Keeping your floors dust-free is as simple as a nightly sweep with a microfibre mop. If you don't have one of these, a cotton or soft bristled broom will also do the job. Then, once a week, go over the area with a damp mop. This will remove any residual dust and really get your floors shining again.
SS Cherry Wax may be exactly what you need.
SS Cherry Wax acts as a sacrificial coating to protect the longevity of your sealer. Plus it gives a great shine, thus looking like you just got a brand new floor!
Sealing concrete is a necessity: It keeps your floors clean, glossy and stain-resistant. Regularly applying a protective coating is vital to preventing chips, cracks and dirt buildup.
Normally polishing is accomplished using a variable speed concrete polisher with a set of diamond sanding discs. The polisher is usually water fed and is attached to a normal garden spout. The water helps cool the pads down and also keeps dust to a minimum.
Ideal for a soft concrete floor: Dry polishing tends to work better for soft concrete. Polishing wet on these floors forces diamonds to grind over aggressively to leave unsightly gouge marks on the floors. This method also does more to the slab in terms of hardening and condensing.
To achieve a high-gloss finish on concrete, you can either polish the surface with the appropriate diamond tooling or you can use a quality high-gloss concrete sealer.
Wet look concrete sealers are usually made from acrylic or polyurethane, and they work by filling in the pores of the concrete and creating a smooth, even surface. This not only gives the concrete a sleek look but also protects it from stains and UV damage.
High-Gloss are Ideal for Low-Maintenance Areas
For example, Hi-Gloss Sealer is a specially formulated concrete sealant meant for factory and other commercial concrete flooring where the high-gloss finish is a necessity due to its low-maintenance requirements.
What's being sprayed on the concrete pavement is a curing compound. It goes on pink so crews can see where it has been applied, but it dries clear. This curing compound is sprayed on to prevent moisture from evaporating from the freshly placed concrete.
The answer to “can I polish concrete floors myself” is yes, but only in a limited set of circumstances. DIY projects should only be attempted on newly poured slabs that are clean and in good condition. A matte finish is also preferable, as fewer sets of diamond polishing tools will be required.
Acrylic is best for decorative, high-gloss, and color-enhancing applications. Concrete floors in basements, garages, and shops take a lot of abuse over time. Either water-based or solvent-based acrylic will provide a high degree of protection, but solvent-based usually lasts longer.
Almost any structurally sound concrete floor, whether new or old, can be polished. However there are some exceptions, for example with new floors no special mix design is required to achieve good results – although the floor should be in place at least 28 days before polishing begins to ensure adequate curing.
As long as the concrete is fairly level, damp-free and in good condition it should be possible to polish.
'The best way to ensure a good finish with gloss paint is to first prepare the surface well,' says Homes & Gardens Editor in Chief Lucy Searle. 'Any dents in the surface should be filled and sanded, then finished with a fine sandpaper; the surface should be flat and even so that bumps and lumps don't show up.
Although the greatest gain is in the first week or two after pouring, the curing process continues for several months. Concrete that is not moist-cured at all dries too rapidly, and reaches less than half its potential design strength. It will also have a greater number of shrinkage cracks.
Properly curing your concrete improves strength, durability, water tightness, and resistance for many years. The first 7 days after installation you should spray the slab with water 5-10 times per day, or as often as possible. Once the concrete is poured the curing process begins immediately.
If you're looking for sustainable materials to use in your home, polished concrete is a great option because: Recycled materials can be used to manufacture concrete. It has a long life – meaning you're less likely to need to replace your floor for many years.
A properly installed, sealed and maintained polished concrete floor can be expected to last a hundred years or more in even the harshest commercial environments. Its life-span will also far surpass that of other floor coverings, such as carpeting, vinyl tile and wood laminates.
As a general rule the concrete should be cured for 28 days before we actually arrive to do the polish. Then we can do the polish all at once, or in 2 stages.
What is the smoothest concrete finish? The trowel finish is the most popular and smoothest concrete finish. After the concrete is laid, a trowel is used to smoothen out the fine-level concrete surface.
Polished concrete is a finish resulting from sprinkling a cementitious mortar with aggregates and then polishing the floor to a shine with a rotary polisher. This technique of polishing the floor is called trowelling.
Diamond polishing is one of the most common methods used to get a shiny glass-like surface. It uses industrial diamonds to smooth, grind, and ultimately polish the surface. The grit you use determines the level of sheen you'll get on your floors. The finer the abrasive grit, the better.
Regular sandpaper is not solid or durable enough to polish a concrete surface, and that's why you need a polishing pad or diamond sandpaper. Manual sanding is similar to using a power tool, though tiring and less efficient.