Commercial flooring
Floors that survive the public, installed while you sleep.
Retail, hospitality, offices, schools and healthcare — durable, cleanable floor systems scheduled around your operating hours, not through them.
Overview
The constraint on a commercial floor is rarely the floor.
On an industrial job we plan around forklifts and chemical exposure. On a commercial job we plan around trading hours, a lobby that has to stay presentable while work happens fifteen metres away, and a client whose real cost of a mistake is a week of lost business rather than a week of lost production.
So the technical selection matters, but the scheduling is what we get judged on. We work nights, weekends and holidays, section spaces so half a floor stays open, and build the programme backwards from the hour you need the doors open.
- Typical schedule
- Nights & weekends
- Light foot traffic
- 4–6 hours
- Full service
- ~24 hours
- Finishes
- Matte to high-polish
By sector
Different rooms, genuinely different specifications.
| Setting | The real requirement | What we usually specify |
|---|---|---|
| Retail & showroom | Appearance under bright lighting, resistance to cart wheels and grit tracked in from outside | Polished concrete at a honed or semi-polished level, or a smooth coating where a specific colour is needed |
| Restaurants & commercial kitchens | Slip resistance when wet with grease, tolerance of hot wash-down, coved junctions for health inspection | Urethane mortar with an integral cove in the kitchen; a decorative broadcast system front-of-house |
| Offices & lobbies | Appearance, low ongoing maintenance, quiet installation in occupied buildings | Polished concrete, or a smooth roller-applied or self-levelling system |
| Schools & institutions | Durability against heavy foot traffic, easy cleaning, low odour during install, tight holiday windows | Low-odour epoxy or urethane build-ups scheduled into spring break or summer |
| Healthcare & labs | Seamless cleanable surface, chemical resistance, coved detailing, controlled disruption | Self-levelling epoxy or urethane with coved junctions, installed in phased sections |
| Back-of-house & storage | Cost-effective durability, dust control on a bare slab | Roller-applied coating or a densified, ground finish |
Return-to-service and finish selection depend on the substrate, the system and site conditions. We confirm both on site before quoting.
Process
How a commercial install runs.
- Site visit and moisture test
We look at the slab, check what is on it now, and test it for moisture. A slab driving vapour will lift a new floor off within a year, and it is far cheaper to find that out with a probe than with a failure.
- Mock-up where appearance matters
On polished and decorative work we produce a sample panel on your actual slab. Aggregate exposure and sheen cannot be judged from a photograph, and the first grinding pass is irreversible.
- Programme built around your hours
We agree the sections, the shift pattern and the exact hour each area returns to service, then work to it. Dust containment and negative air where the space next door stays open.
- Preparation
Diamond grinding or shot blasting to the profile the system requires, crack routing and filling, patching, and detailing at drains, thresholds and wall junctions.
- Installation
The specified build-up, at documented coverage rates, within the manufacturer's ambient and recoat windows.
- Handover
Walk the floor with you, hand over the maintenance regime for the system in plain terms, and tell you what will shorten its life — usually the wrong cleaning chemical, applied nightly for five years.
Questions
What commercial clients ask.
Can you work outside our business hours?
Yes, and on retail and hospitality work that is the normal arrangement. We schedule nights, weekends and statutory holidays so the space is back in service before you open. It costs more in labour than a straight daytime schedule, and it costs far less than closing for a week.
How long before we can walk on it and put furniture back?
It depends on the system and the temperature, but for a typical commercial build-up expect light foot traffic within roughly four to six hours and full service including heavy furniture and rolling loads at around twenty-four hours. Cold conditions extend both. We give you the real numbers for your system before we start, not optimistic ones.
What is the difference between a commercial floor and an industrial one?
Mostly what the floor has to survive and what it has to look like. An industrial floor is specified around forklifts, impact and chemical exposure, and appearance is secondary. A commercial floor is specified around appearance, cleanability, slip resistance and the ability to be installed without shutting the business, with lighter mechanical loads. Different priorities, often overlapping products.
Will a coating cover the cracks and stains in our existing slab?
Cracks, no — not on their own. A crack that is still moving will telegraph through a coating unless it is properly routed, filled and detailed first, which we do as part of the scope. Stains are usually covered by an opaque system, but if you are considering a polished finish rather than a coating, understand that polishing exposes the slab rather than hiding it, so existing staining and patching become part of the look.
Which is better for a lobby — polished concrete or a coating?
Polished concrete if you want the look of the slab, a surface with nothing on top to delaminate, and very low ongoing maintenance. A coating if you need a specific colour, need to cover a slab in poor condition, or need chemical or slip performance that polishing cannot give you. In lobbies and showrooms we lean toward polished when the slab is decent, because it ages better.
Related
Where to go next.
Coating systems compared
The honest comparison of traffic membranes, epoxies, urethane mortar and polished concrete.
Learn more →Polished concrete
Mechanically polished and densified floors, from matte to mirror finish.
Learn more →Next step
Tell us your opening hours first.
The schedule shapes the specification as much as the floor does. Send us the space, the use and the hours you cannot lose.