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Polishing concrete on the surface (ha-ha) seems reasonably straightforward. Buy the right equipment, attach diamond tooling, turn on the equipment and “mow” the concrete. Do this one row at a time and repeat with finer grits. How hard can this be? Well, that just might be the first problem. How […]
I venture to guess that most of the floor-covering installers reading this tip don’t consider “grinding or honing wet” an option when bidding polished concrete. I don’t blame you. In the floor covering industry, the idea of adding water to the concrete sounds crazy. Most of the time, you already […]
Let’s tackle understanding what happens when slabs curl and why concrete has light and dark areas that never change. (We call these differential curing marks). These are two more common types of damage that wouldn’t exist if you technically mixed, placed and cured concrete. Knowledge is power. What is curling […]
In this tip, you’ll learn about craze cracks. These common cracks wouldn’t exist if installers had properly mixed and placed the concrete and allowed it to fully cure. Craze cracks — sometimes called map cracking, mud cracking or spider cracks — all name the same thing. I believe you should […]
Let’s say you performed a mock-up or a Mohs test on a concrete slab. Subsequently, the results determined the concrete slab is soft (scratched at a 6, 5 or 4). Here are a few items not on the “typical packing list” that’ll come in handy. Extra diamonds and high-solids densifiers […]
When producing a coarse aggregate floor directly for an owner or client, most people commonly assume that all you must do is work harder and grind deeper during the first grinding steps. Always begin by doing the Mohs hardness test. The result helps you determine the correct bond to start […]
From the last three tips, you’ve learned there are three types of polished concrete with specific differences. For this tip, I’m consolidating the items into an easy-to-read summary. This can be something you can give to your sales team or use as a reference with clients. You can also share […]
Again, here’s the definition of polished concrete: The act of permanently changing a concrete surface, with or without aggregate exposure, to achieve a specified level of finished appearance. So far, we’ve learned about burnished polished concrete (BPC) and hybrid polished concrete (HPC) and that they both have places in the […]
The first step to creating and processing a scratch-free polished concrete floor is to start by cleaning the floor you’re about to grind, hone and polish. Make sure the grinder is clean. This includes the bottom of the machine, the skirt and the diamonds. Inspect the surfaces of the diamonds […]
Like many in the restaurant industry, we have converted our dining room floors over to polished concrete. Many people believe that a correctly installed polished floor is a one-time thing. It’s concrete, right? It’ll last forever. This is only true when you understand and implement a proper maintenance plan. Otherwise […]
