Why Densify Concrete and Not Polish Concrete Floors?

Concrete flooring has become one of the most popular flo­­­oring options for both homes and businesses because they are easier to upkeep and look amazing when they are taken care of properly. Using the correct techniques to upkeep and make concrete shine will help make the oldest material used in buildings and homes become the most popular, greenest and affordable option.

Between polishing and densifying concrete flooring, it is always better to densify the concrete and polish than to just polish. When you polish, cream, salt, pepper or expose aggregate concrete it can begin to look more like terrazzo. The relatively new technology used on concrete floors to gets the best look combines grinding, honing, densifying, and polishing to develop the high shine with the process involving hardening the material by using silicates or other related compounds. This technique is called polished densified onconcrete flooring.

When using a densifier, you’ll have a glossy concrete floor. Polished concrete floors offers a much better way to put film and a wax coating on concrete flooring whether it is for schools, warehouses, industrial buildings, commercial office buildings or residential homes.

Densified polished concrete provides a much harder, and shiner surface that requires lots of resistance to most stains and water damage. It can deteriorate with a lot of wear so just make to sure to reapply as often as five years, however.

How concrete densification and polishing work is starting with a really efficient grinder like the Concrete Genie or the Mammoth 800 by Xtreme Polishing Systems. The grinder needs to have rotating diamond-abrasive heads to be able to remove the surface layer of the concrete flooring. The diamond abrasive machines are able to travel over larger diameter of concrete, which will produce a flatter grind on the flooring. The Concrete Genie is specially designed to give the machine exact balance and weight distribution for maximum efficiency in its grinding pressure to achieve flatter, and smoother grind on the concrete flooring.

Once the concrete has been ground down, the next step is to use colloidal silica on the floor to density and harden the concrete. Xtreme Hard, I have found to be the best. The solution will fill in the pores as it is absorbed into the concrete matrix. Concrete densifiers will help the density of the surface to increase and will prevent micro chunks from being dislodged while polishing the surface. If not protected by a densifier, tiny chunks of concrete can be removed from the surface and will create marks or pockets in the surface, which will make the finish look dull instead of, shiny.

The benefits of using the polished-densified technique on concrete floors are:

• Low maintenance - It creates low maintenance flooring that only needs to be reapplied every five years.
• Durability - It will create a extremely hard and durable surface that withstand abrasion, impact, ultraviolet light and liquid penetration.
• Repair and reuse of old slabs - It will help in being able to repair and restore concrete floors and will make them new again.
• Saving money and raw material - It will give concrete flooring the shiny finished look so there will be no need to put in new flooring.

Densified concrete floors are much more Eco-friendly, cost efficient and attractive than just polishing concrete floors so check out all the concrete densifiers available at Xtreme Polishing Systems.