epoxy coatings each come with their own unique merits and qualities, determining which might be the best choice for your space depends on having a thorough understanding of both options. Let’s explore these concrete flooring alternatives to get a better sense of which one might be the best choice for your particular needs.

For commercial and industrial settings concrete finished with an epoxy coating is an excellent choice for an attractive flooring choice that is both durable and affordable. Epoxy coatings consist of a hardener and a resin that, when mixed together and applied to concrete, create a strong, chemically-resistant surface that can withstand nearly any set of demands.

This innate durability makes epoxy concrete floors perfect for spaces that are likely to encounter water or chemical spills, lots of heavy foot or machinery traffic or other substances and activities that would break down a less durable flooring choice. Epoxy can also be an excellent choice in other types of facilities where it is important to reduce mold, mites and allergens, all of which can proliferate much more easily in carpeting than on hard, easy-to-clean concrete.

There are many other benefits to an epoxy concrete floor. Epoxy concrete floors can have a high aesthetic appeal. Depending on the desired style, they can impart a modern or classic feel, and can complement a space with an appearance that is industrial, luxurious or anything in between. In short, epoxy concrete floors are extremely versatile and almost infinitely customizable. Best of all, they are an environmentally friendly choice in several ways; for example, they increase light reflectivity by up to 300%, which means you can reduce the wattage or number of lights in your facility and save on your electricity bill.

Whether you are looking for an indoor or outdoor flooring solution, an epoxy-coated concrete floor can be an excellent choice for your needs. In heavy-traffic facilities like manufacturing plants, warehouses, showrooms, hospitals and even airplane hangars, epoxy floors can stand up to the tough wear-and-tear that comes with these industries.

Epoxy floors can last for decades with normal to heavy use, and they don’t require special maintenance beyond regular cleaning. Best of all, epoxy floors can be customized to fit the aesthetic of any space, with colors and decorative patterns that impart both beauty and utility.

Similar to epoxy concrete flooring, polished concrete flooring is an affordable, attractive, customizable and environmentally friendly flooring choice for many businesses, industrial spaces and other facilities. Polished concrete is made by first grinding the surface of the concrete to remove any imperfections. After that step is complete, a concrete polishing machine uses diamond polishing pads to create a smooth and durable surface that matches your desired sheen, whether it’s a low-luster matte, a glossy-mirror like finish or anything in between.

Like epoxy floors, polished concrete floors are excellent in high-traffic facilities, as well as in spaces where reducing allergens is a priority. Polished concrete flooring uses no harsh chemicals and produces little to no toxins during installation, making it a safe and appealing option for many different types of applications. Polished concrete also increases light reflectivity by up to 100% — not quite as much as epoxy flooring, but enough that many people still see savings on their utility bills, thanks to a reduced need for extra lighting.

If you are looking for flooring that is long-lasting and durable, affordable to install and easy to maintain and also elegant and attractive, polished concrete floors might be an excellent choice for your home, office, retail space or other facility. With a wide variety of style options — including many different stain colors, scoring and banding possibilities and other design alternatives — you can design a polished concrete floor that will impart exactly the unique atmosphere and aesthetic you want for your space.