There are two national vendors (that I am aware of) that specialize in these conversions. They do use chemicals, the thick sealant like substance is called a densifier. If this is done correctly the floor will remain shiny for many years if not indefinitely as long as it is kept clean, swept and mopped. Dirt is abrasive and if the floor isn't cleaned often enough it will ruin the finish as every footstep is like sandpaper to that glassy finish. There is a myth about labor savings with these floors; the only labor avoided is the dreaded strip and wax or recoat since there isn't any wax at all. They must otherwise be cleaned just as often as linoleum, and spills of chemicals must be cleaned up very quickly or they will permanently stain the cement. The conversion company usually comes back out once or twice a year and polishes the floor with a less abrasive diamond pad then buffs it to shine with a lighter densifyer chemical.Alpha8472 wrote: ↑March 22nd, 2023, 2:59 am They are supposed to use diamond pads to grind concrete down so it shines. When a Walmart near me got a concrete floor conversion from tile about 5 years ago, it was really shiny at first. Over the years the surface got scratched up, so now it is very dull.
Stripping concrete with chemicals and then waxing can cause a whitening effect on concrete. The abrasive pads to remove wax will cause further damage to concrete that wax cannot fix. It is a vicious cycle.
The concrete needs to be polished with diamond pads and sealed with a breathable product. No wax is needed after that.
You actually don't want a sealant to be used unless it's a special application. Sealants have to be removed and reapplied every few years in a retail environment because of all the cart wheels and such. It's possible the Walmart described as shiny when installed but scratched up now used a epoxy coat which generally isn't used much in retail either. The other problem with sealants is if there is any kind of mineral salt that leaches through the concrete then it will be trapped between the sealant and the concrete, looks like white mold growing on the floor. If there are moisture issues leading to the leaching and it's not sealed they can just scrub the salts right off and the floor will still look great.
I've heard the linoleum glue line issue is caused by a specific type of adhesive that seeps into the concrete like oil. If that adhesive was used there is no way to get the lines out. If it is regular adhesive the lines come out when the diamond polisher grinds off the top millimeter or two of concrete.
I have also seen very old Costco stores where they have sent one of these vendors out to rehabilitate the floors and they look "like new" with incredible glass like shine when they are finished.
The project to remove the linoleum and convert seems to be rolling around Walmart and is not necessarily done at the same time as store remodels. They have to move all the gondolas and put them back. Usually the stores do the gondola moves, not the vendor to save money. I have seen several California Walmart conversions that look really good; usually this type of work is avoided here outside of remodels because of the seismic anchoring requirements so it's best done at the same time in CA.
The vendors are Diamashield and Questmark, they have information about how this works on their website.