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Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 14th, 2020, 9:47 am
by Super S
BatteryMill wrote: ↑September 14th, 2020, 6:30 am
From what I've heard, concrete conversions that stores like Walmart and Target have been doing are in order to facilitate robotic floor cleaning. Add to how tile cleaning has generally been difficult, and you see the decline in linoleum flooring. It's a tad shame, as there is also terrazzo.
One thing about the polished floors though...if a tile or two gets damaged it is fairly easy (assuming you have a supply of matching replacement tiles available) to remove and replace a section and blend it in. Polished floors can often become etched to the point that the floor has to be refinished, and due to the nature of how the floor is designed, can be tricky to blend in. I might also add that whatever thin finish they put on the polished concrete floors tends to look worn fairly quickly in many cases and needs more frequent polishing in some cases.
I have seen some epoxy based finishes that are used in new builds that hold up fairly well. The white floors in many WinCo stores come to mind.
Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 14th, 2020, 10:08 pm
by storewanderer
Super S wrote: ↑September 14th, 2020, 9:47 am
I have seen some epoxy based finishes that are used in new builds that hold up fairly well. The white floors in many WinCo stores come to mind.
I don't think the newest WinCos have those epoxy white cement floors. I could be wrong. I think they have moved to a polished concrete.
Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 15th, 2020, 7:24 am
by veteran+
Super S wrote: ↑September 14th, 2020, 9:47 am
BatteryMill wrote: ↑September 14th, 2020, 6:30 am
From what I've heard, concrete conversions that stores like Walmart and Target have been doing are in order to facilitate robotic floor cleaning. Add to how tile cleaning has generally been difficult, and you see the decline in linoleum flooring. It's a tad shame, as there is also terrazzo.
One thing about the polished floors though...if a tile or two gets damaged it is fairly easy (assuming you have a supply of matching replacement tiles available) to remove and replace a section and blend it in. Polished floors can often become etched to the point that the floor has to be refinished, and due to the nature of how the floor is designed, can be tricky to blend in. I might also add that whatever thin finish they put on the polished concrete floors tends to look worn fairly quickly in many cases and needs more frequent polishing in some cases.
I have seen some epoxy based finishes that are used in new builds that hold up fairly well. The white floors in many WinCo stores come to mind.
True..........but I do not often see those replacement tiles matching very well, especially as time goes by due to normal wear and tear.
Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 17th, 2020, 8:12 am
by BatteryMill
Super S wrote: ↑September 14th, 2020, 9:47 am
I have seen some epoxy based finishes that are used in new builds that hold up fairly well. The white floors in many WinCo stores come to mind.
As a question, does epoxy = terrazzo? I do know terrazzo was quite common in retail buildings before the 2000s.
veteran+ wrote: ↑September 15th, 2020, 7:24 am
True..........but I do not often see those replacement tiles matching very well, especially as time goes by due to normal wear and tear.
I will argue that the end result of tile replacement can come out neater than concrete, which is mostly a patchwork job. Even a Walmart I know, which converted its floors to concrete, has a bumpy collage of floors in certain parts of the store.
Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 17th, 2020, 5:26 pm
by pseudo3d
BatteryMill wrote: ↑September 17th, 2020, 8:12 am
Super S wrote: ↑September 14th, 2020, 9:47 am
I have seen some epoxy based finishes that are used in new builds that hold up fairly well. The white floors in many WinCo stores come to mind.
As a question, does epoxy = terrazzo? I do know terrazzo was quite common in retail buildings before the 2000s.
veteran+ wrote: ↑September 15th, 2020, 7:24 am
True..........but I do not often see those replacement tiles matching very well, especially as time goes by due to normal wear and tear.
I will argue that the end result of tile replacement can come out neater than concrete, which is mostly a patchwork job. Even a Walmart I know, which converted its floors to concrete, has a bumpy collage of floors in certain parts of the store.
My Walmart had tiles originally and after 15 years of use, they really looked bad, so when the store expanded to a Supercenter, the tiles got replaced. After another six or seven years, though, the tiles got torn out for polished concrete. Since Walmart doesn't have kiosks and other features like H-E-B that require piping, the polished concrete looked a lot better than H-E-B's did.
Terrazzo I mostly associated with institutional buildings (even in the 1980s, Randhurst Mall got its terrazzo replaced with tiles because of that reason), and the only terrazzo, or terrazzo-style flooring I've seen is in Publix, and occasionally Albertsons perimeters from the late 1990s.
Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 17th, 2020, 6:32 pm
by storewanderer
pseudo3d wrote: ↑September 17th, 2020, 5:26 pm
Terrazzo I mostly associated with institutional buildings (even in the 1980s, Randhurst Mall got its terrazzo replaced with tiles because of that reason), and the only terrazzo, or terrazzo-style flooring I've seen is in Publix, and occasionally Albertsons perimeters from the late 1990s.
Thrifty Drug Stores heavily used terrazzo floors in their stores in the 70's and into the 80's. At this point most of those have been covered up with tiles.
These floors stayed looking really good over the years, compared to the rest of the Thrifty Store interior (walls, aisle hangers, shelves, counters) which aged horribly.
I also think I've seen some Hy Vees with terrazzo floors but newer locations are on polished concrete.
Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 17th, 2020, 7:19 pm
by Super S
BatteryMill wrote: ↑September 17th, 2020, 8:12 am
As a question, does epoxy = terrazzo? I do know terrazzo was quite common in retail buildings before the 2000s.
The WinCo floors I am referring to are plain white, it looks like a finish that was applied when the store was first built. I would guess it is epoxy as it covers the slabs in sections, you can see the edges of the slabs in the store but it is clear that it is a paint of some sort and not tile.
Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 17th, 2020, 7:53 pm
by klkla
storewanderer wrote: ↑September 17th, 2020, 6:32 pmThrifty Drug Stores heavily used terrazzo floors in their stores in the 70's and into the 80's. At this point most of those have been covered up with tiles.
A lot of grocery and drug stores used terrazzo in the 50's and 60's because the maintenance costs are very low and it lasts forever. It started to lose it's appeal in the 70's because the colors chosen in the 50's and 60's were no longer fashionable. The cheaper tiles and faux wood that have been used since then are cheaper to maintain and install but don't last as long.
Does any other store besides Publix still use terrazzo?
Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 17th, 2020, 9:55 pm
by Bakeragr
I think every Dierberg’s store in the chain (St. Louis and Lake of the Ozarks) has terrazzo floors and they always look great.
Re: Retail design trends
Posted: September 17th, 2020, 11:20 pm
by storewanderer
This Thrifty had a white Terrazzo floor throughout the store then a black one in liquor.
https://s196.photobucket.com/user/Store ... ort=3&o=11
It was unfortunately all covered up in the Wellness remodel. Certainly not removed. Perhaps it will reappear some day.
