Located just steps away from the Ocean Beach Pier on the Southern California coast, BBQ House offers indoor and outdoor dining for lovers of slow-cooked meats and award-winning barbecue sauce. In 2015, the restaurant took advantage of another business relocating by expanding into that space.

The project, which turned two adjacent storefronts into one, had to address a 2- to 2½-inch elevation difference between both spaces. The flooring of the newly purchased space needed to be rehabbed to match both the higher elevation and the polished finish of the restaurant’s existing concrete floor.

Ready-mix concrete was considered, but the general contractor (Lyons Construction) rejected the two- to four-week turnaround time, from pour to finish. By using Rapid Set® products, the subcontractor (San Diego Epoxy Coatings) was able to install polished concrete flooring in less than a week’s time.

The contractor used Concrete Leveler underlayment to build up the floor by 2 inches, extending the mix using 3/8-inch pea gravel. The next day, the contractor was able to prep and prime, and then place the polishable topping 24 hours later. The TRU® Self-Leveling topping was mixed via Hippo mixer and applied at 3/8 inch. The flooring was ready for foot traffic within two to three hours and for grinding in 24 hours.

During grinding and polishing, the crew started with 60/80-grit metal bonds, moved to 100-grit ceramic transitional diamonds and polished up to 800-grit for a medium-sheen finish. The final steps included staining to match the original restaurant floor, and applying a guard and burnishing.