Concrete goes from a dull, rough surface to a shiny, smooth, polished surface through a series of grinding steps. This grinding is done with a series of diamond impregnated floor pads. These pads contain millions of microscopic diamonds that are used to grind the concrete and make it smoother.
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.
The concrete becomes flatter and glossy at a microscopic level as heavy equipment grinds, hones and polishes the floor using progressively finer grit diamond impregnated pads.
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.
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.
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.
The process is fairly straightforward, but it does require plenty of physical labor and time. You must clean and patch the surface, grind it smooth with several passes of a concrete grinder, buff it to bring out the shine, and apply a sealer to protect your work.
The Sparkle Grain Finish system is an eye-catching, black (or white) sparkle which is an iridescent black sil-car abbrasive (or white oxide) grit concrete additive that provides a mirror like sparkle that is dramatic both day and night.
To make the sparkle even more prominent, he recommends integrally coloring the concrete mix. A metallic aggregate from Pacific Palette Concrete Products that comes in black and white, Sparkle Grain is recommended where you want a decorative, hard, nonslip surface.
Sparkle Grain is recommended where you want a decorative, hard, nonslip surface. The glitzy grit is designed for light to heavy usage on floors, patios, walkways, driveways, steps and ramps in places from homes, shopping centers and wineries to museums, schools and stores.
A wet look sealer, as the name implies, is a concrete and masonry coating designed to make surfaces appear as though they are wet. Treated surfaces will have a slightly darker look, some color enhancement, and a glossy finish.
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.
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.
Concrete goes from a dull, rough surface to a shiny, smooth, polished surface through a series of grinding steps. This grinding is done with a series of diamond impregnated floor pads. These pads contain millions of microscopic diamonds that are used to grind the concrete and make it smoother.
Bleach. If your concrete is dull and sprouting weeds or mold, bleach is your best option for cleaning and brightening concrete.
In addition to sequestering carbon, an advantage to adding baking soda is a faster-setting concrete mix that can allow formwork to be removed earlier, reducing the time required to complete a structure, says Admir Masic, the study's lead researcher and an associate professor in MIT's department of civil and ...
Spray a mixture of hot water and oxygen bleach onto the concrete. Follow the mixing instructions on the oxygen bleach for best results. The oxygen bleach helps whiten the concrete and is not as toxic as chlorine bleach.
Start with medium sandpaper to remove the most noticeable irregularities. Finish by fine-tuning with light sandpaper, until the surface is perfectly smooth. We recommend using a hand planer to smooth and compact the surface.
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.