Situation
The Alameda Data Center Project consisted of approximately 80,000 square feet of floor space on the 4th floor of the historic, twin-towered, landmark Terminal Annex Building- an 80-year-old, former postal facility in downtown Los Angeles. The existing 4th floor was once the roof deck of this giant facility but had been enclosed and converted into interior, usable space years before. Over the years, the 4th floor had been utilized in many different ways, to include as a film studio set for the network television series “EZ Streets” in 1996. The dilapidated concrete deck was now being renovated into a $60M high-tech, telecommunications and data center.
Installer: Performance Floor Systems, Inc.
Featured ARDEX Products
• ARDEX PC-T™ Polished Concrete Topping (Gray)
• ARDEX PC 10™ Lithium Hardener for PC-T™ Polished Concrete Topping
• ARDEX PC FINISH™ Stain & Wear Protection – High Gloss
• ARDEX ARDIFIX™ Low Viscosity Rigid Polyurethane Crack & Joint Repair
• ARDEX EP 2000™ Substrate Preparation Epoxy Primer
Challenge
• Renovation on an 80-year-old facility
• 80,000 sq. ft. wide-open area on 4th level
• Substrate was in poor condition, not adequate for state-of-the-art data and server equipment
• End user wanted a polished concrete finish but existing substrate not suitable for polishing
• Confidential project with strict security clearance
Solution
Given the challenges, scope and parameters of this project, Aaron Christianson of ARDEX, Mark Pryor and Warren Wilson, both of Performance Floor Systems, Inc., recommended the ARDEX Polished Concrete System™ for this installation. Performance Floor Systems is an ARDEX Levelmaster Elite®, a network of ARDEX-endorsed, substrate preparation specialists in North America.
The ARDEX Polished Concrete System™ provides an integrated system of products and processes to install and process a polished overlay with high-performance, reliable and repeatable results. Due to self-leveling properties of the PC-T topping, the substrate was able to be poured flat and level, which was a strict requirement for the state-of-the-art server equipment. In addition, the proposed finish needed to be extremely smooth to install critical, fiber-optic and data cables which could not be damaged because a single section of compromised cable on a project of this scale could take weeks to discover and repair.
To accommodate the completely open floor plan of this space, the PC-T was poured in large sections, using high frequency pumps which increased installation efficiency. This installation approach resulted in transitions between each of the 10 poured sections that are virtually invisible. After placement of the PC-T, the overlay was polished using graduated polished tooling up to a 400-grit resin. Because the PC-T has a high compressive strength of 6,100 PSI and can be polished within 24 hours, the general contractor was able to quickly open the space up to other trades, keeping the project ahead of schedule by 30 days.
