
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) and Data Centers: How Flooring Can Protect Your Equipment
June 3, 2025Customizing Your Industrial Floors
Industrial flooring has moved far beyond its purely functional origins. In high-visibility environments, the floor serves as the literal foundation for how clients, employees, and partners perceive a brand. Custom industrial floor design allows businesses to reinforce branding, improve safety, and enhance durability all at the same time.
Branding Beneath Your Feet
Branding is often discussed in the context of logos, packaging, and advertising. But for industrial and commercial spaces, it’s just as relevant underfoot. A consistent color palette, visible logos, and thoughtful design can turn flooring into a cohesive part of the brand experience. This is particularly valuable in customer-facing areas like showrooms, conference rooms, and lobbies, where every visual element contributes to a good first impression.
Seamless floors with custom designs communicate professionalism. Whether polished to a high gloss or embedded with distinctive textures, these surfaces tell visitors you care about every detail. Consider various industrial flooring options and how to customize each one.
Epoxy Coatings
Industrial epoxy flooring remains a top choice for companies seeking robust, customizable surfaces. Epoxy is particularly effective in service areas, manufacturing facilities, and laboratories due to its chemical resistance, durability, and ease of cleaning. When aesthetic impact and heavy-duty performance are equally important, this coating strikes the right balance. Here’s what makes epoxy floors so aesthetically versatile:
- Color coordination: Epoxy can be tinted in a wide spectrum of colors, allowing organizations to reflect their brand identity throughout the building.
- Graphics and logos: Advanced installation techniques allow graphics and logos to be embedded directly into the floor. Such branded epoxy floors create the right impression in entryways and showrooms.
- Zoning and safety: Contrasting colors and patterns help designate work zones, pedestrian pathways, or restricted areas. This boosts safety without cluttering the visual environment.
Polished Concrete
Polished concrete has gained favor for its sleek appearance and cost-effectiveness. Its durability and low maintenance appeal to facility managers, while its design options stand out to marketing teams. Polished concrete performs especially well in conference rooms, lobbies, and customer-facing spaces where aesthetic consistency and low maintenance are equally important. Here’s how to make your polished concrete really shine:
- Custom dyes: Dyes can be formulated and applied to match your company’s brand.
- Pattern scoring: This is when technicians score the floors into grids, logos, or organic designs and then polish them to a brilliant shine.
- Light reflectivity: The high-gloss finish naturally makes the room feel brighter, which improves energy efficiency and working conditions.
Decorative Quartz
Decorative quartz systems combine aesthetic flexibility with practical performance. These multilayer floor coatings create a visually engaging surface using colored quartz granules. It’s the ideal flooring for spaces where safety, hygiene, and visual appeal all matter equally. Benefits of decorative quartz floors include:
- Brand-specific color options: Custom blends of quartz aggregate create pleasing patterns or on-brand color schemes.
- Slip resistance: The texture of the quartz granules provides grip, even in wet or high-traffic environments.
- Durability: Excellent resistance to chemicals and abrasion helps these floors hold up under heavy use.
Urethane Mortar
Urethane mortar floors provide unmatched durability for industries with extreme thermal, impact, or chemical exposures. What’s more, they’re no longer limited to dull grey finishes. Urethane mortars excel in manufacturing areas, commercial kitchens, and other environments subject to fluctuating temperatures or aggressive cleaning protocols. Here are a few of the benefits:
- Color options: These systems can be customized with pigmented finishes for more appealing aesthetics.
- Thermal shock resistance: Urethane mortars withstand hot water washdowns commonly used to clean the floors in food and beverage facilities, breweries, and pharmaceutical operations.
- Seamless sanitation: The monolithic, joint-free surface reduces bacterial growth and simplifies cleaning.
ESD Coatings
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) epoxy coatings are a specialized solution for environments where static electricity poses a risk, such as electronics manufacturing, cleanrooms, and data centers. In areas where ESD protection is mandatory, customization adds an unexpected branding opportunity. Consider how these special coatings combine compliance with design:
- Static control: These coatings safely dissipate static charges to protect sensitive equipment and reduce fire hazards.
- Visual design: ESD flooring doesn’t have to look clinical. With available tints and topcoats, companies can incorporate on-brand colors without compromising functionality.
- Long-term reliability: These systems are engineered for lasting performance, which ensures compliance with strict industry standards for many years to come.
Seamless Integration Across Facilities
Different parts of your facility likely have unique requirements, but a cohesive flooring design unifies these spaces. For instance, a showroom might feature high-gloss polished concrete in company colors, while a service bay relies on solid-color epoxy with directional arrows and zone demarcations. Laboratories might incorporate ESD coatings in a neutral hue, while locker rooms use decorative quartz for hygiene and slip resistance.
Such a holistic design strategy seamlessly transitions between functional spaces and customer-facing areas. It also simplifies maintenance protocols and reinforces brand identity across every square foot of your building.
Driving Performance with Smart Flooring Choices
Customizing your floors isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about making strategic choices that support safety, productivity, and efficiency. Companies that prioritize smart flooring design often see downstream benefits, from reduced maintenance to improved employee morale. Besides focusing on colors and branding, consider these functional benefits of customized flooring:
- Wayfinding: Color-coded zones and visual cues help orient employees and visitors so they can find their way more quickly and safely.
- Durability: High-performance decorative concrete coatings extend the floor’s lifespan and reduce replacement costs.
- Hygiene: Seamless, nonporous finishes support clean, sanitary environments, which is especially important in food service or healthcare settings.
The MSC Experience
If you’re looking to customize the industrial floors in your Michigan, Ohio, or Northern Indiana facility, look no further than MSC Floors. We work with clients to deliver industrial flooring systems that look and function beautifully. From the first conversation to project completion, our support staff works hard to keep everything on track. Our dedication to safety, precision, and performance shows in every corner, every edge, and every custom finish we deliver.
Let us help you translate your brand and operational goals into flooring solutions that stand the test of time. Connect with our team to learn how we can support your next project.