How To Stain Concrete Floors

That glisten of the concrete flooring that looks like marble or terrazzo or tile might not be that at all. Polished concrete is becoming the flooring of choice, not only in commercial buildings, but in private homes as well. People have discovered the glossy no-maintenance benefits of polished concrete are a great alternative to other more expensive types of flooring. Not only can concrete be polished to a high gloss, but it may be stained or dyed to look like other materials; Venetian marble, assorted types of tile, terrazzo or a variety of other much more expensive products.

Polished concrete floors may also be etched or stenciled with a plethora of designs, limited only by the designer’s imagination. They may be emblazoned with company logos, crests or a coat-of-arms in a permanent display of company or family fealty.

The polishing of concrete is accomplished with varying grits of abrasives until the desired gloss is achieved. The polishing process leaves a very dense, stable and durable floor that is very attractive. This flooring will stand up to forklift traffic in a warehouse and heavy foot traffic in office building entries and corridors. It leaves a stain free floor in residences, warehouses and offices. Another plus is that a polished concrete floor is very sanitary and will not harbor any molds, mildews or other biological or insect infestation.

Polished concrete floors may be the ultimate no-wax flooring. Once polished, the sheen will remain for a long time. Maintenance is relatively simple; just a dusting with a dry dust mop or wet mopping with a mild solvent followed by clean water is usually all that is required to clean the floor. Commercial floor cleaning machines may also be used. Any dulling of the sheen is usually from contaminants, not wear, and there are a variety of cleansers that may be used to restore the gloss. These are easily applied with a mop, buffer or commercial cleaning machine.

Eventually, the gloss may begin to fade in high traffic areas, but this may be successfully reversed by buffing with a commercial buffer using a polishing compound. When some wear does begin to show, the floor may be polished anew by using a very fine grit material on a commercial buffer. Polished concrete floors may never need replacement, unlike other types of flooring; carpeting, hardwood, tile, linoleum, natural stone, laminates and other materials that all may stain and wear out.

Even so, there may come a time or circumstance when you need to repair cracks in your polished concrete, and that process is not as hard as it may sound.

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You have a beautiful polished concrete floor, a pleasure to walk on, but you notice cracks. You can repair those unsightly cracks without the need to hire expensive repair people. One factor to keep in mind is that repair products will not eliminate the crack, but minimizes the unsightliness of these cracks and prevent further cracking. Major cracking may require the services of professional concrete repair people, but save time and money on the smaller ones by completing the repairs yourself.

Repair starts by cleaning crack areas thoroughly and examining the size and width of your cracks. Once you determine the extent of repair required, you can gather the necessary repair materials. A product such as a good concrete mender is needed for repair. Choose a combination of filler products for the cracks. Suggested materials are glass, flint or silica sand and should be dry and free of other contaminating materials such as dirt.

The challenge in using such a product is to blend the color with sand that will match as close as possible to the concrete color being repaired. You may need to experiment with colors and sand blends to find the color combination that will match the overall color of the polished concrete you’re working with.

Concrete mender requires careful mixing of mending product with filler products, to the proper ratio according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Use a trowel to fill the cracks making sure the repairing material is a bit higher than the actual floor surface. Be extremely careful not to stain the area around the repair with the dye being used for repair.

You need to wait now until the repaired area is completely dry. The drying time will depend on the size of the repair, the temperature of the floor and room. Once the material is dry, you can then hone and polish the area carefully.

For re-polishing area, use a planetary polisher. Use the most coarse sandpaper grit on the repaired surface. Go over the area repaired with overlapping motions but use caution that the focus is on the repaired area. Use a finer grit of sandpaper to polish the repaired area and the overall area to the blended desired sheen. Repairs do not have to be expensive, but careful work is required to ensure your repaired areas blend into the overall beauty of your polished concrete floor.

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• Polished Concrete Floors: As Maintenance-Free As It Gets
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The short answer is that it’s the best way to turn a floor that looks like it was poured for a garage into a floor that looks like it was designed for a palace. Imagine turning a plain concrete surface into a floor that gleams like marble!

You have probably seen polished concrete floors in commercial settings such as restaurants, shopping malls or car dealerships. All the reasons that businesses choose polished concrete are reasons to consider having such floors for yourself. They are durable, extremely low maintenance, economical, won’t harbor allergens, and above all, they’re remarkably attractive!

Concrete polishing is a bit like sanding wood. A heavy-duty polishing machine is used, except instead of sandpaper, disks of grit grind down the concrete surface. Successively finer sizes of grit in diamond grinding disks are used until the floor shines like polished stone. The polishing machines have built-in vacuums that collect the most of the dust that is produced.

Concrete is made of cement, water, and aggregates such as sand and small stones. Polishing your concrete flooring will expose the aggregates and give the floor a unique character. Except for highly porous or damaged concrete, nearly any existing concrete floor can be polished. If a concrete floor is newly poured with the intention of polishing it, special aggregates such as glass, seashells, nuts, bolts or even computer chips can be seeded into the upper surface. When this is polished, flecks glass, shell or metal are exposed. Concrete polishing is often done in conjunction with staining, so a wide palate of coloring is also available.

Polishing will improve the quality of the concrete because before the final polishing is done, a penetrating chemical hardener is applied. This chemically alters the concrete and leaves a surface that is so dense that no pricey sealers or waxes are needed. You can literally drive a forklift over it! In fact, many warehouse owners choose to have their stockroom floors polished just for that purpose.

One surprising fact about polished concrete is that despite a mirror finish, it is still more slip resistant than standard tile floors. Another advantage is that, unlike concrete sealed with epoxy, polished concrete can breathe. This reduces the potential for problems with efflorescence.

It still may crack over time, but there are simple solutions for fixing problems like that.

For a man—or woman—who believes that his home is his castle, concrete polishing transforms the most dungeon-like floors into the look of polished stone.

Related Posts:

• Polished Concrete Floors: As Maintenance-Free As It Gets
• Repairing The Cracks In Your Polished Concrete