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Quartz finish, reviewed August 2026

Arctic

Bright white quartz for labs, clean rooms and clinical spaces where visible cleanliness is the point.

Installed
$11-$16/sq ft
Family
Quartz
Hides dirt
2/5

Drawn representation of the Arctic blend. Physical samples come to every site visit.

Best for

  • Laboratories
  • Clean rooms and processing suites
  • Clinical and veterinary spaces
  • Cold storage and dairy rooms

Hides dirt

Watch out for

This floor is chosen precisely because it shows everything. That is a feature in a lab and a liability anywhere the room is not cleaned to a protocol.

Showing dirt on purpose

Every other page on this site talks about hiding dirt. This is the one finish where the opposite is the requirement. In a laboratory, a food-processing suite or a clinical space, the floor is part of the inspection surface, and a spill or a contamination event has to be visible immediately so it can be dealt with. A blend that camouflaged it would be actively wrong. Arctic is specified for exactly this reason, and it is why it sits at one out of five for dirt-hiding without that being a criticism.

Chemistry rather than colour

What usually decides a lab floor is not the aggregate but the topcoat over it. Novolac epoxy resists strong acids that a standard epoxy clear will not survive; urethane handles solvents and gives better abrasion; a urethane cement body handles thermal cycling. We ask for the actual chemical inventory of the room before quoting, because a lab floor specified from a product brochure rather than from a list of what gets spilled is a floor that will fail somewhere specific and predictable.

Light and inspection

A white floor materially changes the light level in a windowless technical space, bouncing overhead light back up onto work surfaces and under equipment where it is genuinely useful. In rooms with an inspection regime that is worth real money: things are found faster under a bright floor. The trade is glare, which is why we finish these in satin rather than gloss unless a protocol demands otherwise.

Arctic questions

What is the difference between a lab floor and a kitchen floor?

The build is often identical and the topcoat rarely is. A kitchen needs hot water, grease, mild acid and caustic resistance with a strong slip texture. A lab may need resistance to concentrated acids or solvents, which calls for novolac or urethane chemistry, and often a smoother finish for cleanability. We specify from the chemical list, not from the room name.

Can a quartz floor be coved and sealed for a clean room?

Yes, and it should be. An integral cove turned up the wall, a sealed termination at the top, and no joints anywhere in the field is standard practice for a controlled environment, and it is the same detail that passes a food-safety inspection. Penetrations for equipment feet and drains get sealed into the system rather than caulked afterwards.

Other quartz finishes

See Arctic on your slab

We bring physical samples to every site visit and lay them on your own floor under your own lighting, which tells you far more than any screen can.

Call MattGet a project quote