Commercial Epoxy Flooring in Cincinnati, OH

Commercial epoxy flooring is about keeping a business moving. In Cincinnati that covers a wide range of spaces, from a corner restaurant kitchen to a warehouse aisle to a machine shop floor. Wikipedia lists consumer goods, retail, aerospace, financial services and business services among the region's main sectors, with Fortune 500 companies such as Kroger, Procter & Gamble, GE Aerospace, Cintas and Fifth Third headquartered in the area. The suppliers, distributors and service businesses around them all run on concrete floors, and those floors take a beating.

Why bare concrete is a problem at work

Uncoated concrete dusts, stains and absorbs. In a warehouse, dust settles on product and gets into equipment. In a kitchen, grease and food waste soak into the slab and are hard to sanitize. In a shop, oil and coolant leave slick, permanent stains. A seamless concrete floor coating seals the surface, makes it far easier to clean, brightens the space by reflecting light, and lets you mark aisles and safety zones directly on the floor.

Systems we use

Commercial floors need more than a garage coating:

• High-build 100% solids epoxy for warehouses and light industrial floors that see carts, pallet jacks and forklifts.
• Broadcast quartz or flake systems for traction in wet areas, break rooms, locker rooms and restrooms.
• Polyaspartic topcoats where a business can only close briefly, or where sun and abrasion are factors.
• Chemical-resistant topcoats for areas that see cleaners, oils, solvents or food acids.
• Coved edges that run the coating up the wall base so floors can be hosed and squeegeed.

Industrial floors and heavy traffic

Industrial floors fail in specific ways. Forklift wheels grind at turns, steel carts chip joints, dropped parts dent thin coatings, and chemicals soften the wrong topcoat. We look at how your floor is used before we choose a system: what rolls on it, what spills on it, how it is cleaned and how often. Sharonville's Ford transmission plant, which Wikipedia describes as having 2.4 million square feet of shop floor, shows the scale of floor space industry in this region depends on. Most of our commercial work is smaller, but the same rules apply: thickness, bond and the right topcoat for the traffic.

Planning around downtime

Coating a commercial floor means the space is out of use for a while, so scheduling is part of the job. Big floors can be split into phases, done after hours or on weekends, and finished with fast-curing polyaspartic where a quick return matters. Bob Vila's polyaspartic guide says that with this kind of system a business might be shut for as little as a day or two. Ahead of the work, we put in writing which areas close when, how long each stays closed, and when equipment and staff can return.

Prep on commercial slabs

Commercial concrete often carries years of contamination: oil soaked into the slab, old floor paint, sealers, adhesive from removed tile, and expansion joints full of debris. We remove it with diamond grinding or shot blasting, clean joints out, and repair spalls and cracks. We test for moisture, since slabs on grade without an effective vapor barrier can push moisture up under a coating. On older buildings, that testing is never skipped.

Safety and markings

A coated floor is a good place to mark traffic aisles, pedestrian walkways, forklift lanes, keep-clear zones around panels and equipment, and parking or staging areas. We can build anti-slip texture into wet areas and around entries. Lighter floor colors also brighten a building, which can make a dim warehouse or shop easier to work in.

Get a Free Estimate