What is the difference between the concrete floors used in a place of residence, a retail store or an industrial, warehouse-type setting? Virtually nothing, with the exception of the weight conditions of the concrete, along with how flat the slabs need to be.
For industrial and commercial purposes, a contractor has unique ways to place and finish the concrete to comply with requirements for surface hardness, colour, and finish.
Take Wal-Mart, for instance: the company has specific guidelines for their concrete floors that stipulate the details of surface densities, colour, and the specifications of their hard-troweled finish.
Standard Flatness Measurements
Ever wonder how standardised requirements for how flat and level slabs of concrete came to be? Previously, flatness of a slab was not standardised, so a technician could measure a slab required to be a quarter inch thick of any given length without being extremely precise.
This could unsurprisingly lead to scenarios where a technician might use a twisted 10-foot beam trying to measure the space between the floor and the straightedge, and then conclude the floor is faulty!
Nowadays, we thankfully have much more precise ways of measuring flatness as well as levelness: using F-numbers along with ACI 302.1R, the Guide for Concrete Floor and Slab Construction, we have a way to apply various specifications in whatever circumstance the concrete floor is being installed.
Grading and Suspending Floors
To complicate matters, concrete floors can be built on a grade, or even suspended. The latter type typically appears on metal decking comprised of corrugated sheet metal with a structural steel support. Naturally, maintaining rigorous standards for not only the levelness, but also the flatness of the slab is a highly complex and difficult engineering and architectural process due to the deflection of the decks and frames under the mass of the concrete.
We are the leading concrete flooring contractors in the UK, offering outstanding concrete finishing results with every project. For more information about our services, contact our team today on 01590 676 585.