Miami’s Grocery Store Epoxy Flooring
Pallet jacks in the aisles at night, carts at the door all day, misted produce, sweating cold cases and a meat room that gets hosed down after every shift. 343 Epoxy specs a grocery floor department by department and installs it in night sections around your stocking crew.
Every Department Wears the Floor Differently
Aisles and Pallet Jacks
Stocking crews pull loaded jacks down the same aisles every night. Hard wheels and tight turns grind a weak finish into a gray lane.
Produce Misting
Misters and wet displays keep the produce floor damp. That area needs grip built into the finish and a clean run of water to the drains.
Cold Case Condensation
Cases sweat at the base and door seals drip. Water sitting at the kick plate finds any crack or failed edge in a coating.
Back Room Washdown
Meat and seafood rooms see blood, fat, brine, sanitizer and hot water every day. That room calls for urethane cement with a cove at the walls.
Matching the System to the Department
A grocery store is five or six different floors under one roof, and the fastest way to fail is one coating everywhere. On the sales floor the questions are traffic and looks: carts, shoes, pallet jacks at night, and a surface that cleans fast under a ride-on scrubber. Depending on the slab and the look you want, that can be polished or ground and sealed concrete, or an epoxy system with a quartz broadcast for texture. Quartz systems handle heavy rolling loads well and hold their grip where the floor gets wet.
The back of house is another story. Meat cutting, seafood prep and the deli prep area get hot-water washdowns, fats, salt brine and sanitizers. Urethane cement is the usual answer there because it tolerates heat and thermal shock and stands up to that chemical mix. It runs up the wall in a cove so washdown water stays on the floor and moves to the drains. Freezer and cooler floors are their own category, covered on our cold storage page, since the materials have to be chosen and cured for low temperatures.
Receiving takes the hardest hits. Dock plates slam, pallets drop and forklifts turn on the spot. We build that area thicker and repair spalled joints before coating, because a coating over broken concrete breaks right along with it.
Produce Mist, Sweating Cases and the Drains
Water never really leaves a grocery floor. Produce misters keep the displays and the floor around them damp all day. Cold cases sweat along the base, and the floor in front of a reach-in door picks up drips every time it opens. Ice from the seafood case melts onto the floor in front of it. Any of those spots will find the one weak edge in a coating.
So the wet areas get their own treatment. We broadcast aggregate into the topcoat so the floor stays walkable when damp, and we end the coating cleanly at case bases and drains and seal that edge so water cannot creep under it. The slab matters just as much. Concrete in South Florida often carries moisture up from below, and a store with misters and cases adds more from above, so we test the slab before we pick a primer. A high reading gets a moisture-mitigating primer instead of a coating that blisters a year later.
What we check first on the walk
- Floor drains in produce and the back rooms, and whether water reaches them
- Bases of cold cases, freezers and reach-in doors
- Cracks and spalled joints in the main aisles
- The receiving door and the dock plate
- The cart entrance, where sand and rain come in together
Coating a Store While It Trades
Zone the Store
We walk every department with your manager and split the floor into sections that can be closed off one at a time.
Night Sections
Each night a section gets barricaded, ground and coated, sequenced around your stocking crew and deliveries.
Dust and Odor Control
Grinders run with vacuum shrouds, open product near the work gets covered, and we use low-odor materials near food.
Back in Service
Fixtures and cases return once the coating has cured enough, and we check every edge at the drains and case bases.
Working Overnight Around Stocking Crews
Most grocery stores either never close or close for only a few hours, and the night is when stocking crews, deliveries and floor scrubbers are all moving. We fit around that. Each section gets barricaded and signed, and we sequence them so your night crew can still reach the shelves they need. Fast-curing topcoats are what make overnight sections practical in public areas.
Fixed gondola runs usually stay where they are. We coat the aisles between them and stop at the base. If you are doing a full remodel with the shelving out, that is the time to coat underneath. Cases and freezers that can move get scheduled with your refrigeration contractor. We agree on all of it in writing before the first night. Store managers can reach us in English at (305) 409-9022 or in Spanish at (305) 310-2827.
Carts at the Door, Scrubbers at Night
Shopping carts are hard on a floor in a quiet way. Small wheels pick up sand from the parking lot and drag it across the entry and the front aisles. Most of the fix happens at the door: long walk-off mats at the cart entrance and a regular sweep of the cart corral. On the coating side we build the entry zone thicker and add texture where the rain comes in.
Most grocers clean with a ride-on or walk-behind auto scrubber. Use the pad the coating maker recommends for a finished floor, since an aggressive stripping pad dulls a topcoat fast. A neutral cleaner handles daily dirt, and the meat and seafood rooms can keep the sanitizers they already use, rinsed per the label. We install ChemTek, Smith’s Paints and Floor Guard materials, and every floor carries our 5-year warranty on materials and installation. When the main aisles eventually lose their sheen, a new topcoat can go down in night sections without tearing up the floor.
What Store Managers Want to Know
Asked on the walk, usually somewhere between produce and receiving.
Can you coat the store without closing it?
What goes in the meat and seafood rooms?
Will pallet jacks and carts wear through it?
How do you handle the wet floor around produce and cold cases?
Is it safe to install near food?
Can we keep using our auto scrubber?
What warranty do you give?
Reviews Left on Google
“Extremely happy with the way my project turned out. The guys at 343 were very professional and meticulous with everything. I spoke with the owner Zach about exactly what I was looking to do and he made it happen. Would definitely use again for any other epoxy related projects!”
“Excellent quality!!! Very reliable and friendly guys with a great product. They were Punctual and were done within the time frame we were given. We love supporting our local first responders any way we can.…”
Planning a Remodel or a Floor Refresh?
Tell us your hours, your departments and your remodel window. We will walk the store with your manager and lay out the night sections before anything is booked.