Walmart is one of the world’s largest retail chains. Founded by Sam Walton in 1962 Walmart now have 11.718 stores operating in 28 different countries.
Walmart is the world’s biggest company by revenue – over $500 billion. Walmart Mexico, also known as Walmex, is Walmart’s most profitable country outside of the US with a total of 2.371 stores.
Problem
Walmart opened a new store in San Francisco de Campeche in 2017. The 8.000m² floor of the new building was laid with a high quality concrete coloured red. Walmart wanted to ensure that the floor was finished to the highest possible standard.
One measure is the ASTM gloss standard which specifies the amount of gloss achieved – 10 for low gloss and 70 and above for super high gloss. Walmart wanted a floor that achieved a score of at least 40.
Solution
Working with RINOL, one of our partners in Mexico, the concrete floor was ground down with a series of graded diamond hard BECOSAN® discs to remove all micro roughness from the surface leaving a high gloss finish.
We started with grit 50 discs and progressed through 100, 200, 400, 1000 and finally grit 3000 discs to achieve the required shine.
During the process the floor was treated with BECOSAN® Densifier which significantly increased the durability of the surface and increases the dust proof nature of the finished floor.
The final stage was a comprehensive treatment with BECOSAN® Concrete Sealer.
Result
The finished floor was measured for shine and successfully exceeded expectations giving a floor with an ASTM score of 60!
Ramon Masip, Technical Director of RINOL Mexico said:
Walmart Mexico is still delighted with the appearance of the floor even after one year of very heavy foot traffic.
