PROJECT REPORTS
CASE STUDY:
Flagship Store in NYC Eliminates Graywater
When the Molvena, Italy-based Diesel Jeans Company decided to renovate some prime real estate on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan for a new flagship store, the environment weighed in as the design and construction team made decisions regarding materials for the project. The concrete floor’s topping, produced with Rapid Set® cement, demonstrates another environmental benefit of Rapid Set®.
“The owners were looking for an industrial floor that would produce no graywater during maintenance,” said Matt Johnson, principal of Green Earth Floors, Tuckahoe N.Y. “The floor we provided – a terrazzo strip design with a half-inch Rapid Set® TRU™ Self Leveling (Topping, Resurfacer, and Underlayment) topping – will only need water and conditioner for its maintenance, which will result in no graywater from bleaches and detergents.”
In recent years, graywater has become a concern for many due to dwindling reserves of groundwater and overloaded or costly sewage treatment plants.
“Green Earth Floors focuses on the footprint we will leave for future generations,” said Johnson. “We spend a great deal of time researching how to keep each project as green and environmentally friendly as possible by the materials we choose to use and our process. We are also concerned with maintenance. We want all runoff to be free of hardwater contaminants caused by petroleum-based products (wax) required by many other flooring solutions.”
Johnson and his crew from Green Earth Floors began work in November of 2008. Green Earth Floors was selected for the project because of its unique ability both to pour and polish a topping, and because of its highly regarded reputation in the industry. The project was completed in two weeks. The scope of work included at total of 6,000 square feet on the building’s first and third floors.
Green Earth Floors used Rapid Set® Acrylic Primer, set the terrazzo strips to the required elevations, mixed and poured the TRU™ Self-Leveling to ½ inch depth and let it cure for four hours.
“One of the good things about this project is that they chose Rapid Set® TRU™ Self Leveling as their flooring solution,” said Johnson. “With this topping, we have very little wait time on the cure. We can start our grind and polish within hours after the pour. On the other hand, new concrete requires a minimum of 14 days before the polish process can be started.”
The Rapid Set® TRU™ used for the project is self-leveling. According to Johnson, the floor reached a 1/16 of an inch level with a floor flatness of 40. A total of 850 bags of Rapid Set® TRU were used.
To color the concrete, Green Earth Floors used three different shades of stain from Scofield to achieve the unique color the owner desired. Next, Green Earth applied a Scofield lithium densifier.
According to Green Earth Floors, a scoff test indicates that the Diesel Jeans store also has very safe floors, in wet or dry conditions. “We don’t seal anything, so the floor stays somewhat porous and that helps displace water,” said Johnson. “You can walk on it whether it’s wet or dry.” The flagship Diesel Jeans Store on Fifth Avenue opened in January of 2009. The owners and design team are very pleased with the outcome of their environmentally friendly, polished concrete floors.
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