Why Concrete Surface Hardeners/Densifiers Are Essential for Warehouse Flooring

Your warehouse floors might not attract much attention, but they have to withstand a lot of punishment! This includes high traffic from workers with heavy-duty boots, repeated impacts from heavy machinery such as forklifts, as well as vehicles like trucks and large cars, dropped tools with sharp edges and spills from all sorts of chemicals and oils.

With all these impacts, it’s no wonder you might start to find chips, cracks and discolouration on your concrete warehouse floors over time. But rather than having to bother with constant repairs, consider using a concrete hardener to strengthen your warehouse floor instead. A quality concrete surface hardener will transform your warehouse floor into a strong, durable surface that can resist all sorts of pressures and forces.

Here’s the lowdown on why concrete surface hardeners are a great idea for the floor of your warehouse.

A Brief Explanation Of What Concrete Surface Hardeners Do

Before we dive in, here is a quick brief on how concrete hardener is applied and how it works to make your concrete floor surface stronger. 

• Once the fresh concrete has cured, the concrete surface hardener is applied to the surface and scrubbed into the concrete, penetrating the open pores and pits.
• Concrete hardener contains silica, and the base concrete surface is littered with calcium hydroxide, also known as free lime. These two materials react when they come into contact, becoming a much harder and denser substance.
• Because it has filled the micro-pits and pores in the concrete, the hardener transforms the concrete floor from a rough, uneven surface into a smooth and very hard one.

You should always make sure your concrete has completely dried before adding hardener, as it leaves more open pores for the hardener to fill. Waiting also causes more free lime to be present on the concrete surface, giving the hardener more to bond to and giving you a more reactive surface that can potentially be hardened.

Here are five reasons you should treat your concrete warehouse floor with a concrete surface hardener.

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1. Hardeners Provide Strength And Stability

A concrete warehouse floor that has been hardened can hold a greater weight than an untreated floor. This makes warehouses that frequently host heavy vehicles and machinery the perfect place to use concrete surface hardeners.

Because it penetrates into the top layer of the concrete itself, concrete floor hardeners actually make the concrete itself stronger and give it long-term durability, as opposed to a seal or varnish that adds a layer on top while leaving the concrete itself at the same strength. 

By hardening the zone most exposed to general wear and tear (the surface and just underneath it), you can extend the life of your warehouse’s concrete floor and prevent the need for floor replacement for many years to come.

2. Hardeners Make The Floor Resistant To Damage

By strengthening your warehouse floor with a concrete surface hardener, you not only make it last longer but also make it more resistant to damage. And in a busy workplace, you’d be surprised at how much damage your floor will need to withstand!

Hardened industrial floors will be able to handle impact forces from dropped tools, sudden influxes of weight from pallets or machinery, edge damage from doors and vehicles and even corrosive damage from some spilled chemicals.

A hardened floor can resist cracking, chipping, shattering and abrasion from all sorts of external forces. This will keep it looking good for longer, as well as eliminate the danger of an uneven floor for staff in the warehouse. You won’t need to worry about using concrete fillers to repair these potential damages either, saving you time and money so you can focus on your business.

3. A Hardened Floor Will Produce Less Dust

Dust is a constant bother in warehouses–you’ll find it on shelves, your equipment and any desks and computers you may have set up on the floor. This is because a raw concrete floor has a rough surface that can be easily worn down. These rougher parts are ground into dust by heavy foot traffic and machinery, which is then lifted into the air by movement or ventilation.

By applying a hardener to your warehouse floor, you are creating a smooth finish that can resist producing dust. This will keep your warehouse looking cleaner and lessen the time needed for cleaning, while also helping maintain your machinery, as you won’t need to worry as much about dust making its way into the delicate workings of your technology.

Concrete dust is also bad to breathe in. Short-term effects can include a constant cough and shortness of breath, but long-term exposure can lead to more severe conditions like silicosis and lung cancer. By using a concrete hardener, you can help prevent these health problems from becoming a danger to the people in your warehouse.

Prevent any concrete-related injuries by investing in personal safety supplies from a trusted supplier like Australian Slate-Crete Supplies.

4. Hardened Warehouse Floors Are Easier To Clean

A rough and raw concrete surface will be much harder to clean than one that has been hardened. By applying a protective hardener to your concrete, you transform the top surface into a smooth surface that can resist absorbing grease and chemical spills, preventing it from becoming easily stained.

By filling the pores on the surface of the concrete, you also remove any places where dirt and dust can hide. This makes a hardened concrete floor easy to sweep or mop clean when needed. You can even vacuum them, as the uniform surface won’t scratch or damage the bottom of your vacuum like a raw concrete floor would.

Keep your concrete surfaces clean with the range of concrete cleaning products from Australian Slate-Crete Supplies.

5. Hardeners Can Be Used To Upgrade Floors Visually

Concrete hardener can be used for more than just a durability upgrade – it can also make your warehouse floor look nicer. Coloured concrete hardener works and is applied in exactly the same way as regular hardener, but can also add a brand new colour to your plain grey concrete.

Hardening your warehouse floor can transform the space into an area that is more enjoyable for staff to work in. You may like to choose light colour shades to make the space feel brighter and fresher or go for a bold colour that matches your company’s logo.

If you tend to work with many viscous materials, like oils, water or mediums, you can even choose darker colours that will hide spills on your concrete flooring. Or choose a stencil to create an eye-catching design that will turn your plain warehouse floor into a bespoke piece of art.

For more information on the beautifying effects of concrete colour supplies in Melbourne, check out this blog on How to Enhance Your Project with Coloured Concrete Hardener.

You can buy beautiful concrete stencils in Melbourne at Australian Slate-Crete Supplies in various colours.

Discover Quality Concrete Hardeners at Australian Slate-Crete Supplies

Do you want to apply a quality concrete hardener to your warehouse floor? Australian Slate-Crete Supplies can help! As the most trusted supplier of concrete hardener in Melbourne, we are delighted to offer you high-quality plain and coloured concrete hardeners for use in warehouses, homes and businesses. Whenever you need concrete, we have the concrete supplies in Australia you can rely on to get the job done.

Get in touch with the team at Australian Slate-Crete Supplies by calling 03 9408 7722 or filling out an online enquiry form. And if you need more information on the amazing properties of this product, make sure to read our Comprehensive Guide to Concrete Hardeners. No matter your needs, we are delighted to offer you some of the best high-quality concrete hardener in Australia!