CASE STUDY – PRICE CHOPPER FLOOR REHABILITATION – SCHENECTADY, New York

Price Chopper Floor Rehabilitation

Chet Pennacchia, the Manager of Construction at Golub Corporation’s Price Chopper headquarters in Schenectady, New York, found the perfect place to house the company’s mill shop and sign/print shop. Price Chopper is a progressive, green-oriented grocer with 120 grocery stores in New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire

The Rotterdam Depot, an old Schenectady, New York World War II military complex now converted to a warehousing facility, was everything Chet needed: just the amount of space at a good price and close to other company warehouses. The only problem in this perfect location was old, cracked, painted, dirt-impregnated concrete floor.

The 70-plus-year-old concrete floor was lined with yellow epoxy painted floor strips, stained from years of abuse and had gaping stress and settlement cracks – some more than 1 inch wide, 6 inches deep – running directly down the middle traffic aisle for 40 feet. No vehicle wheels or axles could withstand the impact abuse from crossing such wide cracks. Under the anticipated daily use, these cracks would also continue to ravel, spall and grow in width. Added to the floor issues were chips and potholes, introducing more inefficiency that was sure to frustrate even the most patient facilities manager.

“If the recession has taught us anything it’s to be resourceful. The best thing to do is to keep the floor; it’s the most expensive part of your building. So, what are my options?” Pennacchia asked himself.

“We talked to the architects about sealing and coating the floor, but we knew this was only a temporary solution and would require a lot of maintenance over time,” Pennacchia said.

Pennacchia needed alternatives. “I decided to look into grinding and polishing the floor and learned that Kalman Floor Company could handle the job.”

The Kalman rehabilitation process creates a hard, smooth surface that’s non-dusting, easily cleaned and reduces floor and vehicle maintenance costs.

Above: Kalman rehabilitates the 70-plus-year-old floor.

Kalman is no stranger to renovating and refurbishing industrial concrete floors – they are often called in to repair, resurface or replace sub-standard floors by owners of warehouses, cold and dry food distribution facilities, manufacturing plants and waste materials recycling buildings.

“The Price Chopper diamond polished and chemically hardened concrete floors are an example of what Kalman’s rehabilitation and resurfacing division can do for owners and operators. In a market in which capital spending is likely to remain restrained, rehabilitation of older floors is increasingly the choice of many owners and operators,” said Sales Engineer of Kalman Floor Company.

“This was a 70-year-old floor and we had to remove the yellow epoxy painted stripes and then fix the large cracks in the floor before we could begin to polish it,” said Jeff Brown, Sales Engineer with Kalman Floor Company, adding that, “the paint and dark stains were ground by hand then epoxy was used to treat the cracks and potholes”, completing the preliminary phase.


“As we moved to finer and finer diamond pads the grimy, coarse, pitted surface turned into a renewed, nicely polished, light gray colored, smooth floor. In some areas, the exposed stone had almost a terrazzo look.” – Jeff Brown, Kalman Sales Engineer


Then “we ground down the 50,000 square foot floor by about 1/16th of an inch, using very heavy machines with multiple diamond-grinding heads. We started with very coarse diamond cutting discs and progressively used finer and finer discs to grind and then polish a thin surface layer of the concrete. As we moved to finer and finer diamond pads the grimy, coarse, pitted surface turned into a renewed, nicely polished, light gray colored, smooth floor. In some areas, the exposed stone had almost a terrazzo look. “

The final step: apply a liquid hardener to the reclaimed surface, to chemically react with the concrete and create a newly hardened, satin-finished non-dusting floor.

“We took an unusable floor, one that was cracked and dusting and brought it back into service,” said Ytterberg. “This was an uneven, porous, pitted, and stained floor that was transformed into a working platform that can be kept clean and efficiently traversed by loaded wheeled vehicles. At less than 1/3 the cost of replacing the floor, this was an economical solution for Price Chopper.”

“…Kalman exceeded my expectations,” said Pennacchia.

An additional benefit is the floor’s ability to reflect a lower wattage light to brighten a formerly dark space, as well as enabling Price Chopper to reduce some electrical costs.


“I decided to look into grinding and polishing the floor and learned that Kalman Floor Company could handle the job.” – Chet Pennacchia, the Manager of Construction at Golub Corporation’s Price Chopper headquarters in Schenectady, New York.


This is the way to rehab your existing floor surface at the lowest cost possible. Kalman’s rehabilitation and resurfacing division can help owners and operators recover a fundamentally useless floor. Reclaim an old, existing concrete floor with boom finish or rough/pebbly surface or remove skid marks and epoxy painted staging lanes by converting it into a rejuvenated, hardened, smooth, shiny, efficient floor surface.

The Kalman Diamond Polishing process is done in a way that enables operations in existing buildings to continue to operate, while only portions of the floor are closed off for rejuvenation. This is ideal for facilities with 24/7 365-day operations since there is minimal down time.

To learn more about rehabilitating your existing floor contact a Kalman sales engineer today at 1-800-525-7840.