WINNER OF THE 2016 CONCRETE SURFACES POLISHING AWARD FOR THE BEST EDUCATIONAL PROJECT
Desco is proud to announce that we are the 2016 Concrete Surfaces Polishing Award recipient for the best educational concrete polishing project for our work at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Centre for Applied Technology, NAIT CAT, in Edmonton, Alberta. This is the third year in a row that Desco has won an award for our concrete polishing after winning in the best commercial project category in both 2015 and 2014. Desco is the only award recipient in Canada this year.
The NAIT CAT is a centre of excellence for simulated learning, which allows students to experience real-world situations without leaving the classroom or lab. In simulation labs, students receive hands-on training in a controlled, safe and cost-effective learning environment that integrates leading technology, equipment, and business processes. The flagship facility has a LEED Silver certification. Polished concrete flooring, a sustainable finish, is in high traffic areas.
The concrete floors have radiant heating in floating concrete slabs on top of a structural concrete slab. Large samples of the floor assemblies were constructed on-site using various mix designs and finished to different depths and finishes. All of the samples were cast-in-place on top of the structural concrete slabs before being removed so the final flooring could be installed. Desco ground the concrete to expose large aggregate and polished to high gloss sheen. Due to radiant heating lines installed in the floating concrete slab, there were a significant amount of control joints and expansion joints to accommodate for the changing temperatures in the concrete. VersaFlex SL 75 filled the control joints full depth and VersaFlex SL 60 filled the expansion joints. The VersaFlex products colour matched to the concrete. Penetrating concrete dye mimics the angular architectural details in the cafeteria. The central walkway of the project featured dyed patterns to mirror the rectilinear column design.
Desco used a 98% solids proprietary urethane structural tinted grout to fill all surface voids and cracks, Pentra-Sil (HD) as a densifier, Ameripolish Surelock Dye in coloured designs, and Pentra-Finish (HG) as a stain resistant sealer. We colour matched the grout to the concrete floor.
The structural columns have little access between them. Desco polished this tiny space to match the adjacent floor as a design detail with unique tooling and equipment. Polishing the small space was challenging since the tooling was only slightly smaller than the gap. We could not have done this without our crafts people.
Desco installed ADA compliant high-traction strips at the top of one of the stairwells. These high traction strips were cut by hand after the polishing process was completed and filled with black oxide and a 100% solids polyaspartic resin.
Concrete Construction magazine is a trade specific magazine for the residential and commercial design and construction industry. This is the sixth year the magazine has hosted the competition for the best in concrete polishing around the world. Candidates for this year’s competition came from a wide variety of places, including Australia, Canada, and across the United States.
PROJECT DETAILS
- Project Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Flooring Contractor: Desco Coatings of Alberta Ltd.
- Architect/designer: Stantec Architecture
- General contractor: Clark Builders
- Amount of polished concrete: 37,500 ft²
- Size of building/project: 555,000 ft²
If you would like to find out more about concrete polishing or if you would like to contact us with regards to a commercial concrete polishing project, please follow the links below.