Choosing a flooring type for your commercial business can be a difficult choice. There are a lot of options to choose from and while many have their benefits, many also have their flaws. Of course, you may never find a flooring that is virtually “perfect” for whatever you are looking for, but you can probably come pretty close.
There are some things you should consider when choosing your flooring. The first is what type of style you are going for. You should pick a floor that matches the interior design of your space and will be a great accent and not a clashing element to the room. Next, you should consider the durability of the flooring. If you have a place with a high amount of foot traffic, you want to make sure that your flooring will stand up to all of that over the years. You should also consider what type of maintenance that flooring requires. Determine what amount of work you are willing to put into your flooring and choose accordingly.
While you have many factors to consider, your top priority should be safety. You may not think of safety as something to consider immediately when you are thinking of flooring, but you should especially if you are an organization with high traffic. Taking into account wet weather, dust, dirt and spills, you should make sure that whatever floor you choose is the safest option for your guests and customers.
A polished concrete floor is one of the safest options you can choose for your space. This is for a few different reasons:
Slip resistant
It is important to evaluate how slip resistant your flooring will be. This is because you want to be sure that those visiting your space and your employees will not slip and fall. To test how slip resistant a flooring type is, it needs to go through the Coefficient of Friction (COF) tests. After testing, the flooring will give a number indicating the level of friction on the surface. A surface with a higher number means that the surface is less slippery, but if the number is too high, it may be difficult to walk on. Low friction is at a much higher risk for slips, falls and accidents.
Since concrete is naturally porous, it provides a good amount of friction. When adding the surface grinding that goes into a concrete floor, the surface becomes increasingly more slip resistant. While it may be more slippery when wet, it is fairly safe either way.
You may want to compare polished concrete to other polished stone surfaces and expect that they have the same COF as each other, but in reality, the polished concrete flooring has a higher COF than other types like polished granite or polished marble. This means that polished concrete is the safest of polished stone flooring when dry or wet.
Cleaning products
Another reason that polished concrete is a safer option than other flooring options is because of the products used to clean it. In order to keep your polished concrete floor in the best shape, you need to use cleaning products that are not harsh and that are pH balanced. This means you will be using products that are eco-friendly and safe to use around children and animals.
Any flooring that you choose has the potential to be unsafe. This can happen if it is not properly cared for and maintained, not properly cleaned or mismanaged. With a polished concrete floor that has been installed properly, has an accurate COF reading and is maintained and cleaned regularly, it can be considered one of the safest flooring options you can choose!