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In-situ concrete flooring

Power floated industrial floors.

Dense, hard-wearing power floated floors finished to the flatness grade your specification names, for warehousing, manufacturing and distribution.

The work

Built for traffic, abrasion and racking loads

Power floating compacts and densifies the surface of a freshly placed slab. Float blades work the surface as the concrete stiffens, closing it up and pulling fines to the top, which produces a smooth, dense finish that stands up to forklift traffic, point loads and constant abrasion.

The result is a structural slab and a finished floor in one operation. There is no separate topping, no applied screed and no second visit. For most industrial buildings that is the cheapest durable floor available, which is why it is specified so often.

Timing is what makes it work. Float too early and you seal water into the surface. Float too late and the concrete has gone off. We control the pour rate, the timing of each pass and the number of passes so the surface closes properly, then we cure it so it stays closed.

On site

A finish decided in a two hour window.

Concrete placed over reinforcement mesh on a Trent night pour.

Scoping

When a power floated floor is the right choice

Power floating suits any building where the floor is the working surface and takes wheeled traffic. Warehousing, distribution, manufacturing, workshops, plant rooms and data halls all sit here. It is the wrong choice in three situations, and it is worth saying so.

  • Levelling layers. Where the floor is a levelling layer over a structural deck rather than the structure itself, you want a screed, not a power floated slab. See screeds.
  • No finishing window. Sites where access, working hours or other trades make it impossible to have finishing crews on the slab at the right moment are better served by a self-compacting system, which removes that constraint entirely. The comparison is written up in full at self-compacting versus power floated.
  • Covered floors. Floors that carry a covering on top and only need to be flat, not hard, do not justify a power floated finish. You will pay for durability you never use.

Pricing

The decision you are actually making

If you are pricing this project, these are the questions that move the number, roughly in order of how much they move it.

What grade, and is it the right one?

Grade drives everything: the plant, the crew size, the pour widths, the day rate and the survey cost. A floor specified two grades tighter than the racking needs can add a lot of money for no operational benefit. If it looks over-tight for the use, tell us and we will say so.

Free movement or defined movement?

Free movement covers floors where MHE roams anywhere. Defined movement covers very narrow aisle floors where trucks run fixed routes and the tolerance only has to be held along and across those aisles. They are surveyed differently and priced differently, and getting this wrong at tender is expensive.

How is the slab jointed?

Joint layout, joint type and joint spacing are a design decision, not a detail. Joints are where floors fail, and armoured joints in a trafficked bay cost more than sawn induced joints in a quiet corner.

What is the sub-base doing?

A slab is only as flat as what it sits on. If the sub-base tolerance is loose you either eat the difference in concrete volume or you regulate first.

When is the building watertight?

Power floating outdoors, or under a roof that is not yet on, is a different job in wind and rain. Programme drives method.

Standards

TR34 flatness, surveyed and evidenced

Flatness specifications for power floated floors in the UK point at the Concrete Society's Technical Report 34, currently in its 4th edition. TR34 controls two things separately: Property E for levelness and Property F for flatness. The specification names the class the floor must meet, and the finished floor is surveyed against it rather than judged by eye.

The right class depends on the use, and tighter costs more. We price to the class specified, and if it looks tighter than the use needs, we say so before you commit.

Finished floor placed by Trent across a steel-frame upper deck

Capability

Plant and crews, self-delivered

Everything is done by our own people and our own plant. We do not subcontract the pour, the finish or the placing.

That matters more than it sounds. On a power floated floor the finish is decided in a two hour window, by the operatives standing on the slab, judging the concrete. A subcontracted finishing crew who have never worked with the placing crew will guess. Ours will not.

Our plant includes ride-on and walk-behind power floats, a Somero S22EZ laser screed for large area placing, our own concrete line pumps, and our own track-mounted placing booms, rare kit in this country. That last item is why we can pour floors on upper decks and in restricted spaces that other subcontractors turn down.

Delivery

Output, programme and live sites

Output is governed by how fast concrete can arrive, how wide a bay you can place and still finish in time, and how many float passes the grade demands. Tighter grades mean narrower pours and more passes, so a higher grade takes longer as well as costing more. We programme backwards from the finishing window, and if the programme you have been given does not work, you will hear it from us at tender, not in week six.

  • Occupied and operational buildings. A method built around them: pours phased into access windows, plant sized to the door openings and floor loadings available, wash-out and delivery routes agreed in advance, and dust, noise and curing times planned around whatever the building is still doing.
  • Where late working is not permitted. We will tell you at tender whether power floating is viable at all, or whether a self-compacting system is the safer answer.
  • Restricted access. Where a ready-mix truck cannot get to the pour, our line pumps and placing booms will. Placing is planned as part of the works rather than bolted on afterwards, which is the difference between a pour that runs and a pour that waits. More at concrete pumping.

Applications

Where power floated floors fit

Sector

Warehousing & logistics

High-bay and narrow-aisle warehouses need tight floor flatness for safe, fast racking and MHE operation. The lift height and the truck type set the grade, so the racking layout has to be settled before the floor is priced.

Read more
Application

Manufacturing & industrial

Production floors take constant load and abrasion. A properly floated and cured slab keeps its surface and its level for the long term, which matters most where machinery is fixed to it and re-levelling later is not an option.

Service

Large floor plates

Where the area is big and the programme is short, laser screed plant places and levels in a single controlled pass and the surface is power floated behind it. Area and tolerance together.

Read more

Proof

Evidence and documentation

You get the paperwork as well as the floor.

  • Flatness survey against the specified TR34 classification, with the results recorded
  • Concrete cube results for compressive strength
  • Pour records covering date, bay, volume, mix and conditions
  • Joint layout drawing as constructed
  • Curing method and durations
  • RAMS issued and agreed before we arrive on site
  • Sign-off pack at handover

We are Constructionline Gold registered, Avetta and SSIP accredited, and a member of the Nuclear Industry Association.

FAQs

Common questions

What flatness can you achieve on a power floated floor?
We finish to the TR34 free movement classification your specification names, then survey and record the result so it is evidenced at handover.
What is the difference between free movement and defined movement?
Free movement applies where MHE travels anywhere across the floor, and the whole area is surveyed on a grid. Defined movement applies to very narrow aisle floors where trucks run fixed routes, and the tolerance is measured along and across those aisles only. The specification will say which applies.
Will the floor dust?
A properly floated and cured slab should not dust. Dusting is usually a curing failure or a surface worked at the wrong moment, which is why we control both rather than leaving them to the pour.
Can you power float on an upper deck?
Yes. Our track-mounted placing booms deliver concrete to upper floors without craning plant up. Where the deck, the access or the working hours rule out finishing crews on the slab, we will recommend a self-compacting system instead and explain why.
What if the specified grade looks wrong for the use?
We will tell you. An over-tight specification costs money for no operational gain, and an under-tight one causes problems with the racking installer later.
Can you work on live and occupied sites, and do you self-deliver?
Yes to both. Delivering floors in live, restricted-access and constrained environments is our specialism, and it is done by our own operatives with our own plant and placing booms, start to finish.

Got a flooring or screed project coming up?

Send us the drawings and the specification, and we'll tell you straight whether we can deliver it, and how.

Discuss your project