Concrete floors are almost always an option, yet it is often overlooked. Why are concrete floors the best choice? We’ll share the reasons why concrete floors are making a comeback and becoming a hallmark of modern construction.
The Engineering Advantages
One reason why concrete flooring solutions are so common is because they can work in almost any situation. You can lay concrete floors on uneven surfaces, and you’ll enjoy a flat concrete floor. Concrete floors can hide a sloping floor and made to meet a specific height requirement. You can create a permanent slope such as a handicap ramp or drain, and no other maintenance is required for it to work. You can put concrete floors in areas that are prone to spills and floods, whether it is a basement or working kitchen.
The Cost Benefit Analysis
Concrete floors are cost-effective. They’re cheaper than many of the alternatives in terms of installation costs. They will last for decades. They’ll require little maintenance. You’ll have to do the same sweeping as stone and tile floors require. You can choose to seal it with wax if you want to maintain a shine, but that is optional, not necessary.
This gives concrete floors a lower total lifetime cost than the alternatives. Colorants mixed into the concrete will last as long as the concrete, though you can choose to wax it or paint over it. If you have company logos or stone-like patterns stamped into the floor, it will stand more wear and tear than a tile or plastic alternative.
The Health Benefits
Concrete floors can be treated with chemical-resistant sealers to keep out cooking oils, bodily fluids and water. This makes them very sanitary even relative to tile floors. The sealed floors can be cleaned without heavy detergents or heavy duty scrubbing machines.
The concrete floor doesn’t give fleas or mold a place to hide, so it doesn’t have to be chemically treated to eradicate these health hazards. It won’t trap pet dander or pollen floating around in the air the way carpets do. You can have small carpets located in the room to add a little color or dampen sound, but those are easily picked up and washed.
The Green Choice
Concrete is a green choice. Concrete and cement are often locally produced. Forget wasting energy to import exotic hardwoods you think is sustainably produced; concrete already is. The concrete going into your new floor could contain mostly the rubble ground up and recycled on site from your old concrete floor. If you’re having a new concrete floor poured, the concrete and any supplementary materials like bits of stone could come from other local tear-down or redevelopment projects. You can incorporate old logos, bricks and pieces if you’d like.
Another point in favor of concrete floors is that they don’t have to be thrown out after most disasters. If your home floods, carpets and wood floors are likely ruined and end up in the trash. Unless the nasty water sat for weeks on an unsealed floor, you’ll just have to clean up the mess after the water drains away. They’re almost impossible to destroy, though you don’t want to have concrete floors poured over pipes you may need to access for maintenance.