Concrete Grinding & Polishing

Polished concrete has been a versatile, sustainable, and economical flooring alternative in large retail, commercial and industrial facilities for years. Today with the advances in technology and equipment it is equally as effective for smaller facilities, including residential applications.

From art galleries, hair salons to manufacturing plants and shopping malls, polished concrete floors are becoming the solution of choice – thanks in large part to customizable color and design, low initial costs, limited maintenance, high slip resistance and the natural beauty of polished concrete.

In recent years it has caught the eye of architects, top designers, and decorators and is a highly desirable flooring finish for residences ranging from the garage, kitchen, basement, and in many cases the entire home. It bridges the crossroads of contemporary to classic design, and offers the opportunity for unique one-of-a-kind flooring solutions.

The benefits of polished concrete are many and include the obvious of; exceptional abrasion resistance and high compressive strength, environmentally friendly non dusting for allergy prevention, low maintenance requirements and large cost savings, with an exceptionally high level of durability. And if all of that is not enough, an amazingly beautiful appearance.

Advances in technology and equipment have opened the doors to this amazing and durable flooring option in not just lowering cost and making it affordable for everywhere, but also allowing this artisan finish to be sued in places that the previous size and weight of machines would not permit:

New equipment design that is small enough and lighter weight to be used in virtually every job site

• Equipment that can operate on standard household electricity

• Dust collection and control systems that permit clean work

• Advances in diamond grinding materials that allow polishing to mirror levels of reflectivity Variety of concrete dyes and stains offered along with integrally colored concrete available

• Chemical densifiers and hardeners that virtually allow any structurally sound floor to be polished

• Lower initial cost compared to most traditional floor coverings

• One-time application with minimal maintenance providing long life cycles

• Allergy-free alternative and facilitates LEED accreditation

Polished Concrete terminology can be confusing, but here is a straight forward way to understand the terms used to describe polished concrete. The first step is the diamond grinding, sometimes referred to as honing. There are 3 principal levels of grinding that create different levels of exposure finish. When concrete is first finished has a surface of what is referred to as cream and in order to create a shine that must be removed by metal diamond grinding blades. There are essentially 3 levels of finish or exposure to achieve and they are:

• Cream Finish – A cream finish is a honed and polished surface that exposes only the sand particles in the concrete floor.

• Salt & Pepper Finish – A salt & pepper finish is a honed and polished surface that exposes a spattering of aggregate in the concrete floor.

• Aggregate Finish – An aggregate finish is a cut surface that exposes the greatest amount of larger aggregate in the concrete floor.

Then comes the level of shine, which we call reflectivity. This is created using diamond impregnated resin pads that have varying differences of abrasiveness to them along with chemicals that harden and seal the concrete. Again we have different levels of reflectivity we can achieve.

• Low Reflectivity, 400 grit – results in a surface that exhibits a low level of reflection which may also be referred to as a satin/matte finish.

• Medium Reflectivity, 800 grit – results in a surface that exhibits a moderate level of reflection which is commonly referred to as semi-gloss finish.

• High Reflectivity, 1500 grit – results in a surface that exhibits a high level of reflection which we generally refer to as high gloss.

• Super Reflectivity, 3000 grit – results in a surface that exhibits the highest level of reflection which many people refer to as the “wet look”.

To learn more about concrete polishing here a series of links that are quite informative:

http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/polishing/ – this site has an enormous amount of information and should answer just about any question you may have about polished concrete.

http://www.polishedconcrete.org/ – another site with information that ion general is quite informative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polished_concrete – and the always present Wikipedia puts light on the subject.