Commercial Repair & Refinish — Coca-Cola Exhibit Space

Commercial exhibit spaces present flooring challenges that residential work doesn't: immovable built-in displays, brand-spec'd finish requirements, and zero tolerance for closure overruns. This Atlanta exhibit space had a bamboo strip floor that had taken damage from heavy foot traffic, display fixture legs, and what appeared to be a past moisture intrusion near a drain access point. The client needed the floor repaired and refinished before a scheduled reopening.

The first walk of the space identified three distinct damage zones: a cluster of cracked and lifting boards near the center of the room, a section with surface gouges from a heavy display base, and a band of discolored boards near the perimeter where moisture had wicked under the finish. Each damaged board was marked with tape so the repair crew could pull and replace without disturbing surrounding sections. Bamboo strip flooring is more brittle than oak when cutting out individual boards — you can't just use a oscillating saw without risking hairline cracks in adjacent pieces.

Board replacement proceeded over one day: damaged sections removed, subfloor leveled where needed, replacement bamboo pieces cut to length and face-nailed. Bamboo's strand density varies by manufacturing batch, so the replacement boards were sourced from the original floor's species and color group and acclimated on-site for two days before installation. The goal was a repair that wouldn't be visible under the finished surface.

Refinishing a bamboo floor differs from refinishing red or white oak. Bamboo is harder and more abrasive on sanding equipment, and its strand grain doesn't respond to stain the same way solid hardwood does. For this job, the specification was a clear natural finish — no stain — which meant the sanding quality was the entire visual result. We started at 60-grit, stepped to 80, then 100, and screened at 120 before applying water-based polyurethane.

Three coats of water-based polyurethane, satin sheen. Between coats, the floor was screened with 220-grit and vacuumed twice to remove dust. The exhibit's overhead lighting — multiple pendant clusters and track spots — created an inspection advantage: by walking the floor under full lighting after each coat, we could spot any applicator marks, bubbles, or contamination before the next coat locked them in.

The finished floor is uniform in sheen and color across the full exhibit space, including the repaired sections, which are not visible in the completed photos. The Coca-Cola marquee sign visible in the lead photo gives the scale — this is a large installation with a significant amount of branded visual content that the floor has to support without competing. A flat, consistent satin finish is exactly what an exhibit space floor needs: present enough to read as quality, recessive enough to let the installation speak.