The Greenpoint luxury apartment complex at 145 West St. is part of a waterfront building boom expected to attract thousands of new residents to Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood. Designed to mimic the high-rises directly across the East River in Manhattan and located next to a ferry stop, the building comprises a 40-story tower and a five-story building with rental units. With amenities that include a yoga studio, basketball court, sun deck, and private dining room with catering kitchen, the developers wanted the interior to convey chic sophistication and timeless elegance.

The building's entrance reflects this aesthetic. The custom tan-colored lobby floors are accented with black, tan, and white tiles that convey a 3-D look and draw a visitor's eye toward the elevators.

Flooring contractor Prep-Crete of Union, N.J., was brought in to prepare the surface and complete the floors. Having worked with them on other projects, the contractor recommended using Rapid Set® TRU® (which stands for " topping, resurfacer, underlayment") flooring products. Available in natural and gray colors that are often customized to match a specified color, TRU products are self-leveling polishable toppings that are ready for foot traffic in less than five hours and can be ground and polished wet or dry in 24 hours.

After preparing the surface, Prep-Crete applied Rapid Set® TXP™ Fast, a two-component, alkali-resistant epoxy primer designed to be used with TRU products. Its formulation provides excellent substrate wetting capabilities to promote penetration and bonding, allowing broadcast sand to be well-suspended for excellent overlayment adhesion.

TXP Fast is ready for overlayment in four to six hours. Prep-Crete mixed TRU® Self-Leveling in Natural in a Hippo mixer and ultimately placed 14,000 square feet. Finishing was done with a smoother. TRU Self-Leveling can achieve a very high gloss and distinctness-of-image (DOI) due to its high density and low polymer content.