Its newly polished concrete flooring permanently showcases the team’s colors in this multi-purpose indoor arena. The project, completed as a result of the arena’s recent renovation, included removing 260,000 square feet of epoxy flooring from the main concourse and food service areas and making it available to display the team’s graphic colors in silver, black and white. The polished concrete was a practical, low-maintenance solution on a traffic-congested surface.
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The project had to be completed within four months, and to minimize downtime, the contractor had to schedule an average of 40 workers per week to complete the job on time.
The most time-consuming and labor-intensive aspect of the job was stripping the existing three-layer epoxy flooring to create a smooth, clean surface. A stripping agent and a tile scraper were first used to help remove the epoxy. Then, using a 32-inch propane grinder/polisher, begin grinding the floor with a 30-gauge metal abrasive block and then grind to 150 mesh to clean and level the surface.
After the floor was properly treated and all epoxy removed, the floor was abraded using a series of resin abrasive pads to remove any scratches and then the floor was treated with a penetrating lithium silicate thickener. After the thickener dried, the crew sanded the flooring to a fineness of 400 mesh resin abrasive flakes. The project also included the hand grinding of over 30,000 square feet of stairs and stair jogging platforms.
Creating the team’s colors required a multi-step process to create a large range of herringbone patterns: Solid gray (no color applied), dark gray and white. The herringbone pattern was first drawn with chalk, then all areas were taped together to obtain a pure white (one step coloring and hardener). A low concentration of etchant was needed to open up the flooring so that the white would penetrate. We applied the white layer with a microfiber polishing pad, then removed the tape, and then taped the areas together in reverse to get the dark gray color.
The final step is to dense and polish the flooring and apply a clear, high gloss protective coating to improve resistance to stains, dirt and pedestrians.
Pure polished concrete without color seems to be the biggest trend in the home and education sector.