| Concrete |
| What is the process to polish my concrete? |
The floor should be in place at least 21 days before polishing begins to ensure adequate curing. Some retail and warehouse facilities that plan to polish their floors after placement may specify the installation of as smooth a floor as possible to minimize the polishing steps required.
Existing floors typically require some surface preparation prior to polishing to remove dirt, grease, coatings, or blemishes. However, floors that are wavy, need extensive patching, or are extremely porous may not be good candidates for polishing.
Simply put, polishing concrete is similar to sanding wood. Heavy-duty polishing machines equipped with progressively finer grits of diamond-impregnated segments or disks (akin to sandpaper) are used to gradually grind down, hone and polish surfaces to the desired degree of shine and smoothness.
The process begins with the use of coarse diamond segments bonded in a “metallic” matrix. These segments are coarse enough to remove minor pits, blemishes, stains, or light coatings from the floor in preparation for final smoothing. Depending on the condition of the concrete, this “initial” rough grinding is generally a three- to four-step process.
The next steps involve fine grinding of the concrete surface using diamond abrasives embedded in a “plastic” or “resin” matrix. Crews use ever-finer grits of polishing disks (a process called “lapping”) until the floor has the desired sheen. For an extremely high-gloss finish, a final grit of 1500 or finer may be used. Experienced polishing crews know when to switch to the next-finer grit by observing the floor surface and the amount of material being removed.
To help solidify and densify polished concrete surfaces an impregnating/penetrating hardener is added to the concrete. This is added during the process in between grits. The point at which this is added is dependent on the condition of the concrete. These products, work by reacting chemically with the concrete to form a hard, crystalline structure and will make the concrete up to 400% more abrasion resistant. They also prevent dusting of concrete and offer extra protection from water penetration and staining.
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