The art of concrete: take a walk on the wild side; pour an easy-care, attractive floor.

• Author: Maynard, Barbara
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

When the new concrete floor of Gary Byers' airplane hangar froze last year, he had a couple options. With the top one-quarter of an inch crumbling from frost damage, he could have replaced the entire 4,200-square-foot floor at a cost of about $100,000. Instead, for approximately $40,000, he hired Concrete Polishing and Artistic Staining to repair the surface. So far, he is impressed with the results.

Polished and stained concrete has evolved in recent years. Gone are the days of repeated waxing and worrying about scratching the surface. Today, Jim Vermillion, owner of Concrete Polishing and Artistic Staining in Chugiak, said diamonds are used to grind and polish the surface, followed by an application of a chemical hardener and densifier. The final surface is durable, reflective and easy to maintain.

"I tried to scratch it. I tried to mess up the shine before I used it and you can't do it," Byers said. "It really chemically hardens the concrete so that it's really hard to scratch."

The cost to install polished concrete varies with the desired options, such as intricate staining and inlays, but is generally less than terrazo or tile and more than vinyl or epoxy overlay. Several concrete polishing businesses operate in Alaska. Vermillion said he does not aim to be the least expensive, only the best.

"We are not the lowest-cost service provider, we are the highest-value service provider," he said.

EASY CARE

Because polished concrete floors are low maintenance and do not require waxing, over the life of the floor they can result in significant savings in chemical and labor costs, compared with other options.

Byers said the smoothness of his floor saves him a lot of cleanup time.

"It used to take me about six hours to clean this thing," he said. "I can muck it out now in about 45 minutes. It's so smooth that I can use a 4-foot-wide janitor's broom, and it cleans it right off."

While some polished concrete floors can be slippery, Vermillion says his are not, thanks to a product he uses that is certified by the National Floor Safety Institute as high traction.

With their high durability and low maintenance, polished concrete floors are not just for industrial applications such as Byers' hangar. Colorful stains and intricate inlays can customize the surface for results that are as beautiful as they are practical. In the new MatSu Career Center in Wasilla, Vermillion did 16,000 square feet of polished concrete, including 9,000...