The most durable commercial flooring options for high-traffic areas

All of the flooring in your facility will see its share of wear and tear &#; but high traffic areas are on another level.

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You may be looking to install a lobby flooring system to impress potential tenants and stand up to moisture, dirt and near-constant use.

Or perhaps you&#;re searching for a material that can meet cleanliness and safety standards in patient rooms and stand up to frequent rolling in of heavy medical equipment.

Regardless of your facility goals, there&#;s one necessary common denominator for these busy spaces: Durability.

While durability is always a consideration when selecting a flooring material, it&#;s an absolute must for high-traffic applications such as airport terminals, schools, hospitals and restaurants.

In this article, we&#;ll give you a complete rundown of six of the most durable commercial flooring materials based on cost, application and other major considerations. Using this as a guide for your materials search, you can achieve a flooring system that meets your aesthetic, cost and performance goals and stand up to heavy use.

Terrazzo: Upscale and LEED-friendly for large spaces

When it comes to durability in flooring, terrazzo is an obvious leader. Terrazzo can be made from a cement matrix, or an epoxy resin mixed with marble or recycled granite glass, and a wide choice of other aggregates.

And because terrazzo is one of the most aesthetically versatile products on the market, it&#;s perfect for incorporating custom logos and designs into your flooring. Terrazzo is used in situations where you want to impress: opry houses, showrooms, entranceways and high-end office spaces.

Although it&#;s incredibly durable and carries a low lifetime cost, its high upfront material and installation costs are prohibitive in lower budget applications. It must be poured in place, cured and then polished mechanically to achieve its signature shine. Generally speaking, terrazzo is not worth the cost in small rooms or sections of a building &#; the cost-per-square-foot actually increases as the space decreases. It&#;s recommended to allow a scope of at least 2,500 square feet to achieve a cost-efficient installation.

Overall, terrazzo is best suited for large, high-traffic areas such as airports or showrooms where the designer is aiming for a chic look. For upscale applications, this LEED-friendly flooring is about as durable as it gets.

Quarry tile: Industry standard for commercial kitchens

Quarry tile is proven to withstand spills, foot traffic and grease buildup, making it a first choice for many commercial kitchens. While porcelain tile works in terms of function for heavy-duty applications, quarry tile &#; made from hard-fired clay &#; is much cheaper and offers the same functionality and durability benefits. Quarry tile will last as long as you need, provided it&#;s installed properly to begin with and maintained properly throughout the lifetime of the flooring system.

It&#;s important to use the right materials &#; epoxy grout and thin-set adhesives &#; during installation. Although there are cheaper alternatives to epoxy grout, they&#;re not designed for high-traffic, hot water spills or grease buildup and will break down prematurely. To extend the usable life of your quarry tile system, ongoing maintenance and cleaning are key. Clean the floor daily and replace sections of flooring as they wear out.

Although it&#;s cost-effective, durable and easy to maintain, quarry tile doesn&#;t offer much design versatility. It&#;s typically laid in straight lines and comes in a limited range of colors. (Red is the most common color, but grey, tan and brown tiles are also available depending on whether more shale, feldspar or clay is used.) In the receiving and commercial areas where quarry tile is commonly found, however, function trumps form.

Check out our commercial kitchen guide to learn about all of the flooring products durable enough to withstand such a heavy-duty environment. You&#;ll learn more about the cost and performance of quarry tile, but also other durable options such as recycled PVC and epoxy flooring.

Choosing kitchen flooring materials for safety, durability and performance

Commercial kitchens have unique circumstances that make their floors a challenge. We created this product guide to highlight the three best available flooring material options for commercial kitchens.

Download our guide

Luxury vinyl tile (LVT): Achieve any look for busy common areas

In the past decade or so, luxury vinyl tile (LVT) has taken the flooring industry by storm. This resilient material is made up of three layers: A base layer composed of vinyl to provide dimensional stability, a digital graphic film (able to imitate practically any other material) and an outer wear layer.

LVT has proven to be durable enough for high-traffic hospital common areas and attractive enough for upscale restaurants. With a variety of products in every price point and design, LVT is one of the most versatile commercial flooring products on the market today.

While LVT probably isn&#;t suited for high-impact industrial or commercial kitchen environments, it&#;s plenty durable to withstand the foot traffic, abrasions and spills of any office, hospital or school application. Especially in comparison with other resilient flooring products, LVT is more flexible and aesthetically appealing for commercial applications.

Further, the design possibilities are endless. It&#;s available in a wide range of sizes, colors and patterns to mimic almost any material from ceramic tiles to hardwood to terrazzo, and everything in between. With LVT, you can achieve durability without sacrificing your aesthetic.

LVT has proven over time to be able to withstand heavy traffic loads common to commercial applications. In our experience, restaurants, offices and daycares only replace their LVT because they want to change the design &#; not because it wore out. And because LVT is much quicker to install and cheaper than many of the materials it imitates, it&#;s a good way to cut flooring costs in a commercial construction project.

To learn more about LVT, check out our quick-reference guide to commercial vinyl flooring products. It compares the cost, performance and design versatility of all of your vinyl flooring options, from LVT to vinyl composition tile and sheet vinyl. Download the guide today.

Reference guide to commercial vinyl flooring products
Take the guesswork out of vinyl product selection. This guide cuts through the noise, offering you quick takeaways about the pros, cons, price and performance of LVT, VCT and vinyl sheet flooring.

Download our guide

Epoxy flooring systems: Industrial-strength and versatile, too

Epoxy flooring is a cost-effective solution for a variety of applications &#; think of healthcare offices and food distribution warehouses. This flooring system is created by applying a thermosetting resin directly onto a moisture-treated concrete slab. The epoxy coating then prevents wear and tear due to abrasions, foot traffic and chemical spills.

Versatile and durable, epoxy is strong enough to serve as the flooring in manufacturing facilities and hangars, aesthetically appealing enough to find its way into retail spaces and sanitary enough for use in strict lab environments. Additionally, its ability to protect against staining, mold and odors has made it a vastly popular healthcare facility option as a LEED-certified product.

While epoxy flooring is designed for durability, it must be installed correctly to reap those benefits. The concrete needs to be cleaned and cracks patched with urethane prior to application of the epoxy coating. If applied before prepping, the epoxy is likely to peel or chip prematurely.

Finally, maintenance with daily sweeping and infrequent deep cleans should be sufficient to keep your epoxy flooring looking like new.

Carpet tiles: Easy install, easy replace

Carpet tiles are taking over the soft-surface flooring market due to their functionality advantages over broadloom carpets. While carpet tiles are more expensive than broadloom, carpet tile systems are easier to replace. For high-traffic areas especially, carpet tiles are your best soft-surface option &#; it&#;s much more cost-effective to replace a ruined carpet tile than it is to re-seam, re-stretch and replace an entire roll of broadloom.

With the rise of industrial-strength carpet tiles and water-resistant carpet tiles, concerns about spills and moisture have become less of an issue. Most carpet tile floors will adequately maintain their appearance with consistent vacuuming and cleaning, even under high traffic demands. And as sections wear out, the tiles are easily replaced &#; saving valuable time and money for your facility by avoiding a full-on replacement.

To learn more about the durable commercial carpet products on the market, check out our carpet buyer&#;s guide. It&#;ll give you all the information you need to select the right carpet product for your facility based on your budget and performance requirements.

Selecting carpet for your budget, interior design and facility environment

Selecting a carpet that matches your design vision, stands up to your facility environment and aligns with your budget is no small task. We&#;ve created this guide as a resource to help you make an informed carpet purchasing decision.

Download our guide

Rubber flooring: Safe and durable for hospitals and gyms

Not only is rubber flooring resistant to the wear-and-tear of heavy traffic loads &#; its cushioned design also prevents fatigue of employees and customers as they walk. It also reduces the volume of noise such as dumbbells dropping or carts rolling, prevents impact damage to the subfloor below and is slip-resistant, too.

While it&#;s easy to install and maintain, its &#;rubbery&#; smell will linger long after installation. And its lack of design and finishing options makes this more of a utilitarian product than an aesthetic one. Despite its drawbacks, rubber flooring is a great product for use in gyms, labs and hospitals due to its strength, durability and acoustic qualities.

Still have questions about durable flooring options?

In this article, we&#;ve shared the best commercial-rated flooring materials for use in high-traffic areas. But figuring out the best solution for your facility&#;s needs must take a variety of factors into consideration.

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We can help with that.

At Spectra Contract Flooring, we&#;ve installed nearly every type of commercial flooring across 400,000 installations and counting. We can walk you through your durable material options and help you select the right choice for your budget, design vision and environment. Start a conversation with a commercial flooring expert.

How to save money on commercial flooring: value engineering, better materials and smarter solutions

We&#;ve packed 350,000 projects worth of unbiased recommendations into this brief, no-nonsense guide. Read it to arm yourself with valuable negotiation insights, source the right materials at the best prices and cut through product hype.

Picking the right floor coating for your industrial facility can be a challenge. Epoxies are tried and true, but have some well-known shortcomings. Newer coatings like polyaspartics, polyurethanes, and polyureas sound promising, but they come with their own pros and cons

So how do you decide?

The truth is, there&#;s no &#;one size fits all&#; answer to this question. The best floor coating for you is going to depend on your specific circumstances:

• Do you have a high traffic facility?
• Is it climate-controlled?
• What corrosives are going to be present?
• Can you afford to shut down for a week while your coating cures?

READ MORE: High Solids Coatings: A Solution to VOC Regulations for Facility Managers

Once you answer these questions, the picture becomes a little clearer. 

Read on for our definitive guide to commercial floor coatings, and the situations in which each one excels &#; or falls short.

Epoxy coatings

Epoxy coatings are one of the most common heavy duty floor coatings, and it&#;s easy to see why; they&#;re durable and extremely resistant to everything from acids to oils. 

But they&#;re not without certain disadvantages. Epoxies tend to be brittle, which can make them vulnerable to extreme temperatures, and shifting in the substrate. They&#;re also vulnerable to certain substances, like lactic acid, or UV radiation, which can both degrade the appearance of an epoxy floor coating. They also tend to be very slick, so you&#;ll want to use an anti-slip additive if you&#;re applying your epoxy as flooring.

Application is another potential drawback, as an epoxy coating can take up to a week to fully dry. If you need a quick turnaround, epoxies are probably not for you. Still, it&#;s a versatile coating that&#;s great if you&#;re using it in a climate-controlled environment, and need a high degree of chemical resistance.

Self-leveling epoxies are also an exciting (albeit more expensive) option for certain projects. 

Polyurethane coatings

Polyurethane coatings give you a lot of the durability and resistance of an epoxy, along with greater flexibility and faster curing.

Polyurethane coatings can flex and bend, so if you&#;re using it on, say, a parking garage in a climate that sees huge swings in temperature, it&#;s much less likely than a conventional epoxy to crack as the substrate expands and contracts.

They&#;re also very resistant to substances like lactic acid, which makes them ideal for dairy or food preparation facilities. 

Polyurethane has another advantage over epoxies: These coatings have significantly lower viscosity than epoxies, which means you don&#;t necessarily need high-powered equipment to get the job done. 

As we touched on above, application and curing is faster than with an epoxy, but polyurethane application comes with its own unique challenges. Polyurethane is very sensitive to humidity during application, and the conditions during curing have to be tightly controlled, or the coating could be ruined. For that reason, many experts recommend that you get experts to apply your polyurethane coating, rather than attempt a DIY job. 

Polyurea coatings

Polyurea is a type of polyurethane coating that&#;s become increasingly popular, thanks to its quick application, excellent durability, and superior moisture resistance.

One of polyurea&#;s biggest advantages over a conventional polyurethane or epoxy coating is that it&#;s flexible, so if the material it&#;s bonded to expands or contracts (due to temperature changes, for example), polyurea can flex and bend with the material instead of cracking. 

Polyurea coatings also boast best-in-class UV resistance, and won&#;t fade at all if they&#;re exposed to sunlight; they also have an unmatched resistance to moisture. 

These characteristics have made polyurea one of the most popular coatings for garage floors, as well as in water systems, where they&#;re often used in pipelines. If you&#;re looking for something really tough, or something that&#;s specifically resistant to moisture or UV light, polyurea is the way to go.

Polyaspartic coatings

One of the newest and most promising entrants in the industrial coatings field is the polyaspartic coating. Polyaspartics are similar to polyurethane coatings, but have a few crucial differences.

One of the biggest advantages of a polyaspartic coating is that it goes on in a single coat, rather than the multiple coats required by epoxies and polyurethanes. That saves time and money, since it requires less material. And they cure very fast too&#; you can safely reenter a space within hours of application.

They&#;re also incredibly durable; they&#;re resistant to scratches, stains, and chemicals, and won&#;t degrade if exposed to sunlight or moisture. And because most polyaspartics are 100% solids, they emit little to no VOCs, meaning they&#;re environmentally friendly.

If polyaspartic coatings have any drawbacks, it&#;s that early polyaspartic coatings didn&#;t have great adhesion. After a few well-publicized system failures were chalked up to polyaspartics with poor adhesion, the coating was dogged by a bad reputation. However, the technology has come a long way since those days, and contemporary polyaspartics have adhesion that&#;s as good as any coating on the market. 

So what&#;s the best place to use polyaspartics? Well, because they&#;re usually zero VOC, they can be safely used in spaces with low ventilation, like railcars or storage tanks. And their superior durability and finish makes them great for high-traffic commercial floors, as in hotels, malls, or restaurants. Finally, if you&#;re under time constraints, the fact that they only require a single application, and cure very rapidly, can be a lifesaver. 

Tommy O&#;Shaughnessy is the owner of Industrial Paint and Protection Magazine, an outlet dedicated to helping facility managers, engineers, and contractors understand the world of industrial coatings. 

Contact us to discuss your requirements of heavy duty industrial flooring. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.