Conventional floor coverings such as carpet, VCT tile replacement, are yielding to a green building solution: the chosen alternate is polished concrete. Now is the time to consider making a refurbished polished concrete floor your next flooring choice as an accepted alternate to VCT.
Alternate to VCT Tile Replacement – The Preferred Flooring is Polished Concrete
Everyday more and more retail stores are turning to polished concrete as their preferred alternate to vinyl tile flooring (VCT). Polished concrete is more economical to maintain, it is “green” (environmentally friendly) and more durable than vinyl tile.
Installation costs are often comparable to the installation of vinyl tile. If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of polished concrete as an alternate to vinyl tile, follow some of the links on Titus’ website.
Here is a project where polished concrete was chosen as the alternate to VCT and the results were beyond beautiful for years to come.
After carpet removal, this retail store is partitioned with plastic and negative air so the retail store may remain operating during VCT tile, black mastic removal, and concrete polishing.
Carpet removal complete. Tan mastic on a layer of vinyl tile removal (VCT removal). Retail store remains open and partitioned off with plastic. Black mastic beneath this vinyl tile (VCT). Concrete polishing to following black mastic removal.
Vinyl tile removal (VCT removal) is performed with a Blastrac BMS-270 scraper. This scraper is well suited for large scale vinyl tile removal (VCT removal) projects. Black mastic removal will be necessary prior to polishing the concrete.
The vinyl tile (VCT) pattern will remain in the finished polished concrete floor after the black mastic is removed, leaving what is called “ghosting” in the polished concrete floor.
This is a picture of the floor after vinyl tile (VCT) and black mastic removal. Notice that the concrete is starting to shine at this point…even without silicate densifiers.
This floor has been polished to an 800 grit using Titus’ proprietary procedures. Titus takes several additional steps to insure our floors have neither a chemical nor resin shine that will be short lived.
It is much easier to polish a flat floor than an older wavy floor. Titus specializes in older floor concrete polishing. We use proprietary processes to reach into the dips and waves of older concrete and remove the black mastic and create a beautiful, even finish on almost any polished concrete floor.
In spite of ghosting and wavy concrete, Titus has successfully removed the vinyl tile and black mastic and polished this old concrete to a beautiful long lasting finish that will require minimal maintenance for years to come.
Ultimately, polished concrete is an excellent alternative for VCT (vinyl tile) or LVT because of it’s beauty, reflectivity, and most importantly the cost savings. These savings are realized on a maintenance level because there is no need for re-waxing or replacement with concrete polishing like with VCT and the because the maintenance can be achieved with water only making this the ideal alternate to VCT.