When your company starts experiencing worn out concrete, you have to make a choice. Do you replace the concrete floor completely? Or do you have a company put in a concrete overlay?
If money is no issue, put in an all new concrete floor. In Hawaii. With a swim-up bar.
But here in the real world, budgets matter. That’s why a concrete overlay in Kansas City installed by Epoxy Coating Specialists saves you money and time vs replacing the concrete floor. Our team of specialists do the work right the first time, so you waste no time. And business people know: time is money.
Let’s look at what constitutes a concrete overlay so you can be up to speed when we talk about your new floor.
What is a concrete overlay?
Think about your current floor conditions. It could be in your food production area, your manufacturing facility, your restaurant, or even your school system. When you look down what do you notice? Rough and eroded concrete, exposed gravel aggregate, a hard to clean surface?
A concrete overlay can be either be made of polymer resins or a cement-based coating, of varying thickness, that is applied directly to the mechanically prepared concrete. It can be non-slip, rough texture, solid color, or decorative – In the end this coating can perform a number of different functions, including:
- Slab restoration
- Appearance improvement
- Surface correction
- Reduce fork truck tire wear
- Leveling
- Sloping
- Structural enhancement
- Reduce/increase surface roughness
- Decorative/design placement
- And more
To Replace Or Restore, That Is the Question
When considering a concrete overlay in Kansas City for restoration vs a floor replacement, you’ll need to answer, at minimum, these questions:
Is the substrate suitable for concrete overlay?
You’ll need an inspection by a qualified floor specialist. Not every substrate is in good enough condition to allow a concrete overlay that will last. You need an honest company to help you discern this possibility.
What’s your budget?
If an overlay is even possible, your next question is what can you afford. This can quickly answer whether you want to replace or repair the floor. Hint: replacing a concrete floor can be much, much more expensive.
How much downtime can the location endure/what’s your timetable?
Replacing a concrete slab requires invasive prep, demolition, restabilization, any utility placement/replacement, and infrastructure replacement—just for starters.
Then you’ll need time to pour the new slab, have it cure, and address the surface to match the usage. That’s a lot of time, sometimes into weeks or months of construction.
And can your parking lot take the abuse inflicted by heavy machinery like concrete mixers, dump trucks, and cranes?
Applying a concrete overlay only takes a few days—or less. No dump trucks, no massive cement mixers and cranes to pipe the cement in. Need it done in a short time window? You might be pleasantly shocked by how prepared we are for tight timetables) to install.
Does your company require environmental impact statements?
Your city/county/state may require environmental impact reports on your remodeling/floor replacement. Putting in a concrete overlay in Kansas City doesn’t have this requirement.
Generally speaking, saving your existing substrate and putting in a long-lasting, durable concrete overlay saves time, saves money, and creates much less of an environmental impact.
It also gets you back to doing what you do best: conduction business at your location!
What kind of floor is best for a concrete overlay?
At Epoxy Coating Specialists, our specialists can expertly advise you on the best options to suit your floor condition, budget, and timeline.
Some of the qualities that make your substrate a good candidate for concrete overlay include:
- A solid surface with no substrate issues
- Extremely worn surfaces where the aggregate is showing
- A dirty or aesthetically displeasing floor
- Small cracks that aren’t plentiful/spiderwebbed
- A worn floor that has become hazardously slippery
- Permanent surface stains
If your floors are more deeply cracked, we do have professional products and techniques to address those cracks. However, you’ll probably want a structural engineer to inspect these to ensure it’s not the sign of a deeper, more significant issue.
3 Techniques for Concrete Overlay in Kansas City
The term “concrete overlay” encompasses an intricate, interconnected relationship between purpose, design, and product. Our consultation with you, and inspection of your location, determines our recommendations for the best solutions for your floor.
That being said, 3 common types of concrete overlay in Kansas City are most often applied to commercial projects.
Self-Leveling
An uneven commercial floor can cause pooling issues in wet environments, along with cleaning issues. Plus warehouse storage must have level surfaces for shelving, lest the product risk sliding/movement, or the shelves themselves endure dangerous torque as they lean.
If the substrate is structurally sound, then a self-leveling concrete overlay can remediate the issue and return the floor to an even surface.
Self-leveling concrete usually consists of a polymer-modified cement that flows more easily. This cement doesn’t actually level itself; however, the flow characteristics allow our skilled tradespeople to manipulate it in the necessary areas. We use specialized tools from job-specific trowels to gauge rakes to work the medium and get it to lay correctly.
Once the self-leveling concrete cures,it becomes the new, level substrate, ready for installation of your final flooring.
Resurfacing
This concrete overlay approach involves our epoxy mortar system multi-layer floor. Industries that frequently choose resurfacing their concrete floors include:
- Restaurants/Food Preparation
- Maintenance/Repair Shops
- Industrial/Manufacturing
- Aviation/Aerospace Hangars
- Military Applications
- Large industrial storage warehouses
- And more.
This resurfacing creates an extremely durable, long-lasting floor that looks great while delivering excellent results.
For example, when aviation and aerospace facilities work with Epoxy Coating Specialists, their high-performance 5-coat fuel resistant epoxy mortar system protects their facility’s base substrate from:
- Aircraft fluids (such as Skydrol®)
- Chemicals
- Aggressive cleaning
- Lubricants
- Aviation fuel
- Aircraft/equipment weight
- And more.
It all starts with a concrete overlay leveling the prepared substrate surface, and bonding to it to become the new substrate. Every layer after that bonds to the one before it, creating an intensely tough, safe surface to achieve your commercial goals.
The Overlay As Its Own Surface
Lighter commercial uses may not need the strength and power of our epoxy mortar system. For these surfaces, the concrete overlay may act as the main floor surface. In this case, Epoxy Coating Specialists would customize an overlay mixture that matches your slip-resistance and decorative requirements.
This concrete overlay in Kansas City could be colored or blended. It can also involve aggregates of varying grit size to achieve the slip-resistance you need in that area. Or, it could be a floor that’s almost “liquid glass” smooth.
Once that overlay finishes curing, a protective coating would be applied, possibly including color additives, to not only help the floor last longer, but to also provide satisfactory aesthetics.
Why DIY is DOA for a Concrete Overlay
Any big box store will try to tell you how you can do this yourself. And since some of your staff may have time on their hands at some point, the thought of “saving money” might seem too good to be true.
You would be right. It’s not true for 100,000 square feet of industrial space where employee safety is as important as durability and aesthetic appeal. These pre-mix or “easy project” products are designed as bandaids or quick fixes. Those types of products don’t face the hardship of a commercial environment.
It Takes Professionals to Do a Professional Job
No one wants a dentist to do their heart surgery, or a plumber to cook their filet mignon. And no commercial location should accept less than an epoxy flooring expert to install the concrete overlay for their business.
Concrete overlays and resurfacers are restoration products. The professional grade ones don’t come ready to pour. They arrive in bags and buckets, and the custom floor is created on-site.
Only an expert knows how much to mix, when to mix it, and how to lay it down correctly. Skilled tradespeople use custom tools to make sure the material depth is right, the overlay is level, and the schedule is kept.
Plus removal of the old floor system and preparation of the existing substrate takes planning, skill, and all the right tools at the right time. Many of these tools you can’t rent. They cost tens of thousands of dollars to purchase, and must be operated by someone who has the correct training. Without that skillset, the equipment can be damaged, and the floor made worse instead of better!
The ECS Process
If your commercial floor appears to be a good candidate for a concrete overlay in Kansas City, the ECS process starts with a conversation.
Consultation
Request a quote online, and we’ll contact you for more information, plus set up a time to meet at your place of business. This gives us the opportunity to fully understand your space, what you do there, and how that impacts the floor.
We can also generally assess the current condition of the floor, and assess the environmental risk for our tradespeople and your employees. This assessment includes elements like room temperature, how well the area is ventilated, the area’s moisture exposure, and more. All of these factors impact how we approach the job.
Most epoxy coatings need to cure and dry in a temperature-controlled environment. If your facility is subject to extreme cold or heat, we’ll help you evaluate the space and even help develop a solution to manage the temperature during the project.
Project Scope
Our team members come prepared with questions to help us piece together the scope of your concrete overlay project. This includes impacts to your floor longevity, your timeline goals, how work in the project area affects your workflow, and what your maintenance plan looks like—among a few.
Generating the Proposal
When the consultation is done, we’re not! We get to work crunching numbers, and within 48 hours after the consultation is complete, you will receive a custom, detailed proposal from your project manager.
- This proposal includes:
- Project square-footage
- Options (at least 2!)
- Project schedule that fits your goals
- Project phases
- Cost estimate
- Any additional notes from the consultation
- Warranty information
- Any other relevant info for your custom bid.
After receiving the proposal, we’ll talk more to ensure the project fits your time and budget correctly.
Once we’re all agreed, let’s get ready to resurface your floor for the function, safety, and appearance you need!
Concrete Results For Your Custom Overlay
Contact us with your questions on your commercial concrete floor. Epoxy Coating Specialists offers decades of experience to answer your questions, make recommendations for your concerns, and best of all—install the best flooring system for your business.
Check out some of the floors we’ve done. You’ll understand why we’re the number one flooring services choice for companies like yours across the midwest. Get a quote now and experience the Epoxy Coating Specialists difference.