polished concrete

[stoneman57]

Hello folks,
I have a client with a commercial concrete floor that was acid etched/dyed at installation. We maintain it by using a quality sacrificial sealer /finish , stripping it annually and hi speed buffing it every other week. Works well but as with all sacrificials it eventually starts to miss on the rebound buff. I'm considering increasing the restorative service to more frequent recoating, but the client asked about polishing. I've seen it done in videos, however it was always on uncolored concrete. Assuming we're starting with a wax free concrete, can this process be done on colored concrete, and will we get a longer , better looking life on the gloss than we do with the waxing method. Is there any maintenance done to the gloss during interim? Where are such machines purchased?
Thank you kindly,
Mark Bauer :scratch:

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[doitright]

Hi Mark :)

Great questions! Hopefully others who are (or have been), involved with concrete polishing will chip in. In the meanwhile I'll tell you what I know.

Concrete polishing involves using diamond abrasives and grinding to get the floors flat. If this isn't a color through surface, more than likely the dye will be ground off, or very splotchy at best.

Vic International is one resource for the type of equipment needed. Here's a link to Concrete Medic (https://www.concretemedic.com/#)

[claycarson]

Yeah, you can polish colored dyed concrete. It nevers shines like marble, but if you like a dull shiney, it's OK.

The dye has to be one that's made for it, though. I'm not up on them. Call Maurizio at www.mbstone.com - he knows several reps who deal in them. If he's not too busy, he may give you some info on it.

Make sure your client understands he will be paying an initial cost far higher than any stripping and buffing you've ever done. In the long run, it won't be bad, because it's pretty durable. But also prep him for reduced shine.