80,000 Sq Ft Warehouse
Mechanical Concrete Polish

Live warehouse. 80,000 sq ft. No shutdown.

An Atlanta-based regional distribution operator needed its existing concrete slab rehabilitated — not replaced. The floor had years of forklift abuse: gouges from loaded pallet jacks, oil oxidation at dock approaches, surface profile inconsistent across zones. The client had ruled out epoxy — they had used it on a previous facility and faced a 3-year recoat cycle due to tire tracking and chemical oxidation from battery-charging stations. They wanted a long-term solution that could be phased around live operations.

The constraint was severe: the facility ran two 10-hour shifts and couldn't take a full shutdown. The polish work had to be sequenced around dock activity — north half first, then south, with forklift corridors kept operational between zones. A tight 6-week window before the facility's annual peak season began.

Phased nights. Joint fill. Lithium densifier. 800-grit final pass.

We broke the 80,000 sq ft into six zones (approximately 13,000 sq ft each) and worked exclusively night-shift to avoid all forklift traffic. Each zone followed the same sequence: 30-grit metal bond grind to flatten and expose aggregate, medium patch with semi-rigid epoxy to fill gouges and address pop-outs, then 60- and 120-grit transition grinds to smooth the fill.

Joint fill was next: all control joints and static cracks were routed, cleaned, and filled flush with the slab using a semi-rigid polyurea joint filler — critical for forklift traffic where uneven joints chew wheels and suspension. After fill cure, we ran 200-grit and 400-grit resin pads to bring the surface to CSP 3 profile.

Densifier application (lithium-silicate, applied at saturation rate per ACI 302) was followed by guard coat — lithium-hardened seal in a 50/50 dilution to close the surface without adding gloss that creates wet-look slip hazards. The final pass was 800-grit resin, producing a flat matte finish with a measured Coefficient of Friction (COF) of 0.72 — above the 0.5 threshold for industrial floors per ANSI A137.1 and OSHA 1910 requirements.

We delivered the floor in five weeks — one week ahead of the peak season deadline. No night-shift noise complaints from neighboring tenants. No forklift downtime.

No downtime. No odors. 10-year TCO advantage over epoxy.

The facility opened to full forklift operations on the night of completion — no cure time required, no VOCs off-gassing into a live warehouse. Facility managers noted immediate improvement in lighting reflectivity (the matte polish reflects 40% more ambient light than the prior coated slab, reducing supplemental lighting costs), and dock supervisors reported cleaner tire tracking cleanup compared to the previous epoxy floor.

Cost comparison over 10 years: a polished concrete system (initial polish plus annual burnish maintenance at $0.08/sq ft) totals approximately $1.28/sq ft over a decade. A 100% solids epoxy system with expected recoat at year 3 and year 7 plus periodic topcoat burnish runs $2.80–$3.40/sq ft. Polished concrete delivers the equivalent performance at under half the 10-year TCO — and with no shutdown required for future maintenance passes.