Flooring Insurance

I ran into this company in Vegas at the World of Concrete. Ram Board. It seems that this product is always needed when it’s needed. No one seems to think about ordering a product like this ahead of time.

It doesn’t matter what kind of flooring is put down in a construction project there will always be contractors doing finish work after a floor is put in. Lighting, painting, signs whatever. Contractors want to do their job and if you don’t protect yours too bad.

If a floor is not protected it will get damaged. It’s going to cost someone and I’ve never seen the client eat a contractors mistake.

Whether you’re the client, general Contractor or sub bookmark this company. Ramboard

Decorative concrete has become a critical part of restaurant floor plans. Architects worldwide are projecting restaurant interior design with stains, overlays and polished concrete. If you don’t maintain your floor correctly it will cost you a lot of $$$. So read on.

The battle is against heavy abuse. Lots of foot traffic, chairs and barstools sliding on the floor, food grease, alcohol, citrus acids. Floors take it hard.

Start with Floor Mats. Floor mats at the entrance are a must. Floor mats at the kitchen entrance also a must. Grease tracked all over from the kitchen is the biggest floor crusher I have seen.

I have seen numerous restaurants ruin their floors because they didn’t pay attention. Maybe they thought concrete is industructable. Maybe they just weren’t thinking about their floor until it was too late.

Let me enlighten you about maintaining concrete floors. First before you make your plans think about maintenance. (And if you’re an architect make sure you understand the product). If you’re not going to maintain your new floor with the right systems and products then stop right now and don’t even consider concrete. Don’t give the product a bad reputation. Go trash some other floor. Seriously. I get the phone calls. Restauranteurs call complaining about how the floor isn’t wearing well. When I ask them how they are maintaining the floor …. well they did it wrong and ruined the floor. So what do you do?

Well, the good news is that it is inexpensive and cleaning systems are easy. It’s all about the system. If you deviate from the system then you have problems. Maintenance must be like clockwork. There are no shortcuts no matter what kind of floor. Systems, systems, systems!

What I am explaining to you I learned over the course of a year from Formula Technologies. They make about 30 floor cleaning products. All have specific uses.

Let’s start with Bionix. I did a review (in review category) of Bionix if you want more info. Bionix kills bacteria. Use it to clean bathrooms, wipe on doorhandles, sink faucets, bar tops, backs of chairs. Use it to clean groutlines and along edges of walls, or anything on the floor. Bionix is highly concentrated. Mix 1-2 ounces with a gallon of water. Ends up costing about 35 cents per gallon.

Orangeworks is a food degreaser. This is what you use to clean the food grease off your floor. Use it once or twice a week as needed. It’s too abrasive for daily use. Use waterworks daily. About 25 cents per gallon. Product comes in gallon containers. 1 ounce is mixed with 1 gallon of water. The biggest mistake most people make is thinbking if they use more product it will clean better. Not true. Too much cleaning solvent and you get a haze on the floor. Orangeworks breaks down the grease and the water is a carrier.

After the floor is cleaned with Orangeworks you can mop on Grishine which is a floor restorer and gives a polished finish. Gripshine can be burnished with a high speed buffer, 1500 – 2,000 RPM machine with a soft pad.

I’ll get into Floor machines and pads in an upcoming post so stay tuned.

Thats the sytem. Simple don’t you think? I’m going to be talking about sealers and waxes so come back and read more.

Thanks to Colormaker Floors for the photo below. Thats a Wholefoods Store with Pentimento Overlay stained with Patinaetch and Someru Dyes. Wholefoods is a pro at maintenance. Their floors look great always.

They stripped the old wax coats with a mild stripper called Turboforce then applied two new wax coats called Accelerator.

For the restaurant interior design they applied the same concrete overlay on the walls as they did on the floor. Then for the moldings they used Buddy Rhodes Concrete Countertop Concrete Mix. Check out the picture below. The bar tops are concrete also in dark charcoal. Again they used Buddy Rhodes Countertop Mix .

Not showing behind the bar is a quartz epoxy coating. The restaurant interior design used in all this owners restaurants utilizes decorative concrete on the walls, floors and countertops. Apparently the durability and ease of maintenace saves him a lot of money.

You’ll also notice they buff the floors with a high speed buffer. The one in the picture below is 2000 RPM with a hogs hair pad. They use the hogs hair once after a new wax application then 2-3 times per week they will buff the floor with a white pad which is softer.

There are a couple of reasons.

1. Custom design – If you look at the photograph below you will notice that the floor has a few different colors. The predominant color is a brown acid stain but in this area there is also blue, red and yellow. The restaurant floor plans required variation of color to set a mood in different areas. This photo is the bar area and a fireplace. The color variation is highlighted when the fire is roaring. The colors fade and change to lighter browns and gold in the dining area. This is achieved without a break. One area flows into another.

2. Price- I’m not 100% on this but the company who completed the 4,000 square foot floor charged about $6.75 per square foot. Other flooring products couldn’t match this price and provide the same image.

3. Time – The restaurant is a free standing building and new construction. They were on a tight schedule and needed all trades to be on time. They couldn’t afford to shut down the construction for the floor application. It would have been to costly. The decorative flooring contractor started floor prep Friday afternoon and was done by 8:00 P.M. The next morning, Saturday when no one was working, the floor was primed by 5:00 a.m. At 6:00 a.m they started the application of the concrete overlay and were complete by 8:00 a.m.

At noon they returned and got set for the second coating which commenced at 1:00 p.m. They were done by 3:00 P.M.

At noon the next day, Sunday, they came in and got all the stains ready and were staining the floor by 2:00 P.M. and complete by 6:00 P.M. Early Monday morning they came in applied acrylic concrete sealers and were complete with 4 coats by 9:00 a.m.

Job was complete allowing for light foot traffic on Monday and Tuesday but construction didn’t stop. 1 weeks later a final finish coat was applied just before the restaurant opening.

4. Maintenance – The restaurant does a good job of maintaining the floor using the right cleaning products to remove food grease from the floor and regular burnishing. Every 3 months they do a Scrub & Recoat using a light stripper to partially remove the old finish coat, then 2 applications of a 30% solids finish coat.

It’s been 3 years and I’m told the floor looks as good as ever.