For industrial and commercial spaces, it’s important to choose a flooring system that offers durability and functionality without exorbitant costs.
Polished concrete and epoxy are prized for these qualities; they’re tough, customizable flooring systems with low installation and maintenance costs. Whether to choose polished concrete or epoxy flooring is a complicated question—one that we’re going to help you answer.
Here’s a comparison between the two flooring systems on five points: Affordability, durability and longevity, aesthetics, installation complexity, and comfort:
Affordability
Both epoxy flooring and polished concrete flooring are affordable flooring options; their installation costs are relatively low compared to some other forms of flooring, and their ongoing maintenance costs are minimal.
Typically, it costs more to install epoxy floors than it does to install polished concrete floors. Epoxy flooring has material costs that aren’t present with polished concrete flooring—where in ideal circumstances, you are simply mechanically honing or grinding an existing concrete floor while adding a densifier/sealer.
Polished concrete offers a subtle advantage when it comes to affordability: It can be reflective, so you’ll need fewer lights to illuminate any room with polished concrete floors. Depending on colour and type of epoxy or resinous flooring you choose, it can also be reflective.
Durability and Longevity
Polished concrete flooring and epoxy flooring both offer excellent longevity and durability. Here are some factors to consider:
- Epoxy flooring lasts for 10 to 20 years.
- Polished concrete flooring lasts for 20 to 30 years.
- Epoxy floors can offer a chemically resistant surface.
- Both flooring systems require minimal maintenance and upkeep.
- Both flooring systems can stand up to heavy foot traffic and vehicle traffic.
Epoxy floors are often the best choice in areas where high levels of chemical resistance are important; the food and beverage industry, laboratories, and other places where chemicals are frequently used are well served by epoxy flooring.
Aesthetics
Whether you opt for an epoxy floor or a polished concrete floor, you’ll get an attractive, aesthetically pleasing flooring system.
Both are fully customizable flooring systems; through staining and colouring, polished concrete floors can feature logos, graphics, coloured pathways, and more. Long gone are the times when polished concrete only looked like one thing—the brightness and sheen of polished concrete can now be combined with any aesthetic flourishes you could want. You can add coloured glass or stones to the concrete to add colours as well.
Epoxy has long been known as a versatile material that can be coloured and transformed in any number of different ways; it’s endlessly customizable.
Installation Complexity
Both epoxy and polished concrete flooring solutions are quite difficult to install, especially in a large industrial or commercial space. Installation should only be handled by professionals to ensure the integrity, longevity, aesthetics, and safety of the flooring system. Depending on how large the area is, you can expect installation to take a few days to a week for either flooring systems.
Comfort
Concrete floors and epoxy floors aren’t known for providing high levels of comfort; they can both become cold and both are sturdy and rigid. Radiant heating can be used to keep floors warmer.
Both systems provide a smooth and durable surface that can be made slip-resistant for added safety and comfort. Polished concrete and epoxy both tend to amplify noise—if that’s a concern, consider adding materials that can absorb sound to the surrounding walls.
Generally, both epoxy and polished concrete floors offer a similar anti-slip resistance as tile. The more slip resistance added to epoxy, different cleaning approaches may need to be taken.
Get Flooring Done With TCF West
The choice between polished concrete and epoxy flooring is complex; both are durable, long-lasting, affordable, and aesthetically pleasing. The decision will revolve around the specific needs of your business (such as chemical resistance) and your aesthetic goals.
Whether you’re looking for a new epoxy coating for your floor or want us to polish a concrete surface to create the perfect polished concrete floor, we can help. We offer epoxy installation and concrete polishing throughout Canada. Contact us today.
