Flooring recommendations?

[agoogol]

Hi all - Any ideas would be appreciated here:

I work at a training company, we help workers who climb towers and need safety & rescue training training and certification. Rope Access, Confined Space, and anything at height.

Our shop area is large, 5000 square feet. Bare concrete, no major problems, cracks, stains etc. Rarely does a vehicle come in, except for our forklift. No real work done here, just training so light foottraffic. See pics.

Trying to find the cheapest way to make the bare concrete look more appealing (Industrial) without spending $5000.

Anyone?

 

[mayday0017]

Not sure what I'm missing but I can't think of a benifit of doing anything other then maybe cleaning the floor and possibly sealing it. There are no fluids that leak and nothing to really stain or discolor the floor. The main reason people epoxy or tile is for easy clean up of spills and such. Of course cosmetic plays into it some too, but I think anything other then epoxy would look out of place in your area in my opinion...

 

[agoogol]

True. Cosmetics is probably the biggest reason.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

We have a nice sealer.
Here is a link to another garage journal members journey:
http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=196340&highlight=densifier

 

[Edger]

You may want to consider hardening the floor to protect it against abrasion. It sounds like you are using lots of equipment with wheels including the forklift even if the movement is not of any great volume it can damage the surface if the concrete is not hard enough.

One way to tell if this is happening and therefore if it needs densifying with a hardener is to carefully look at the floor, bending down to get the light to bounce off it. In the untouched areas near fittings or walls it will have a certain shine to it and the surface will be tight and smooth. In the work areas this should be the same, but if it has lost its glossy, tight look and is now a fine sand finish then the top layer is being worn away.

If that is the case you should harden the floor with a densifier to give it extra abrasion resistance.

Even slight wear of concrete produces dust which you would want to avoid.

 

[thomaskept]

I have a little confusion about the benefit of doing anything other than maybe cleaning the floor and possibly sealing it. But these flooring has no fluids that leak and nothing to really stain or discolor the floor then I suggest you may want to consider hardening the floor to protect it against abrasion.