How Polished Concrete Floors Will Make Your School More 'Green'

If you're looking for a relatively low-cost adaptation you can make to your school to boost how environmentally friendly you are, look no further than concrete flooring. Aside from being an affordable and attractive floor covering that can be installed quickly to minimise lesson disruption, concrete can help you stay green in more ways than one. Here are 3 benefits of concrete floors for eco-conscious schools.

They Reduce Electricity Use

Given how much sunshine Australia gets, any school looking to become more environmentally friendly should try to maximise how much daylight enters the building. The more light your school gets from the sun, the less electricity you have to use, helping you cut down on the greenhouse gas emissions produced in electricity plants. Aside from completely renovating your school windows with all-new windows and skylights--which can be a very costly job--why not try polished concrete flooring? A white, coated concrete floor can have a surface reluctance of up to 70%, significantly boosting light levels so you can keep your artificial lights switched off more often.

They Cut Down on Materials

While flooring materials like carpet and tile do have their benefits, they tend to need a lot of maintenance after students have been walking over them for weeks on end. The more often your flooring needs to be patched or replaced, the more materials you'll use. While this doesn't seem environmentally unfriendly in itself, it's important to remember that the production of these materials can harm the earth--for example, each short ton of carpet manufactured produces 3.83 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent. Concrete floors, on the other hand, are highly durable and long-lasting. The smooth surface is also far less likely to be damaged by typical school debris like discarded gum. When polished with the right coating, they handle heavy footfall well, so they don't need to be frequently repaired and replaced. 

They Decrease the Need for AC

Is your school guilty of overusing air conditioning units? If so, concrete flooring could help you cut down on AC and stay green. Concrete floors aren't good thermal insulators, so they stay cooler than carpet, keeping the temperature down naturally. Alongside this, concrete is easy to clean, antimicrobial, and resistant to mould. A clean floor will improve the indoor air quality in your school, ensuring your students are breathing purer air without having to use an AC unit constantly to filter out pollutants.

To learn more about the benefits of installing concrete floors in your school building, contact concrete contractors near you.