"Cannot Compute" - concrete finishes for commercial floors

February 2011 Job of the Month - This whole project began with a contractor "no show". The owner of this data center located in Dallas had already lined up a contractor to do his floor but when the start date arrived, his contractor didn't. He called us to see what we could do as he was a big fan of floor concrete finishes. We inspected the floor and were surprised when he said that the other contractor had planned on doing an acid stain on the floor as it was in terrible shape. There were holes from where cubicle walls had been installed and parts of the floor was just coming up on its own.

Acid staining is a beautiful option for concrete finishes but as the color has a translucent quality to it there is no way it will cover any defects in the floor and this Dallas data center had plenty of them. The best way to remedy this problem is to apply a microfinish overlay to the entire area. The overlay actually resurfaces the existing floor by filling in holes and hiding cracks. However, this floor needed some extra work. Most concrete finishes are tough and durable but hiding underneath this floor's glue down carpet we found some areas that had literally peeled up.

We can't tell you why this happened, it's pretty rare, but the good news is that it can be fixed. We started by chipping out everything that was loose then filling it all in with a patching compound. If we then followed this step up with a direct acid stain, the patchwork would be very visible but since we first applied the microfinish overlay to resurface the entire floor, you can barely tell that any work was done there. As always, before applying the microfinish, we ground all the concrete finishes to ensure a good bond between the overlay and the original floor. Next we mixed some pigment into the microfinish overlay material to give it a nice soft beige color then applied it to the floor. Once it dried we followed it up with a water stain to give it a beautiful and natural golden tan shade.

We enjoy doing commercial jobs in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex area and this one went pretty smoothly with one exception, being a data center, they were open 24/7! We had to stick to a tight schedule to complete our work so that no one got stuck inside or outside while the overlay was being applied or drying but we got it done on time. As soon as we wrapped it up, the painters added some green and red paint on the walls, creating this striking effect. Not bad at all!

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