3 Retail Flooring Options

architecture - engineering - construction

3 Retail Flooring Options

May 30, 2023

Retail flooring is both simple and complex. On the one hand, doing a job for a retail client comes with many of the same requirements as other commercial flooring jobs, such as cleanability and the ability to withstand foot traffic.

On the other hand, retail often puts more emphasis on aesthetics than other commercial jobs—office blocks, for instance. After all, the point of a physical retail location is to attract customers inside and convince them that their particular products are worth buying. This means that the flooring, like other aspects of the premises, must be clean, distinctive, and attractive.

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Retail clients can offer some of the best opportunities for flooring contractors. These projects typically involve significant square footage, generous budgets, and the potential for follow-up projects—during a shopping mall renovation or location expansion, for example. But what are the best retail flooring options to propose to a client?

Here we look at three versatile retail flooring options suitable for locations like department stores, grocery stores, clothing stores, bookstores, and convenience stores.

Retail Flooring Needs

Durability

One of the key requirements of retail flooring is durability. Depending on the type of business, the floor may be subject to heavy foot traffic, shopping carts, moveable racks and rails, crates, furniture, and other objects.

There may be other special requirements too. Clients in cold-weather states, for example, might have walk-in customers that are regularly treading in snow and ice or even wearing sharp crampons on the soles of their boots. Such a situation would require exceptionally moisture-resistant and scratch-resistant flooring.

Maintenance

Another important consideration for retail flooring is its ability to be cleaned and maintained. Customers don’t treat retail environments like their own home: they’ll regularly tread dirt into a store, plus spillages are commonplace in grocery and hardware stores. Ultimately, retail flooring may need cleaning multiple times per day.

Because of this, the flooring needs to be easy to clean, typically with water, soap, or hard chemicals. Although some retail locations maintain carpeted areas for a sense of prestige or homeliness, hard floors without deep crevices are significantly easier to manage than soft or textured floors.

Design

One of the more unique requirements of retail flooring is its cosmetic appearance. While some retail environments like grocery stores will favor simplicity, others like boutique clothing stores may demand a more eye-catching and distinctive flooring choice.

Some retail clients may also request coloration of the flooring to match company branding, while others may specify a logo to be engraved or embedded within the floor.

Longevity

In addition to providing everyday durability via scratch resistance and impact resistance, retail flooring needs to maintain its appearance and integrity over time. In this regard, desirable characteristics may include UV resistance, which prevents the flooring from fading upon years of exposure to sunlight, and a strong underlayment.

Retail Flooring Options

Based on the four key requirements above, here we present three excellent retail flooring options suitable for a range of clients.

Polished Concrete

Polished concrete flooring—in which concrete surfaces are ground to a smooth finish and augmented with dyes and a topcoat—is an excellent option for retail flooring, especially in projects requiring above-average durability.

Advantages of polished concrete include a high level of toughness, that offers superior resistance to impact and scratches than wooden or LVT flooring, in addition to a smooth surface that can be easily cleaned. Besides coloration possibilities, polished concrete can also be engraved with text or the logo of the business.

Our Products

Duraamen provides several polished concrete systems suitable for retail flooring. One option is the spray-on Terrazzi system, which can be installed quickly and produces a smooth and fine finish with unlimited color options. Terrazzi is ideal for small and mid-size stores prioritizing aesthetics and budget.

Another option is the self-leveling Param 5500 system, which offers superior strength and moisture resistance, making it ideal for locations like grocery stores and hardware stores.

Metallic Epoxy

Smooth, strong, and easy to clean, epoxy flooring is a go-to flooring solution in the retail world, in part due to its reasonable cost. Such flooring is made up of several layers of epoxy, typically a primer, body, and topcoat.

Metallic epoxy flooring is a desirable subcategory of epoxy flooring that integrates real metallic particles suspended in the clear epoxy resin body coat, creating a vibrant and eye-catching look that can be tailored to look futuristic, retro, or anything in between. Metallic epoxy is ideal for luxury retail locations such as clothing stores, wineries, and jewelers.

Our Products

The Duraamen Lumiere metallic epoxy flooring system is a stylish, glasslike flooring solution that offers numerous practical advantages to complement its stunning appearance. Resistant to wear, abrasion, moisture, stains, and UV light, the three-part Lumiere system is as tough as it is artistic.

Decorative Quartz

Another option for contractors installing retail flooring is decorative quartz. A low-maintenance, low-cost alternative to terrazzo, decorative quartz is both durable and long-lasting.

Though not as strong as concrete or as eye-catching as metallic epoxy, decorative quartz may be considered an affordable third option that balances practicality with a distinctive appearance characterized by its speckle pattern. Tough and slip-resistant, urethane-based decorative quartz flooring is also highly resistant to bacterial growth, making it suitable for retail locations selling food products.

Our Products

To meet the needs of contractors working with retail clients such as convenience stores, Duraamen offers the Kwortz flooring system, which is comprised of quartz granules broadcast into urethane cement. The flooring—available in 15 colors—can be installed quickly and easily over a range of substrates and is easy to maintain once installed.

Conclusion

Polished concrete, metallic epoxy, and decorative quartz are three versatile and reliable retail flooring solutions. With the wide range of possible colorations and adjustments for each flooring type, these three options cover most of the possible retail flooring situations.

For advice on your next retail flooring job and to find the perfect solution for the client, contact Duraamen.

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Company: Duraamen Engineered Products Inc.