Frequently Asked Questions

A garage/shop where there is potential for prolonged exposure to oils, brake, and transmission fluids. Outside and wet areas where water can sit on the floor for long periods of time. Commercial kitchens.

We've encountered and fixed all of the following and more:

Holes, cracks, pitting, chipping or deteriorating regions, unlevel concrete, stained/contaminated surfaces...

We've removed: glues, mastics, epoxies, tac strips, vinyl & ceramic tiles, hardwood flooring, spalled concrete, carpet, deteriorated expansion/control joint filler, concrete embedded bolts, conduit, nuts, wires...

What we do not touch are places that require fixes we'd consider structural engineering issues. This includes mud-jacking floor, pouring new concrete, strengthening structures/stairs/floors, addressing sinking or failing concrete slabs. It must be understood that we provide only cosmetic surface fixes. The closest thing we do to structural work is self-leveling your floor.

(In order from least to most expensive)

1.  Leave them as is. A very common option, but dirt & debris get stuck in there making cleaning difficult. This option is also not recommended for warehouses/shops that have metal wheels that will dip into the joints and chip away at the concrete as opposed to smoothly rolling over them. The joints also potentially cause a tripping hazard to persons in high heels.

2.  Fill joints with solid cement. If your slab moves, which it likely will, you'll have random cracks develop and of course the epoxy will chip up in the areas where your concrete is cracking. Epoxy is strong, but not strong enough to keep your thousand pound slab together against geological forces. This is actually a very good option, especially if your slab has settled over time and you don't mind the look of some random cracks here and there or possibly everywhere. Many people like this look over having those stupid control joints!

3.  Fill the control joints with elastomeric polyurea and put your epoxy or polyaspartic coating over them. This will look similar to option 4 when finished. BUT, as time passes, if your concrete moves, settles, expands, contracts, shifts, you MAY have cracking and chipping at the control joints. What you will likely have as well is a telegraphing of the control joints through your design. So you may end up seeing where the joints used to be. Polyaspartic coatings are more flexible than epoxies, so there will be less chances of chipping/telegraphing, but still very possible and/or likely depending on your floors movements.

4.  Epoxy your floor, then fill the joints with a elastomeric polyurea compound that will stretch and contract with your concrete's movements. If your joints are thick, option five may be more cosmetically pleasing.

5.  Fill control joints with a solid cementitious product, apply the epoxy, then saw cut thin 1/8” control joints back in place. Then leave as is or fill with elastomeric polyurea. This gives you very thin joint lines that look quite nice when finished. Obviously if you fill the joints with polyurea it will be easier to clean.

Absolutely! With polishing, the chemicals used to strengthen your existing concrete are extremely safe. There is no waste or material that eventually goes bad and needs to be thrown out and replaced, you're just using your existing floor to it's full potential! We also do not use acid based stains and so there is no harmful waste involved in our concrete staining/dying process.

You may also qualify for LEED points on your project by choosing a polished concrete floor.

Yes, when you choose a highly polished concrete floor or a bright colored epoxy, the lighting in your room goes a lot further, reflecting off the floor and helping to illuminate your space. In the summer you can also save on cooling costs.

No, however, we can recommend you a few contractors who will do right by you.

Contact us for color charts and design suggestions. A molted one or two color design pattern is very popular. You can have company logos, names, symbols, football teams dyed onto your floor. We can make you a variety of patterns including checkered, diamond, wavy lines, symbols, or colored pathways. If you have a design in mind we can work with you to put that down on your floor.

A polished concrete floor is a concrete floor that has been honed smooth and undergone a strengthening densification reaction. The densification process is a transformative chemical reaction which produces a dense crystalline lattice in the top layer of your concrete. This increases your floors resistance to the following: Abrasion, impact, chemicals, stains, chipping, pitting, erosion. It makes your concrete less porous while increasing it's density, sheer strength, and tensile strength. To top off this we apply a silane based clear coat that we melt into the floor for added chemical and stain resistance. This process creates a surface that can still transmit moisture vapor from inside your concrete floor (a good thing), while making the surface too dense to easily transfer liquid/chemical stains. The polar bond in most common chemical/ liquid stains remains intact, simply beading and pooling on the concrete surface, unable to penetrate the sealer or your concrete's dense crystal filled pores.

A concrete floor gets coated with an epoxy or polyaspartic that have some sort of aggregate then sprinkled onto it. There are a few reasons for doing this. The foremost being that this gives you a high traction floor that is very slip resistant. This surface can also be excellent at hiding dirt and grime. This concrete flooring solution is typically, but not exclusively, used in garage floors, kitchens, and bathrooms. Where oil, water, and chemical spills are likely. We can and often have the aggregate go up the wall a few inches in what is called a cove. This helps cleaning these areas much easier as any spills can pool and not soak up into the concrete on the wall. The aggregate options are sand, quarts, viynil flakes, glow in the dark flakes, or UV luminescent particles. The lowest cost aggregates are sand and viynil flakes, followed by quartz and then the glow in the dark ones. The quartz is more expensive because more layers of epoxy or polyaspartic are required to properly apply these, so you are in essence paying for a thicker more durable floor.

You can get a metallic epoxy with anywhere from one to three colors. These can be spread onto your floor in an endless variety of fashions, making wave patterns, criss-crossing, or gently flowing between each color randomly (the most common). The metallic epoxies go on very thick and so give you a lot of surface protection for your dollar. The thickness also gives the metallics its depth and allows the epoxy to flow across your floor and blend the colors with unique patterns. Epoxies are naturally very durable and impact resistant, despite this we still recommend a clear coat or at least keeping the floor protected with a wax. Scratches have a tendency to show easily on such artistic floors. So if you anticipate anything more than simple foot traffic, we advise topping off the surface with a urethane clear coat. The price we quote you will include a urethane clear coat, unless you specifically ask us to omit it.

Not all floors are suitable for polishing, if your concrete slab has many large cracks or holes that you'd like patched, these patches will stick out. If your concrete floor is very uneven or wavy a polish may bring these imperfections out. The price can be relatively high for a very high gloss finish compared to stain & seals or one colored epoxies. Polished concrete floors can be susceptible to staining by certain chemicals, especially strong acids or bases and may not be suitable for laboratories or workplaces handling them. Negligence in cleaning up spilled stains, chemicals, or hard water, will likely leave a stain if left sitting on the polished floor too long. Polished concrete floors are also unsuitable for commercial kitchens exposed to high levels of grease which will create a slippery surface. Here an epoxy floor with aggregate is more appropriate. Give us a call and we can help you pick the most suitable floor options.

You can choose one or multiple colors as well as your level of shine:

Flat finish: 50 grit

Matte finish: 100 grit

low-gloss: 200 grit

Medium-Gloss: 400 grit

Glossy: 800 grit

High Gloss: 1500 grit

Maximum Shine: 3000 grit

Westminster: Fruehauf Patio Furnature. 19,000 s.f. Extensive repairs were made, joints were filled, and floor taken to a medium-gloss polished finish. Address: 6795 W 88th Ave, Unit A, Westminster, CO 80031

Commerce City: Adams City High School: Job Details: 5,800 s.f. Concrete polish after water damage was taken to 1500 grit with a burnished clear coat. Address: 7200 Quebec Pkwy, Commerce City, CO

Colorado Springs: Rock Family Church: Job Details: 17,200 s.f. including carpet, glue removal, & hole patching. Polished to a low shine flat finish. Address: 4005 Lee Vance View, Colorado Springs, CO 80918

Centennial: The Clue Room. Job Details: 2,200 s.f. Job involved demolition of wood flooring, VCT, glue, patching holes, colored logo, 5 different colors applied, borders, polished to a medium-gloss finish. Address: 7255 S Havana St Ste 101, Centennial, CO 80112

Aurora: Golden Flame Hot Wings. Job Details: 1,100 s.f. Job finished over two day holiday involved removing a thick epoxy coating less than a year old, hole patching, coloring with 'concrete gray' dye, and polishing to a medium-gloss finish. Address: 18757 E Hampden Ave Ste 156, Aurora, CO 80013

Lone Tree: Functional Strength Pilates: 1,400 s.f. Low shine polish with Welsh Slate Color added. Address: 10047 Park Meadows Dr., Lone Tree, CO, 80124

Highlands Ranch: Indian Market. Job Details: 3122 s.f. included glue removal, conduit clean out removal, patching holes from old walls and conduits, and bringing the floor to a 400 grit polish followed by the burnish of a clear coat layer. Address: 7152 East County Line Road Highlands Ranch CO

Parker: Golden Flame Hot Wings. This 1,400 s.f project combined two adjacent retail outlets into one with a medium-gloss polish having elastic polyurea filled joints and a black dye. Address: 16524 Keystone Blvd, Parker, CO

You can leave these on if absolutely necessary but realistically, you should remove these for any kind of flooring work your considering; concrete or otherwise. We can do this for you if you like.

The details: While we have done plenty of work without removing them, it's not advised, and it will cost you more for us to have to carefully work on your concrete floor without doing too much damage to them. If you insist on leaving your floor boards on while we work, it should be still noted that they will inevitably get nicked, scratched, damaged, and dinged in places. Our tools have to be very powerful to grind concrete floors and your option is to either have unfinished edges or for us to try to get right up against them with 8,000 rpm hand grinders spinning a diamond embedded metal alloy disk. If you're getting an epoxy done, your baseboards will be partially embedded in the epoxy floor, this is especially the case for a reflective/metallic epoxy floor that has a thick build. With concrete floor polishing, the chances of damaging them goes up as we have to make numerous passes along your edges with ever finer polishing grits.

Yes, a one year warranty comes standard on all of our workmanship. If you'd like an extended warranty we would be gland to oblige you. We don't take shortcuts in our prep work or materials and so are glad to offer you written reassurances on our products and services.

1. Leave them as is. A very common option, but dirt & debris get stuck in there making cleaning difficult.

2. Fill them with a elastomeric polyurea compound that will stretch and contract as your concrete moves. This will also help protect your concrete at the joint lines. It eliminates a blunt impact by wheels and dragging objects. It also makes your floors far easier to clean. Not to mention safe for high heels, roller blades, pogo sticks, and the like not getting stuck and preventing a potential tripping hazard.

We start our the process by exposing your concrete floor's inner surface layer using high end concrete grinders equipt with diamond embeded bits. We use HEPA filtered dust extractors to maintain a clean environment while we work. The next step is to apply a top end (Colloquial or Lithium based) densifier to your concrete to initiate the hardening and strengthening chemical reaction in your floor. Next, we carefully hone a shine into your floor by using ever finer diamonds to achieve your desired level of glossiness. It is this process that separates the experts from the amateurs in this industry, as it requires hitting your concrete floor from multiple angles at just the right speed with just the right tool, set at the proper power level and keeping a close eye on your floor to make sure that no spots are missed or neglected. Finally, we melt an industrial grade protective coating into your floor with a heavy duty high speed burnisher. This process enables the guard layer (a silane based polymer) to form a strong covalent bond with your polished concrete floor. This coating will act as a wear surface that will prolong your floors shine and strength.

Because a polished concrete floor is so durable, it requires less maintenance than nearly any other flooring choice. Nonetheless, you should try to keep your floor free of dirt and debris that can slowly wear down the smooth surface. Periodically it's recommended to re-apply a protective coating we refer to as a guard. Re-application timing will depend on your usage. We can provide you with a maintenance schedule, but generally if you're a moderately busy retail store, once every six months should suffice. For residential usage, a year or more is typical. It can be easily applied with a micro-fiber mop. We also offer a maintenance plan which absolves you from worrying about when to re-apply and we use a more industrial burnish activated coating.

These are all two part polymer flooring systems that are both mechanically strong and highly impact resistant. Polyaspartic floors are more costly and come with some advantages. One being that it dries much faster for turn around of 24 hours for vehicular traffic. Polyaspartic floors are also more flexible, chemical resistant, UV stable, and abrasion resistant. Urethanes are very similar to polyaspartics, but not quite as durable or fast curing. We typically like to coat our epoxies with a polyaspartic clear coat. We believe that this combination gives you the best of both worlds, the epoxies give you the most bang for your buck, laying down a thick layer for an affordable price, then topping that off with an extremely tough polyaspartic wear layer.

Don't use a metal shovel and you really should try to avoid using salt. If you must use salt, use magnesium chloride. If possible use a snow blower with a rubber paddle or a plastic snow shovel.

We offer just two options for you if you have prior installed stamped concrete, stained and sealed flooring, or any concrete with previously applied color.
Option one is a re-seal. If your color isn't too faded and worn away this will revitalize the color that is present. To get an idea of how much revitalizing a coating will do, simply wet your concrete slightly and observe. A sealer re-coat will be quite similar to this in making your current colors pop out.
Option two is sand blast your concrete to properly open up and expose the surface capillaries and pores. As well as to remove any residual dye, sealer, and contaminants that may interfere with proper stain/sealer adhesion. We then apply our vibrant and UV resistant penetrating stain and industrial resinous sealer. Option one comes with no warranties, but, in many cases where your decorative concrete isn't in bad shape this is what we recommend. Option two is a big upgrade from what many other contractors are offering in terms of using cheap dyes and solvenated one part sealers, sometimes applied wrecklessly over your existing coating, certainly saving you money on the install, but leaving you with more problems than you started.

It is easy for a contractor to offer a lower price if they use an inferior product. Furthermore they can lock you into a bi-yearly maintenance plan you may have not suspected by using a cheap solvent or water based acrylic sealer. Our system will last you upto ten years before needing to re-apply another coat to reinvigorate your space. Once started on the path of using a typical solvenated acrylic sealer, you must continue on that route and cannot switch to the more durable system we now recommend without stripping every last bit of that old sealer off.

A reseal is just a simple maintenance treatment and will not restore your space to good as new condition as many believe. There is also no simple to follow maintenance plan for your space. You see, based on your specific conditions you may have areas that get more or less sunlight, spots subject to irrigation runoff, sprinklers, wind, freezing, salt buildup, heat, snow, foot traffic, etc. This creates uneven wear on your sealer, a weakening bond in some places, weakened molecular crosslinking in spots, uneven chemical and ultraviolet damage, and loss of adhesion in areas.
Now by having a contractor slap some more sealer over the top of everything do you really think that this restores your space to as new condition? Now what If I tell you that over the years many different contractors came through and applied various different brands of sealers one on top the other and given that the wear patterns aren't consistent you will have greatly varying sealer thickness throughout your space. Spots which received little wear over the years may now have many times the maximum allowable thickness of sealer caked on. This will not allow the slab to transmit water vapor through and may cause moisture buildup leading to coating failure. Once some areas flake off, it's only a matter of time before adjacent areas fail as well due to a breach in the integrity of the sealer-concrete bond region. Another under recognized point of failure is that perhaps the last contractor put a solvenated sealer on top of a water based one. Do you know the brand of sealer that was last used on your slab? We have techniques to make educated guesses, but you can be sure that the contractor isn't getting a laboratory test done to ensure compatibility. To sum up a long answer, there can be no warranty offered for re-seal given the fact that the material we are sealing over may very well flake off, taking our shiny new coating off with it.
Now that you see the many shortcomings of the cheap seal, re-seal cycle, you can understand why we at time urge customers to move towards a more sustainable coating involving lower maintenance and greater longevity. Unfortunately, this often involves sand blasting the existing acrylic sealer off and starting fresh.

The greatest benefit is the cost savings. When a concrete sealer fades and wares away it ceases to protect the concrete, its color, and its integrity. This is especially so in freeze thaw climates like Colorado. What a sealer does is not allow water to penetrate the surface of the slab and then freeze. When water freezes it expands and if this water happens to be under the concrete surface, it can break it apart. As more concrete breaks off the top surface, it exposes the more porous portion of your concrete. Which in turn draws in more water and deepens the extent of the damage. This weathering action is what predominantly causes spalling or chipping of the surface. A sealer also protects stains or dyes in the concrete from the suns ultraviolot radiation. The UV rays fade colors into more earthy and muted tones. They turn red colors pink and generally lighten up dark colors. A sealer will accentuate any colors previously applied and generally enhance the vitality of the existing or newly applied artistry.

For residential applications we recommend a breathable clear coat that provides an excellent balance of strength, cost, and water vapor resistance. Rarely do we stray away form this recommendation for typical foot traffic and uses not involving chemical contaminants or workshop users. The product we found to be best in this scenario is a nearly zero odor water borne methyl methacrylate based acrylic polymer. It is UV resistant, scratch resistant, an is quite glossy in appearance. It can be toned down in gloss by applying a matte or satin wax over it.
For more demanding applications we recommend a polyaspartic clear coat. You can't get much more industrial than that and with some aluminum oxide powder broadcast into it the strength of your floor will be near bulletproof.

Like any floor, it can be when wet and so it isn't recommended outside or in places subject to greases and oils. We wouldn't recommend it in a bathroom, kitchen, or garage. It gives good traction in most conditions and wouldn't be the flooring choice for most big box stores, many grocery chains, and many modern high end lofts and homes if it were a hazard of any kind. Lower gloss levels do give slightly higher coefficients of friction and so if this is a big concern for you and you'd like to be more on the safe side of things, go with a matte finish.

This is a slight rippled effect that clear coats produce that appear similar to that of an orange peel. Matte finish clear coats display this much more prominently than glossy finishes with polyaspartics. This effect is seen in both coating types to some degree. We have applied polyaspartics quite thick to eliminate this effect but at great expense to traction! You will also have a far more forgiving floor in terms of hiding any scratches you may put into it with an orange peel/matte finished floor.

A glossy finish will serve to hide many imperfections in your concrete including repairs, cracks, patches, pour-backs from trenches that may have been applied separately from the original concrete. A glossy finish also blends any stain work much better giving it a more smoothly flowing appearance. A glossy finish is more modern in appearance and makes the floor stand out more. A drawback is that it is easier for scratches to stand out and you should be more careful not to gouge the floor with anything.
A more antiqued look would be achieved with a matte finish. A matte clear coat will also provide a bit more traction given the orange peel effect that the clear coat gives. The matte finish will make all stain, repair, and patchwork stand out far more. A small drop from our sprayer will be more visible from further away and it'll make any transitions between colors stand out far more. A matte clear coat will be more forgiving if you scratch it in terms of not standing out as easy.

The answer is really one of taste, but, we would tell you to consider the following factors in your decision making process. Those being the quality of your existing floor, your budget, and the traction requirements.
A floor with lots of repairs would be better suited to a higher gloss shine because the light reflections will serve to hide the various cracks, patches, and possible trench lines. The gloss overpowers many of these imperfections and blends them together much better. On a matte finish any repairs really stand out at you much more than on a high shine finish. We would typically never recommend going below a 400 grit gloss level in either case given the fact that lower than this you're not getting a true polish and persons who incised we do this weren't quite happy with the end result, even though they did save on the costs of not going with a higher gloss.
A highly polished floor would provide slightly less traction than one will a lower shine finish. We went with only a 400 grit polish at the Golden Flame Hot Wings store because of the possibility of grease tracking from the kitchen for example.

The polymerization (hardening) of this coating type releases strong noxious and hazardous odors right after an organic peroxide activates the hardening process. These odors lasts for only as long as it takes to cure, which is under two hours. The oxygen in the air actually inhibits the hardening process and so a form of paraffin type wax is mixed into the resin in order to create a barrier with the air so that the substance can cure.
MMAs are often combined with other methacrylates such as 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and 2-ethylhexyl methacrylate which add to an MMAs flexibility and water repelency characteristics and so are sometimes re-branded as PMMAs. Many people in the coatings industry use these two acronyms interchangeably. A candidate environment for this flooring system must have adequate ventilation. For that reason mostly, we prefer to use cementitious urethanes where applications necessitate many of the characteristics of a MMA flooring system.

Urethane coatings would certainly be the most durable option for almost any space, however, given it's higher price point we would only recommend it for certain situations. It is particularly great in many respects and is a perfect fit for industrial plants, kitchens, distilleries, wineries, baking facilities, and manufacturing centers.
This coating has a very fast turn-around given the fact that it is a one coat system. It dries fast and is laid down quite thick so that you can give it tons of abuse and it isn't phased. It is also quite robust with respects to providing great traction even when subjected to some very slippery substances. If you're looking for a long term investment with minimal maintenance that needs to withstand a ton of abuse physically, thermally, and chemically. Then this is certainly an option we can provide you.

Parker: One Color Polyaspartic (Grey) Awaken Chiropractic

9208 East Pine Lane, Parker, CO 80138

Lousiville: (between Westiminster and Boulder right off I-36) Six different colors of metallic epoxy separating the space into 4 zones.

Loco Hermanos

318 McCaslin Blvd, Louisville, CO 80027

Lone Tree: (located right at intersection of I-25 and I-470) Around 800 square feet of a Thatch Brown colored 100 percent solids Epoxy with a Polyaspartic Clear Coat.

Brothers Bar & Grill

7407 Park Meadows Drive, Lone Tree, CO 80129

This figure depends on how much prep work the concrete in your joints need, the fill volume for your joints, and the amount of control joints you have. We own an large urethane/epoxy mixing and dispensing pump which we can bring to your project to pass on the lowest install cost possible. Compared to the caulk gun cartridges most contractors use, our bulk material cost is 8x lower and we can dispense material at 12x the speed. There are also countless concrete control joint filling compounds on the market with which we are familiar with. It is strongly advised to use a knowledgeable expert in selecting your joint filling compound. Feel free to call us so that we can help guide you to an appropriate solution and provide you with a free estimate on the joint work.

For the most part price is determined by how shiny you want your polished concrete floor to be. Other big determinants are how much repair work you want done on your concrete. Whether you want to fill in your control joints or not. If you're getting a color with your polish or not. If we can get our 1,000 lb. grinding machines into your space and whether you have adequate power supply or we have to use a generator. If you want us to work overnight on a rush schedule through weekends or holidays. Lesser factors include: How far away from our shop you're located.How much work you're having done. Some discounts are possible too: If you're paying by cash or check, are an existing customer, or served in the military. All these factors have to be calculated and more to give you a final price. We have a civil and mechanical engineer come out to your home or business, assess the condition of your floor, and provide you with a free estimate. We'll provide you with many prices and options within 24 hours of after seeing your concrete floor.

They are not normally, but when wet with water or oil they can be. All the flooring solutions we provide conform to OSHA coefficient of friction specifications for floors. We typically include small anti-slip aggregate into the clear coat mix in order to increase the friction co-efficient. This consists of an extremely hard material (aluminum-oxide) that actually helps strengthen your floor as well as give you traction. If you'd like additional anti-slip properties in your floor, like is common for public bathrooms, kitchens, and workshops, we can provide you with one of our common epoxy aggregate mix option. Many other contractors will use a plastic based aggregate in place of aluminum-oxide which will wear away and no longer provide the traction you get when the floor is applied. This isn't the case with the metallic alloy we use. 

We advise that you keep it clean of debris, dirt, and grime. As well as clean up any chemicals as soon as they are spilled. This especially includes wines, brake fluid, bleach, and to a lesser degree urine. You can do this with a ph neutral cleaner like 'simple green' and a micro-fiber mop. You can also just use plain water or a dry micro-fiber mop for routine maintenance. We highly recommended that you occasionally apply a coat of wax to your floors to help them stay strong and shiny. About once every six months should be sufficient for most residential environments. We will recommended for you a specific commercial grade wax for you to use, depending on your floor.

Polished Concrete, Concrete Stains, and Epoxies are all excellent choices. They do not support the growth of molds, pollens, or dust mites. If you have a kitchen or laboratory project in mind let us know, we have numerous products that are specifically FDA approved for these applications! We also have special coatings that are specifically suited to kill bacteria, molds, and fungi on contact. 

28 days is recommended for all of the above. If you're getting a new slab poured and are thinking of using our services to finish your concrete floor, please give us a call first, we can provide you with some suggestions regarding the concrete mix and curing additives; especially if going with a polish! Some non-retarding concrete curing additives can increase the cost of your polish.

We can do one color epoxies with various aggregate options including flakes, quartz, or smooth finishes. You can get metallic epoxies. Or just opt for a few layers of industrial polyaspartic. 

You can do a stain and clear coat, an epoxy and clear coat, two coats of polyaspartic resin, a urethane based cementitious coating, a microtopping, or a polish. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages as well as unique options that may or may not suite your needs and application, a brief phone call to us can help us guide you in the right direction.

For exterior residential applications where we aren't forced to coat over somebody elses product we have a special coating that took us years to locate and test in the field. This is a breathable coating that is UV stable, extremely abrasion resistant, mixable with aluminum oxide aggregates, that has an average life span before needing re-coat of seven years! Compare this with the typical solvenated acrylic sealers most people use outdoors which exhibit a two year life span on average and you'll see that this is most definitely the right way to go. This product is a much more industrial, consisting of a two component resin and hardener made of acrylated urethane-acrylic. Beholding the breathability of acrylics as well as the strength of a urethane.
There are also penetrating sealers which arn't defined as clear coats you can use outdoors, these can be a cheap solution to maintaining the longevity of your concrete as well by preventing spalling and staining some.

The first and most affordable option is a simple re-seal. This should extend the life of your decorative concrete for a period of two years on average before it's time to re-apply or move onto option number two. Us providing you with this option is contingent on the integrity of your desired reseal surface being in a satisfactory condition. What we do is clean the slab with a pressure washer and then apply a coat or two of a solvenated acrylic sealer. Please see 'what are the pros and cons of a re-seal on my outdoor concrete' for valuable information on this option.
The second option is a complete rejuvenation of your space. This, unlike the first option comes with a warranty and involves the proper preparation of your slab with sand blasting or grinding in order to open up the pores of the concrete for a proper clear coat bond. With or without stain, this industrial coating has a 5 to 10 year lifespan, is moisture vapor resistant, and is far more scratch and element resistant than what has been typically used outdoors until now. Not to mention far far less expenses in maintenance having contractors come out every few years to reseal it.

The number one issue that you must understand is that there is no way to 'fix' any issues with the appearance of the epoxy or the way it flows without re-doing either your entire space in one big pour. A quite expensive and time consuming affair. One feature that is always encountered is pinholes which cause bubbles in the coating. These are typically from entrapped air trying to escape. Some floors are more or less prone to this and we cannot guarantee anything in this regard, you may have lots of popped bubbles or very few. With Murphies law being what it is, you will get these in the most inopportune place and there is not much we can do about this. Although we do make all attempts to reduce any defects, inconsistencies, and pinholes from forming, we cannot make any promises.
Given that the epoxy flows for many hours before settling and we cannot force its flow without making matters far worse, you get some potentially unwanted effects, this includes possibly bare spots, which will be the color of your base coat, a color we pick to be close in appearance, but not quite the same color and without the reflectivity. We have yet to do a floor with every inch of the space being completely engulfed with the reflective epoxy coating and not having any bubbles in it. Although texture wise we smooth over all the bubbles with the following coating, their visual effects are still present.
Before ordering a metallic epoxy we will send you a PDF of some of these effects and if you're a perfectionist looking to examine every inch of the coating and expect no flaws, then this isn't the floor for you.

You should use a ph neutral cleaner such as 'Simple Green' with a micro-fiber mop to clean up chemical spills. You would follow that up with plain water and finally dry off your concrete floor. If your floor is just a bit dirty or dusty, you can simply use a dry micro-fiber mop.

Yes, we will assess your floor usage and contact you at the appropriate times to schedule a cleaning and protective coating application. We will at those times examine your floor and tailor our schedule to meet you and your floors requirements. We would use a more industrial coating that requires high pressure and high speed burnishing. This product literally melts into your polished concrete floor providing you with superior protection, longevity, and less frequent maintenance. We provide our customers with a maintenance schedule upon completion of your concrete floor polish. Give us a call and we can help guide you with your polished concrete floor maintenance program.

Your concrete as a part of your total building infrastructure is often a very substantial part of the complete cost and by finishing it you can maintain that value so that it doesn't degrade. Aesthetically, when people see a concrete floor unfinished it gives the impression of a non-functional storage place and not a living, working, or professional environment. Bare concrete emits concrete dust when unsealed. It is susceptible to staining quite easily. It is liable to absorb oils and other contaminants deep into itself making it impossible in some cases to decontaminate. It is not resistant to molds, bacteria, or fungal growth and so can potentially be a source of pathogen contamination in certain circumstances. It is not easy to clean as it attracts dirt and holds it in its pores. Cleaning costs are far reduced on a coated surface. Concrete coatings help protect the surface from wear. Including salts, oils, water, chemicals, etc. Coatings typically reflect far more light than bare concrete and many other surfaces thus reducing electric bills. You may save costs long term dealing with repairs when not addressed properly sooner. In places with any sort of wheeled traffic control joints are often points of wear when they aren't filled in to allow wheels to smoothly transit the gap in the joints.

This floor coating has excellent sound deadening properties, is very impact resistant which is why it's installed in factories, kitchens where heavy objects occasionally abuse the surface. Thermal resistance to extreme hot and cold temperature changes. Anti-microbial variants are available for food, pharmaceutical, and medical applications. Its high abrasion resistance makes it the coating of choice in facilities where steel wheels are used. Examples include bakery carts and factory floors. Its chemical, microbial, and water resistance is a big factor in its use in pharmaceutical, medical, and food preparation facilities. Not only is it resistant to water spilling on it, it is resistant to vapor moisture transmission from below the slab. Other coatings necessitate a vapor barrier coating application to protect from this. This material is often installed with a cove going up the wall some. It has an inherent anti-slip resistance that is maintained through out its lifespan even without a traction additive or after the traction additive wears away. Due to its extremely industrial nature we can offer warranties anywhere from five to twenty years depending on the thickness selected.

Application wise, it doesn't emit any noxious odors during its curing process. It doesn't need a primer coating to achieve proper adhesion to concrete. It can be used as a one part application system meaning we only have to apply one thick coat and we're done. This saves you labor costs having us to come back and prepare and re-apply layer after layer of many multi-coat systems. Having a one coat system also means that you have less down time for your space. Only a short waiting period to apply it after concrete is first poured.
Disadvantage wise, it must be applied in temperatures below 90 degrees Fahrenheit. It also is less decorative or aesthetically pleasing as other coating systems. Then there's the issue of price. It can be twice as expensive as some of our other options.

The answer depends on the kind of abuse your kitchen takes, desired longevity of the floor, amount of maintenance you desire, and of course your budget.
Starting with the most industrial option and working our way down we would say that a cementitious urethane will best withstand the test of time and abuse. That is an especially good option if you have moisture issues or a very damaged and spalled slab that needs lots of repair or patch work. Given how thick it is laid down it can coat over the spalled and pitted parts of your concrete in one fell swoop. This can save lots of time repairing damaged concrete and could actually end up being your cheapest option, especially if minimizing down time is a concern. From here we have a special 100 percent solids epoxy that we'd recommend that is laid down in several coats and would ideally have flake or quartz broadcast into it for added traction control and durability.

Also known as urethane mortar this product is a mix of a specifically engineered form of urethane mixed with various aggregates, portland cement, water, and other proprietary chemicals. This flooring compounds were originally made for the food and beverage industry which specifically had the need to be able to wash their floors with large amounts of water, not support mold/bacteria growth, and resist thermal shock. This flooring system meets all those criteria by being waterproof, highly thermally stable, slip-resistant, and seamlessly go up the wall to form what is known as a cove. This essentially makes a floor a sort of swimming pool if there is a large spill. Because of their large thermal mass they can withstand having boiling oils splash onto it and not delaminate from the floor. Because it is cementitious it expands and contracts at a similar rate as the concrete it's bonded to. This reduces any pressures on the bond to concrete and makes for a seamless system. It can also be applied to freshly poured concrete much sooner than other flooring systems like epoxies.

Both the cementitious urethane system and a specific line of modified polyaspartic will be nearly identically effective at keeping the surface of the coating sterile. From there it would depend on other conditions in your environment on whether you'd decide on one or the other. In either case you'll have a sterile floor ideally suited to maintaining top health standards. Both products have been approved by the FDA for use in commercial and industrial kitchen floors. For less physical and thermal shock demanding floors we'd recommend the polyaspartic. In settings like dispensary grow facilities where preventing plant pathogen growth is essential, yet the floors dont undergo as much stress as say an industrial food production plant, we'd recommend the polyaspartic. For surgery rooms in hospitals, it is almost a coin flip, because if there is the likelyhood of sharp and possibly heavy instruments being dropped onto the floor, as well as stretchers and carts with abrasive wheels wearing on the anti-microbial floor coating. The cementitious urethane is easier to slope down into a drain if this is an issue. Depending also on the amount of abuse and traffic your floor will experience you may want to opt for the more affordable polyaspartic and have us re-apply every four years or so as opposed to having a floor with a 20 year warranty right from the get go.

The process involves mechanically preparing the floor to create a proper surface profile. We can do this with a special adapter on our grinding machines. After performing the necessary repairs and priming the surface if necessary, we mask off and prep the walls and edges of the space. We prepare the mixes and materials based on your desired aggregate needs and carefully rehearse our execution. Then the material is mixed and applied assembly line style in at a very rapid pace to minimize the chances of the material hardening before it is properly spread and rolled even. We use special rakes, trowels, and rollers to achieve the proper flatness levels and thickness of the coating. This process usually continues until the floor is completely done because if there are no special seams to stop at there is a chance of seeing the separate applications transition lines. The product then gets an aggregate applied and evenly spread to provide added traction, this can be any number of products with numerous decorative options. Typically we recommend colored quartz aggregates broadcast into your mortar.

Compressive Strength (ASTM C579) 8,500 psi
Tensile Strength (ASTM C307) 1,400 psi
Flexural Strength (ASTM C580) 2,700 psi
Hardness, Shore D (ASTM D2240) 85-90
Impact Resistance (ASTM D2794) 160

MMA (Methyl Methacrylate) coatings are ideally suited for these applications. This polymer is in the acrylic family and contains no solvents. It is extremely tough and sets up really fast. This flooring product is quite comparable to a cementitious urethane. It can cure in -20 degree Fahrenheit temperatures and be ready to walk on in less than two hours. It is highly resistant to acids and doesn't soak up any water whatsoever. Other applications where this product might be well suited is exterior decks, pool decks, walkways, food and beverage production, commercial kitchens, pharmacutical plants, and cryogenic facilities. It can be used to bridge small cracks without the need for repair mortars and is typically combined with silica or quartz to add to traction control. It's UV stable and so is great outdoors. Because of MMAs strength, vehicle traffic is no match for it's ruggedness. Its downside is that it emits a very strong odor during the application time before it cures.