There are many different types of polished concrete finishes, and the main polishing process includes four specific steps.

Choosing the Right Tooling

Before the concrete polishing process begins, a floor hardness test is necessary to determine which diamond tooling we should start with. Once the proper tooling has been determined, we begin the concrete polishing process by placing the appropriate diamond tooling on our grinder. Diamond tooling come in varying hardnesses. That means if the concrete is super hard then an extra soft diamond is used to start the process. And for concrete that is extremely soft, it would require an extra hard diamond. If you use an extra soft diamond on extremely soft concrete, the diamond would simply be too aggressive for the concrete and wear down. If you used a hard diamond on extremely hard concrete, it would not be aggressive enough to remove any of the concrete.

Concrete Grinding

If there is an epoxy or glue on the floor, the process becomes a little more involved, PCD tools would be used to aide in glue or coating removal. The step of the concrete polishing process involves grinding the concrete. Depending on how hard the concrete is, we will choose metal diamond tools that are extra soft, soft, medium or hard to grind the concrete. After we complete the initial grinding process, transitional diamond pads are used to help in the transition between the metal diamond tools and the resin diamond tools. It also helps remove any remaining scratches.

Apply Stains and Densifier

Densifying and staining is part of knowing how to polish concrete. Although it is not hard, it can be disastrous if not done correctly. After removing a thin layer of concrete, the concrete itself becomes weak and soft. Applying a concrete densifier will help harden the concrete once again. After the stain has dried, we apply the concrete densifier, keeping the slab wet anywhere from 20-30 minutes. Sometimes a second coat of concrete densifier is used.

Concrete Polishing

Once the concrete stain and densifier have completely dried, we continue and finish the polishing process using the resin diamond pads. Depending on the concrete gloss our customer wants, we can stop after 800, 1,500 or go all the way to 3,000. If  customer decides to continue through the 3,000 grit, the concrete will have a mirror-like finish that resembles the look of glass. We end the concrete polishing process with diamond burnishing pads on a burnisher. This will give the concrete its ultimate shine.