When your car wash floor becomes damaged, or just isn’t meeting your standards, you’ll want to look at another solution. Changing the entire makeup of your car wash is a drastic and unnecessary action – there are plenty of floorings that are easy to apply while providing great benefits.
As the leading suppliers of car wash access systems, we at PSD Codax are keyed in on all the best practices for car washes. In this article, we’ll discuss what flooring options are out there and provide insight on which might be the best for your business.
For more information about our services, feel free to get in touch!
What are the Flooring Options for Car Washes?
Concrete is the industry standard for flooring in car washes. However, it does come with a number of issues that need to be addressed. For example, it will wear down over time – becoming chipped, damaged, and waterlogged.
This damage builds and can eventually cause issues. Whether these problems are for health and safety, water runoff and drainage, or simply how your car wash looks; you will eventually want to find a way to replace or improve your car wash flooring.
How to Repair Your Car Wash Flooring
The best solution is often to cover or coat your car wash floor with a durable, protective material. This is the simplest way of improving the look and quality of your floor without having to commit to expensive and time-consuming replacements.
The best kinds of flooring option for your car wash are:
- Rubber
- Vinyl
- Tile
- Urethane concrete
- MMA resins
To determine which of these flooring options is the best for your specific business, it’s important to understand what the benefits – and the drawbacks – are for each individual type.
How to Choose the Right Flooring for Your Car Wash
We’ll help you on your way to deciding which type of flooring is right for your car wash business by first outlining what benefits to look out for, before going into more details on the advantages of each kind. The primary considerations for the right type of flooring are:
- Drainage
- Water sustainability
- Health and Safety
- Durability
- Aesthetics
These aspects can also be further broken down. For example, health and safety includes the grip of your car wash flooring, while durability can include how it withstands impacts vs water or chemicals.
Improve the water efficiency of your car wash as a whole with advice from our guide >
The Benefits of Different Car Wash Flooring Options
To help you decide which flooring type is the right fit for you, we’ll discuss each commonly used type with regards to the considerations above.
Rubber Sheets and Rubber Grass
Rubber sheets can be a great option for drainage and water sustainability, preventing your concrete underflooring from absorbing water while also allowing you to channel it to an appropriate drainage location.
For health and safety, rubber sheets can prove an issue by becoming slippery when wet. Rubber grass is a higher grip option, but it has holes which make it less useful for water management.
Rubber is durable for foot traffic due to its elasticity, but it can still become damaged due to thermal shock or abrasion. If adhesives are used during installation, it can be hard to replace.
Vinyl Sheets
Vinyl sheets are quite similar to rubber, with similar properties for drainage, water sustainability, and health and safety.
Their durability is often somewhat lower than rubber due to the thickness of the material, often leaving it to be short-lived when subjected to constant vehicle traffic.
While it can look better than rubber due to greater availability of visual options, it is better suited to areas of your car wash not expected to receive vehicles, such as indoor service areas and toilets.
Tiling
Tiling is an interesting choice for a car wash. It is highly water resistant, meaning it doesn’t absorb much liquid at all.
Tiles are often available with grippy surfaces, making them useful for health and safety. However, they can crack under pressure or impacts – potentially leading to hazards from their jagged pieces.
They can also be difficult to replace as they are concreted down – however, individual tiles can be replaced without having to change the entire flooring or introduce unsightly patchwork.
Overall, tiles are a highly aesthetic yet somewhat volatile type of car wash flooring.
Urethane Concrete
Urethane concrete is a special type of concrete you can apply over your existing concrete car wash flooring. It can be applied in a thin coat, meaning it sets quickly and lets your business get back up and running as soon as possible.
It has protective properties which make it resistant to chemicals, thermal shock, abrasions, impact, and cracks. It is also a coarse surface, making it grippy and improving health and safety.
Urethane concrete will maintain the current concrete appearance of your car wash, making it a good choice for people who want to keep their image. It can be expensive but is a great choice if you want to get the best flooring for your car wash business.
MMA Resins
MMA resins are a protective flooring covering that can be easily applied and can set quickly. They are often available in a range of different visual styles, making them a great way to improve your look and add uniqueness to your car wash.
These styles aren’t just practical – MMA resins with in-grained decorative quartz or resin chips have improved anti-slip properties, making up for any water that could remain on it.
MMA resin is a durable flooring that protects against abrasions, wear, stains, thermal shock, and impacts. It is a high-quality option for car wash flooring, and strong contender when you’re picking the best one for your business.
Once you’ve upgraded your flooring, further improve your car wash with a quality access system!
Five Steps for a World-Class Car Wash
Flooring is just one of the steps towards getting the best car wash for you and your customers. Improving all aspects of your car wash will help you to see repeat business, adding to your profitability and the quality of your service.
The five steps to the best car wash business are:
- Business model. Make sure you consider the different types of car wash business model and determine which one is best for your business and location.
- Health and safety. This is a crucial part of your car wash as it protects your assets, employees, and customers. Find out more in our article >
- Once you’ve analysed your business for the correct model and health and safety procedures, you can move on to selecting the best flooring for your needs from our list above.
- Add-on services. Further improve the experience for customers with add-on services; this may require revisiting some of the steps above. Explore the best add-on services to include at your car wash >
- Access system. Top it all off with an intuitive car wash access system backed by leading hardware and technology.
Cutting-Edge Car Wash Access Systems from PSD Codax
To conclude, the best flooring for your car wash depends on your needs. If you’re willing to splash the cash, urethane concrete and MMA resins are great choices. More economical options that still provide significant benefits include tiling, vinyl, and rubber floors.
Don’t settle for anything less than the best for your business or your customers. Support your car wash with new flooring and an access system from world-leading providers, PSD Codax. Contact us today to find out more or read on with some related articles.
Discover methods to improve the customer experience at your car wash >
