Concrete Polishing

A concrete floor polished up to 3,000 grit, stained, guarded and burnished can be a sight of sheer beauty. For many customers, a polished concrete floor is the perfect fit. The only problem is, many concrete floors are far from perfect slabs. There are pinholes, cracks, pop-outs, gouges, and spalling joints, just to name a few flaws.

David Stephenson’s story encompasses everything from AmeriPolish to Wal-Mart to the Cincinnati Reds and Indianapolis Colts and it all began when he discovered polished concrete.

ST115 is a new standard for the concrete polishing industry that was adopted in fall 2013 by the Concrete Sawing and Drilling Association (CSDA). The standard explains in detail how to measure the texture of a concrete surface by using a texture meter.

The first decade of the 21st century has been pretty huge for integral color. For one thing, decorative concrete as a whole has taken huge strides in terms of market share, and more decorative concrete means more integral color.

Williams and Witherspoon brought their brands — the Serena leisure apparel line and Draper James, Wither­spoon’s Southern-flavored women’s clothing label — to Neighborhood Goods in the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas. The store is billed as a “new kind of shopping experience, with brands that will rotate in and out,” the Dallas Morning News reported.

The technique has been created to add a delicate pattern to an already beautiful floor with the use of stencils.

When it came to installing floors at his new decorative concrete training facility, concrete guru Bob Harris chose to emulate the old ways of Venetian artists.

San Diego County is known far and wide for its beautiful weather, interesting people and endless summer atmosphere. So it was with great anticipation when San Diego was picked as the site for the 2016 Concrete Decor Show Sept. 25-29 that it was destined to be one showstopper of a show. And all indications point to that premonition coming true.

Three of the nation’s most beloved sports franchises - the New York Yankees, Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys - embraced decorative concrete when they built their new homes.

So we’re in the early stages of a polishing project after the old VCT (vinyl composition tile) has been removed. We’re progressing with initial grinding diamonds to open the floor, only to have the building owner walk through and complain, “What happened to my floor? What are all those lines? Is my floor ruined?

Today, most slabs are finished using mechanical trowels for the body of the slab and hand trowels for the edges. There are two basic types of mechanical trowels: walk-behinds and ride-ons.

Mild-mannered, terrazzoesque floor by day, photoluminescent phenomenon by night. This glow-in-the-dark effect can brighten up any surface.

The best way to predict the future is to learn from history. However, the polished concrete industry is a very young industry. One cannot look to the history of polished concrete to make predictions about its future. One has to look instead at the histories of the established flooring industries and other related industries.

Viridian Architectural Design initially wanted to resurface the ground floor of the circa 1875-1895 Fulton County Courthouse in Rochester, Indiana, with terrazzo but the money for the pricey topping wasn’t in the budget. Still, the county wanted that stone look to complement the other floors in the building and polishing was deemed the next best thing.

Once upon a time, there was a polished concrete job that was easy. It started out with a new, flawless install, a clean, even slab ready to grind. The client closed the building for a few days, providing ample, uninterrupted time to do the job. There were no hurdles. There were no surprises. Everything went according to plan.

When Concord Aviation Property LLC wanted a polished aggregate surface for president Jack Roush’s private hangar at the Concord Regional Airport in Concord, N.C., they ultimately called upon the services of Eric Wayne Inc., a full- service commercial and residential concrete contractor with offices located in Davidson, N.C.

To eliminate the guesswork associated with which diamond abrasive bond tool will best polish or abrade a particular concrete slab, contractors could consider adding a Mohs hardness test kit to their toolbox.

Densifying concrete can improve color as well as performance. These innovative materials will help you firm up your surface.

To accommodate the manufacturing robots that do the bulk of the work, the floors of Solyndra’s two plants must be very flat, level and durable, says Jonathan Williams, president of Diacon Inc., in Manteca, Calif. “We couldn’t have any ridges or valleys that would cause them to offshoot.” The task at hand was to produce functional factory floors that were also pleasing to the human eye.

Being successful in business, as in life, is knowing when to be right, and when to allow the other person their thoughts and views, especially when the “other” person is a potential or existing customer.

In terms of decorative options, existing concrete slabs are limited to topical color systems. In many cases these coloration processes are subject to fading and wear and are sensitive in high-moisture environments. You’ll find more versatility in 3/8-inch concrete overlays. Not only do you have a choice of UV-stable integral colors, but you can also choose from several types of aggregates.

With concrete surface retarders, concrete can have a sand-etched finish.

From huge industrial manufacturing plants and nationwide retail stores to restaurants and residences across the country, polished concrete has become a very popular flooring option over the last decade.