There are plenty of factors to consider when building
or renovating a grocery store, supermarket, deli, or similar business. You have a lot of compliance regulations to adhere to, plus you have to create a space that’s safe and attractive for visitors. In these situations, it’s easy to overlook matters like flooring – but you shouldn’t.
Too often we see grocers who have made the wrong decision in flooring simply because they “thought” it was the more cost-effective system – using vinyl tiles that started becoming damaged within a matter of months. Repairing the flooring in an active store ends up costing more for the store owners in repairs and downtime and, in extreme situations, can result in lawsuits from patrons who have fallen or become injured due to a broken floor.
Why Polished Concrete Is A Great Choice For Grocery Stores
In many supermarkets, there’s little worry about issues such as heavy equipment, or chemical spills so polished concrete is an excellent cost-effective choice for these commercial spaces. True to its name, polished concrete is just that – a concrete slab which has been polished to the point where it creates a solid impermeable surface with an attractive sheen. This brings numerous benefits for a grocery store:
- Longer-lasting. Concrete is extremely difficult to damage, and it can easily stand up to decades of customer foot traffic, lighter mobile equipment, and point of purchase displays with little or no need for repair.
- Simple cleaning. Polished concrete surfaces are impervious to anything likely to be dropped on them in a grocery store, and can be cleaned with the average cleansers. There’s no need for waxing or buffing either.
- A polished concrete surface gives bacteria, mold, mildew, and other infectious agents no chance to breed out-of-sight. This is vital in a facility handling food. (though it should be noted that in commercial kitchen areas and meat departments where more stringent cleaning and sanitization is necessary, an epoxy resinous solution may be the more ideal option)
- Attractive appearance. The concrete can be polished to a matte finish to a highly reflective finish. It can even be colored in abstract patterns to complement the store’s branding.
- Non-slip. Despite the shiny surface, polished concrete is actually very grippy – even when wet! It might look smooth on top, but on a micro level it’s quite rough minimizing slips and skids in a supermarket.
- No VOCs. Being little more than straight concrete, there are absolutely no concerns about volatile organic chemicals disturbing guests or contaminating your foods.
In short, polished concrete is a low-cost/high-ROI flooring solution that could easily last the life of your grocery store. Black Bear Coatings & Concrete has partnered with numerous store owners and conglomerates including Shaw’s, Hannafords, and Whole Foods to create safe and attractive flooring solutions. Contact us for an on-site evaluation and learn why more businesses trust Black Bear to value-engineer a stronger, more durable commercial floor system.
