New floors for old

Described by its Swedish originators as the 'floor of the future', the concrete 'superfloor' has already taken off in mainland Europe and the USA. Having had a slower start in the UK it now seems to be catching on fast. The patented system includes a range of purpose-engineered grinding machines, the largest achieving up to 50Om^sup 2^ a day in concrete. Grinding removes the top few millimetres of concrete and exposes the aggregate. Following impregnation, fine grinding, polishing and sealing the result is a hard, long-life industrial floor that is maintenance-free and environmentally friendly.

As HTC's exclusive UK agent, Nimbus supplies the special HTC machines, accessories and consumables, as well as a specialist back-up service to its customers. Working closely with HTC, Nimbus has also developed a range of metal bond diamond segments to cover the full range of coarse to fine grinding. Recently, the Nimbus segments were put to the test during a challenging floor refurbishment contract at the world-famous Brands Hatch racing circuit. The new, upgraded concrete floor forms part of a high-profile, specialist multi-sports outlet at the Brands Hatch venue.

Industrial floor transformation

In four working days, Kent-based Contech UK used the system to transform a 15-year-old industrial floor into 250m^sup 2^of ground and polished 'superfloor'. For the bulk of the work Contech employed an HTC 7.5kW, three-phase 650 machine, supplied by Nimbus, commencing with 25-mesh diamond segments and progressing through to micron-sized diamond segments using six progressively finer grades.

The original floor had been laid using a Kentish flint aggregate and the mix had not been particularly well batched. Consequently, there were areas of high-density aggregate and, to compound the problem, the floor had been painted several times over the years. It took around two days to remove up to four layers of paint and achieve a flat, uniform ground surface good enough to start preparing the 'superfloor'.

Improved surface finish

As opposed to Contech's usual dry grinding technique, the company elected to use a wet grinding method in the painted areas in order to increase removal rate, as well as reducing subsequent polishing time by improving surface finish. In addition to the specialist contractor's own professional expertise, the selection of diamond segments played an important part in achieving the required result. Using its proven expertise in diamond toolmaking, Nimbus was able to produce segments specially tailored to the particular application. The specialist multi-sports outlet at Brands Hatch, AdrenalinX, is happy with the result. The original rough concrete floor, coated with several layers of old paint, has been transformed. The flint aggregate has been exposed and an overall sheen has been achieved on the surface, making the environment appear larger and brighter.

Concrete floor preparation

One of the UK's longest established specialist flooring contractors, Quest Industrial Services, has a fleet of ten HTC machines, which enables the company to tackle a full range of flooring demands. In a recent contract the company used its machines to grind 12,00Om^sup 2^ of hard concrete floor slab to prepare for latex and vinyl overlays. This challenging project involved the removal of up to 20mm of particularly difficult concrete in order to achieve the required level profile.

Concluding remarks

The list of successes for the system has grown steadily in recent times and the treatment has shown itself to be quicker and cost-effective compared with more traditional options.