Commercial flooring – polished concrete and microcement on raised access flooring .
Commercial properties, such as offices, shopping centres, retails shops, leisure centres, bars and restaurants, all have different uses and functions. Therefore, commercial floors require an individual approach. A large selection of top layers on the market gives the investors and designers comfort but may also cause difficulty in choosing the most suitable and optimal solution. Over the last few years we have been approached by many Commercial Fit Out clients asking for polished concrete flooring installation on raised access floors. The difficulty with the traditional polished concrete flooring and raised floor system is around a) the subfloor load capacity and b) the movements in the subfloor.
A bit of background and technical information;
In recent years, commercial flooring in offices, hospitals, airport lounges or shopping centres have a requirement to run cabling, wiring or pipes underneath the flooring. Raised access flooring has come as a solution. Raised floor systems are sometimes referred to as access floors, raised access floors, platform floors, computer floors or suspended flooring.
Raised access floor made it possible to embed in the flooring system the entire information and communications infrastructure and advanced fire and safety systems.
Most commercial properties’ flooring is more heavily loaded than standard floors. The weight load capacity range for standard raised access flooring ranges from 950 pounds – 1250 pounds. Furthermore, raised access flooring does not offer the stability and lack of movement required for polished concrete flooring (as any subfloor movement would result in cracking). Therefore, installation of traditional polished concrete flooring is not recommended.
Solutions:
At SOBO we are driven by our passion for interior design, new solutions, ideas, developments and techniques. We utilise our products and knowledge to find optimal and innovative solutions. We found and tested a perfect, unique resolutions:
Option one:
ClaudiCemento READY MIX microcement, seamless, waterproof ,with low VOC and comprehensive strength after 28 days of >50 N/mm2
Step 1 – Installation of 20 mm screed boards
Step 2 – Hand trowel installation of 3 layers of ClaudiCemento READY MIX microcement
Step 3 – Sealing
ClaudiCemento READY MIX microcement is definitely a revolutionary and superior microcement coating. Its new formula has unique and advanced features that are setting new industry standards:
• It offers additional flexibility.
• It provides exceptional strength and durability.
• It is waterproof even without a top seal, meaning there’s no need for solvent-based sealers. This results in an odourless installation and low VOC emission.
• It has a beautiful concrete-like finish that is highly aesthetic.
All of these qualities make ClaudiCemento READY MIX a game-changer in the microcement industry.
In today’s world, microcement has become a popular choice for indoor and outdoor flooring and wall covering due to its modern look and versatility. However, traditional microcement products have limitations, particularly when it comes to flexibility and waterproofing.
Option two:
microscreed – EVOLUTION!
EVOLUTIONis a lightweight, 3 mm thick, jointless, seamless, poured microscreed. EVOLUTION installation on raised access flooring has three steps:
Step 1 – Installation of 20 mm screed boards
Step 2 – Pouring the EVOLUTION microscreed
Step 3 – Sanding and sealing
Total weight / loading of EVOLUTION system on raised access flooring is only 30.5 kg/sqm.
EVOLUTION microscreed flooring gives the desired polished concrete effect on access raised flooring, and to the best of our knowledge it is the first and the only poured flooring system suitable for raised access flooring on the UK market. Many people mistake EVOLUTION microscreed flooring with the power floated / polished concrete floors simply because EVOLUTION replicates polished concrete floors so well!
EVOLUTION microscreed flooring is offers a perfectly smooth seamless flooring which cannot be achieved by a hand trowel applied microcement.
Evolution comes in variety of colours (shades can be adjusted to desired effect), and guarantees high durability; microscreed’s flexural strength at 28 days is >7MPa.
EVOLUTION is very easy to maintain and compatible with commercial cleaning machines.
Fast installation time and a very competitive price places EVOLUTION microscreed in the top cost and time effective options for commercial flooring.
