Great Durability

     One of the best qualities of decorative concrete flooring, such as an acid stained concrete floor or stained concrete overlay, is its resistance to wear and tear or decay.  With compressive strengths usually in excess of 4,000 pounds per square inch, stained concrete floors do not wear out.  Unlike other floor coverings, they will not warp, buckle, disbond, or grow mold, and installed properly, decorative concrete finishes will not chip, peel, stain, discolor, or fade.  All this means that your kids, pets, visitors, or customers are going to have a hard time damaging your beautiful floor, and you won't ever have to have it removed or replaced.

Elegance & Beauty

     With the proper designwork, decorative concrete floors exude a beauty and elegance unsurpassed by any other floor covering.  This is because concrete's receptivity to coloring methods, and its ability to be cut, patterned and impressed, make it possible to produce near exact replicas of even the most expensive of building materials:  granite, marble, travertine, sandstone, and slate; as well as more common materials, such as brick, cobblestone, and even wood.  This can be done without all the cutting, lifting, and heavy labor that is normally associated with using these materials.  Even a simple one-color acid stained concrete application brings a unique style and touch to a basement or commercial floor that makes it stand out from the ordinary and generate admiration on the part of guests and customers.

Energy Savings

     Another great benefit of using decorative concrete flooring for your home or business is the result in energy savings.  This is due to the “thermal mass” property of concrete, which means its high capacity to absorb, store, and slowly release heat and coolness.  Concrete thermal mass moderates indoor temperature swings and reduces the load on heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment.  The benefits of thermal mass are greatest in northern climates, like Illinois, where the outdoor temperature fluctuations are greatest.  This is important because floors are the second highest source of thermal mass in a building, accounting for approximately 30-40%.  

      Energy savings from thermal mass, however, go unrealized if the concrete is unexposed. Carpet and hardwoods, for example, have very low degrees of thermal mass.  But by using acid stained concrete or a decorative concrete overlay for your indoor flooring, you tap into the full potential of thermal mass.   Annual savings are estimated at between 7% and 20% annually, depending on the percentage of concrete flooring used for the overall flooring of the building.  With natural gas prices rising 10% annually since 2003, this is a very tangible and real source of savings for your business or household.  Two great ways of enhancing these savings even more are to use radiant heating in your concrete or to use decorative concrete overlays on the wood sub-floors in your home.

Easy Maintenance

     No floor is maintenance free, but some require less care than others.  Carpet requires frequent vacuuming and occasional shampooing; tile requires careful attention to accumulation of dirt in the grout.  But with a durable concrete sealer, decorative concrete floors require only light maintenance to maintain their initial appearance indefinitely.  This means sweeping, vacuuming, or dust mopping as necessary, and cleaning and re-waxing or buffing only periodically, depending on the amount of foot traffic and proximity to exterior entrances.  Waxing may sound labor intensive, but an acid stained concrete floor of up to 1,500 square feet can easily be refinished in 15-20 minutes.  You can find our detailed, specific recommendations for the maintenance of decorative concrete flooring here: 

Enhanced Indoor Air Quality

     Four of of the primary sources of poor indoor air quality are:  1) allergens, such as dust, mites, and mildew; 2) retained moisture and dampness; 3) odors, such as from smoke, personal care items, or cleaning agents; and 4) volatile organic compounds (VOC's) emitted by building materials.  All of these are fostered by the use of carpeting, while moisture and VOC's are also often a problem with wood and tile installations.  But a decorative concrete floor is different.  Acid stained concrete fosters good indoor air quality.  It allows moisture to readily evaporate.  It provides no place for dust mites to hide or food for mildew to grow.  It does not store odors.  And an acid stained concrete floor may be installed using a concrete sealer that contains no, or very low levels of VOC's.

Unsurpassed Water Resistance

     Water is one of the most corrosive elements in our world.  There isn't much that can resist its damaging effects.  It causes steel to rust, wood and drywall to warp and rot, and enables bacteria to flourish.  It causes floor coverings, such as carpet to grow mold, tile to discolor or delaminate, and wood to buckle.  But with decorative concrete, it's a different story.  Properly designed and installed acid stained concrete and decorative concrete overlays are largely unaffected by water.  Moisture may pass into and through them but leaves no lingering effects.  This means that decorative concrete floors are uniquely equipped to withstand both the dampness commonly found in basements and the flooding that may come from a severe storm.

Affordability

     Depending on the size of the project, condition of the concrete slab, and complexity of the design, the pricing of decorative concrete flooring can range between $4-$6 per square foot using existing concrete, or between $8-$11 per square foot using a concrete overlay.  The important points to note here are that  decorative concrete flooring is almost always considerably less than the material it mimics (e.g., marble and other forms of natural stone); and basic applications, such as acid staining, are also usually notably less than competing traditional alternatives, such as quality carpets, ceramic or porcelain tiles, and hardwood or wood laminates.  There is no other flooring media that provides such a high end look at such an affordable cost.