Societe Brewery Company founders Travis Smith and Doug Constantiner chose a heavy-duty gray urethane cement topcoat to give their brewing room floor a chemical-resistant and easy-to-clean finish.
In Societe’s tasting room, the floors were acid stained in a warm walnut shade and then protected with a polyurethane sealer.
A close-up of the tasting room floor
Other brewery floors featuring Westcoat systems include:
- Stone Brewing Company
- Benchmark Brewing Company
- Hess Brewing
- El Cajon Brewing Company
- Karl Strauss
- Prohibition Brewing Company
- Pizza Port
When Travis Smith and Doug Constantiner, the owners of Societe Brewing Company in San Diego, designed their facility in 2012, no detail was overlooked, including the concrete floors. Housing a 20-barrel production brewery and an adjacent tasting room with an unobstructed view, Societe Brewing needed a flooring surface that would meet some diverse and challenging requirements. For the brewing area, the floors are constantly exposed to caustic chemicals and thermal shock, so it was imperative that the floor withstand severe chemical exposure while being slip resistant and easy to clean. In the tasting room, which is open to the public, the appearance of the floor was as important as its durability and stain resistance.
“Ultimately, we found the complexity of issues surrounding the floor very interesting. Most people will only see it as a floor and not understand what went into making it,” said Smith and Constantiner, in a blog on their company’s website.
Part of that decision-making process involved choosing the best concrete floor coatings to meet the brewery’s functional and aesthetic needs. In the brewing room, they decided to treat the floor with a high-performance gray urethane cement from Westcoat. “Through our research we found this to be the best option for us. It is chemical, temperature, and impact resistant; it should last us many years and many thousands of barrels of beer,” they said. To warm up the tasting room area and create a dynamic place for customers to sample Societe’s specialty brews, they chose to use an acid stain protected with a polyurethane sealer.
All the concrete coatings were installed by Life Deck Coating Installations, which exclusively uses Westcoat products. In the brewing room, crews first prepped the floors by thoroughly diamond grinding the surface, and then installed the high-build urethane cement, which is fast-drying and self-leveling. In the tasting room, they ground the floors with a planetary grinder and stained them with Westcoat acid stain in walnut. The floors were then sealed with a polyurethane designed for use in severe chemical environments and heavy traffic areas.
More brewery owners like Smith and Constantiner are choosing concrete floors because they are easier to keep clean than tile and alternative flooring materials, since they have no grout lines that can trap dirt and bacteria. Maintenance usually entails mopping the floors with mild degreasers and periodic waxing to keep up the sheen or eliminate traffic wear patterns.
See more brewery floor projects:
Concrete Floors Now on Tap at your Local Brewery
Project location:
Societe Brewing Company, San Diego (www.societebrewing.com)
Floor size:
4,500 square feet
Coating applicator:
Life Deck Installations
Westcoat products used:
Brewery room floor coating: Westcoat Urethane Cement
Satin polyurethane sealers: EC-95 and EC-96
Concrete stain: SC-30 acid stain, in walnut
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Learn more about using concrete for brewery floors