When was the last time you walked into a shopping mall and thought, “Hey, what a great floor!”?
Retail floors are underfoot and overlooked, as shoppers bustle their way through.
That doesn’t mean those floors are unimportant!
We’d like to focus on a couple of popular flooring types, and how MARKHAM can help.
Flooring and Moisture Issues
Sheet vinyl and related floor coverings have been a popular choice for retail floors for many years.
Of recent times some major retail chains have reduced their use to refurb works, but many “major-minor” outlets are still selecting vinyl as a durable floor covering of choice.
And don’t forget carpet tiles, often used for feature areas or smaller footprint stores.
One of the challenges of direct-stick flooring arises from fast construction schedules, and concrete’s internal moisture content. If floor coverings are applied while the concrete is not yet dry, moisture rising up from the slab will cause bubbles under vinyl, or dissolve or soften the adhesive regardless of the flooring type. High moisture readings will be taken just before the flooring is laid, and then there is a call for an unplanned moisture barrier – an added and unexpected expense.
And don’t forget – concrete slabs dry at the rate of 25mm per month, from when they were last wet.
Get in early!
AQURON 2000 or AQURON 2000 Medi+ concrete treatments, spray-applied early in the project, will immobilize the internal concrete moisture, completely eliminating the risk of flooring failure due to concrete moisture.
As a bonus, these treatments can replace the curing compound or water curing process, potentially saving you time and money!
Exposed retail floors
Of course, there’s an option that involves no floor covering at all. Exposed concrete has become increasingly popular in the retail space, not least because it is relatively easy to keep clean.
There are a few considerations here; you want it to look good from the outset (e.g. good sheen, no cracking); and you want it to wear well (i.e. no dusting or deterioration). As well as foot or cart traffic, the floor also must withstand the static load of displays, refrigerators, counters and stock shelves.
How do we tick all the boxes?
Multi-benefit treatment!
For an exposed floor, AQURON 1000 is your friend.
- Permanently seal the porosity of the slab (never needs re-coating)
- Harden to a depth of 150mm – durability against loads, and will not delaminate
- Anti-dusting benefit
- Bonus curing benefits if applied early!
AQURON 1000 provides an excellent hardened substrate for polishing or honing, and can be further enhanced with CRETEPOLISH MAX surface finisher or MASTERSEAL anti-slip treatment.
Floor slabs hardened with AQURON 1000 respond so well to wear over time, that their sheen levels increase!
And there’s more
There’s always more.
- AQURON 1000 is great for shopping centre car parks and loading bays.
- AQURON 2000 is suitable for waterproofing cold rooms and roof decks.
- MASTERSEAL can enhance the appearance and safety of exterior concourse and pathway areas.
Get in touch today! We’re more than keen to assist with your next project.
From design through to application, we offer an end-to-end service – and unique project-specific performance-based warranties!
MARKHAM – saving the world one concrete structure at a time.
