Lythic Solutions for Large Scale Retailers

Large Scale Retail

Exposed concrete (both burnished and polished) has major advantages for large-scale retail environments, both in economics and sustainability. Lythic Solutions™ products maximizes those advantages.

Concrete floors save on floor covering materials, the labor to install them, and the materials- and energy consumption to make them. Densified concrete floors are also easier, more economical, and more sustainable to maintain than virtually any other flooring option that is practical in the retail environment.

Switching to Lythic™ Densifier takes maximum advantage of the economies of scale on large projects by being faster to apply with a smaller crew, eliminating overnight waiting, eliminating the delay and expense of removal and disposal, and reducing shipping costs by shipping concentrated solutions. It is also a far safer and more environmentally friendly material.

Economic Advantages

On a typical project, using conventional silicate- or siliconate-based densifiers, a 10,000 sf floor section would be densified by a 3-worker crew with a ride-on scrubber. Application takes at least 1 hour, since the material has to be worked continuously for that period. Following this dwell-time, 1 worker would spend approx. 1 hour scrubbing off the residue with the machine, while the other two workers would either be doing manual scrub-off on edge areas, or idle but "on-the-clock," since they cannot apply densifier to the next section until the scrubbing machine is available. Total man-hours: 6.

Using Lythic Densifier, a 2-worker crew with a power sprayer applies each section in 0.75 hours or less. There is no removal. Total man-hours: 1.5

Labor savings: 4.5 man-hours per section, or 75%.

On a 150,000 sf store, this saves a minimum of 45 man-hours.

Eliminating the need for a ride-on scrubber reduces transportation, maintenance and depreciation costs for the machine. In addition, the conventional densifier's high-pH residue must be disposed of, adding worker-time. In many localities, it requires Hazardous Materials disposal at additional expense. Using Lythic Densifier, there is nothing to dispose of.

Our extremely low sodium content means that there is no whiting, producing a better-looking floor more consistently, and eliminating the delays of removing whiting when it occurs.

Moreover, Lythic Densifier requires no overnight waiting due to its fast reaction time, allowing burnishing or polishing to begin within an hour after application. A burnisher working behind the densifying crew could complete the job the same day, cutting one day from the completion schedule.

For new construction, Lythic Densifier offers an additional advantage, since it can be applied to freshly placed, wet concrete. This means that burnishing can begin as soon as the concrete reaches the appropriate level of curing, potentially cutting another full day from the completion schedule.

Lythic Densifier is shipped as a concentrate, reducing shipping weight by 80% and cutting costs.

Sustainability Advantages

Low pH Lythic Densifier does not expose workers or the environment to caustic materials and hazardous materials disposal.

It reduces transportation-related energy consumption for workers and the ride-on scrubber, as well as energy consumed by the scrubber.

It is shipped as a concentrate, reducing energy consumption related to shipping.

Additional Protection

Lythic Solutions offers two unique products to maintain and extend the appearance and service life of concrete floors in high-traffic environments.

Lythic™ Protector is applied after burnishing or polishing. It combines colloidal silica with a protective polymer. Its purpose is two-fold:

• to put additional silica into the floor to improve hardness and abrasion-resistance, a major plus for environments with high foot-traffic or frequent fork-lift traffic

• to coat the surface with a thin acid-resistant layer that will help protect it against discoloration from mild acids such as might be encountered from food-spills

Lythic™ Cleaner is an advanced cleaning solution that contains colloidal silica. In addition to cleaning the surface, the colloidal silica provides a means of tying up any lime that might migrate out of the interior of the slab over time, potentially transforming it into additional cementitious material for greater hardness and impermeability.