Top 5 Questions About Concrete Polished Floors
Concrete polished floors are a 21st century trend which have made a massive impact on commercial and residential interior design. The concept is simple – concrete flooring is strengthened using densifiers, and then ground using diamond grinding tools until the perfect shine is achieved. At DirectStone we work with newly installed concrete slabs, or we can retrofit polished concrete flooring.
So why have concrete polished floors become so popular? Truth is, apart from looking amazing, they also tick a lot of boxes that concern the people who contact us:
- Concrete polished floors play a part in reducing your carbon footprint. Most of the concrete we polish is already in place, so no new materials are added.
- It’s designed to last. Tiles or carpet wear with use, but polished concrete doesn’t. As long as the flooring is sealed regularly it will last for decades.
- It works indoors or out. More and more people are blurring the inside/outside boundaries of their home and garden by extending their polished flooring to the patio.
Best Locations for Concrete Polished Floors
Polished concrete flooring has been popular with the hospitality sector, retail, education, and transport because it’s durable, it doesn’t mark easily, and it looks stunning. Residential concrete polished floors come in a range of designs, colours, and types of finish, from satin to matte to high gloss. The DirectStone team regularly installs polished concrete for kitchens, kitchen/diners, and open plan living spaces.
Top 5 Questions About Concrete Polished Floors
One of the things DirectStone floor specialists particularly enjoy is talking to clients about their questions relating to concrete polished floors. There’s a lot of forums offering info online about polished concrete, some good, some not. So, it’s great to be able to clear up any misinformation that’s floating around. What we find is that there are 5 key questions that come up again and again – so we thought we’d use the blog to offer our responses:
1. Does Polished Concrete Stain Easily?
This question gets raised a good deal with reference to laying concrete kitchen floors. Clients are concerned about grease stains which would be a particular problem in the kitchen.
Concrete is a porous material which means that it is susceptible to oil or acidic substances. The remedy for this is to apply a concrete sealer. Penetrating sealers harden the surface of the flooring and protect against moisture ingress. Alternatively, topical sealers create a coating on the surface of the concrete which keeps stains at bay.
2. Can Any Concrete Be Polished?
Many of the clients DirectStone works with have existing concrete floors they want polishing. These may have been covered with tiles, or lain under a carpet for decades.
Frustrating we know, but there’s no ‘yes/no’ answer to this. That’s why DirectStone floor specialists always take a look at your existing concrete floor before making promises. We are able to repair cracks or chips to concrete flooring, and we can usually refurbish concrete that’s worse for wear. Even if the slab is not suitable for polishing, we’ll look for an alternative, such as concrete overlays.
3. Is Polished Concrete Slippery?
The high gloss finish which is so popular with clients, is also a source of concern. People ask whether it can cause slips when used outside, especially near a pool which will splash the surface.
The truth is that although the high gloss polished concrete finish looks slippery, it is no more likely to cause slips than any other finish. When we lay polished concrete patios, we can integrate a fine grit into the sealer. This small amount of friction makes the surface safe for children running around barefoot, even when wet.
4. How Disruptive is the Polishing Process?
This is a question that our commercial clients in particular are concerned about. Understandably they want to know whether they’ll lose business as a result of concrete polishing.
First, it’s important to say that we always work around business schedules. The DirectStone team will use downtime periods to do the work so that your customers will hardly know there’s been a disruption. Second, we maintain a virtually dust-free environment throughout the polishing process, thanks to HEPA filtered extraction. So there’s no big clean-up needed once we’ve finished.
5. Is There a Lot of Maintenance Needed With Concrete Polished Floors
Both commercial and residential clients want to be reassured that they’re not shackling themselves to expensive and time-consuming cleaning regimes.
It always delights us to tell clients that concrete polished floors are surprisingly low maintenance. They need to be kept dust-free as tiny particles of grit can scratch the surface over time. So your polished concrete flooring needs brushing regularly, and mopping once every few days. The concrete sealer protection will wear over time, so this will need to be professionally replaced every 3-5 years.
If you have any questions we haven’t covered, or you’d like to talk to us about a specific concrete polished flooring project, call our friendly team on 01525 20863920
