July 2020 – AM Facility Services

sanding concrete how to sand concrete

These days, homeowners prefer it exposed concrete floors and opt for the sanded concrete floors because they’re highly attractive and practical. Naturally, question arises on how to sand concrete floors to get to the surface to this type of exposed look.

Before you go for other coatings to add luxury to your floor, you must first prepare the floor. That’s why you need to learn about sanding concrete and the comprehensive process.

To learn about sanding concrete, let’s take a deep dive into it.

Some important questions to get started your project

Before you start sanding concrete, it pays to make the following considerations:

Are you going to leave the concrete exposed, so it’s visible?
Do you want to sand the entire floor or aiming some specific areas like seams & walls?
What sort of finish are you considering to give the floor; acid wash, natural finish, or something else?
Are there any cracks or holes that need to be filled before sanding concrete?
Have you added any coloring to match the floor with architectural elements of your interior?

How To Sand Concrete

The ultimate objective of sanding concrete is to get a perfect finish and smoothen the surface. To achieve this objective, following the right process is required. You would want to get a perfectly smooth surface without leaving behind any scratches on the surface.

Following the below steps would help you get a perfect finish on your floor.

Prepare the floor

First thing, first! Before you begin sanding or grinding the floor, prepare the surface. Inspect the whole floor to spot any irregularities in the concrete and fix them properly.

If there are any concrete bumps, remove them first. Usually, the corners have concrete bumps, and they need to be taken care of properly. You can use Cold Chisels to clean them, and corners are fairly easy to clean as well.

Ideally, you would want to remove the concrete bumps soon because the more time they spend on the floor, the harder it becomes to remove them.

Hire a professional sander

Sanding concrete is a professional work, and it’s better to get it done at the hands of experts. It’s tempting to take it as a DIY project, but you may leave behind several irregularities that’ll look bad.

To ensure that your floor is perfectly smooth, hire a professional sander. There are several benefits associated with hiring a professional sander. They have the right equipment, experience, and expertise to do the job efficiently and properly. While being a more expensive and optional step in this equation it might save you a lot of time and frustration.

However, if you have the right knowledge to do the job, you may source a grinder or sander from a DIY shop.

You can get several types of concrete sanders. The best ones come with a water hose connected with them, which keep a constant flow of water

Use an orbital sander

If your floor is going to be fully exposed after sanding, use an orbital sander. It can be sanded with wet or dry sandpaper, but it’ll take a long time and not produce the desired results perfectly.

If you have the right knowledge to do the job, you may source a grinder or sander from a DIY shop.

You can get several types of concrete sanders. The best ones come with a water hose connected with them, which gives a constant flow of water. It keeps the dust down. You can also get a dry polisher that lets you attach a vacuum. Using a vacuum, you can reduce the dust significantly.

Collect the required equipment

Apart from a concrete grinder and concrete sander, you need some other equipment as well. Having all of the equipment ready beforehand, ensure timely completion of the project. Make sure you have abrasive tools, densifier, and concrete sealant in your equipment collection.

Use the sandpaper with the right grit

The sandpaper you choose depends on the sanding needed to be done on the floor. For basic sanding, use sandpaper with the grit between 40-60. To remove minor irregularities, use 80-120 grit sandpaper. For perfect finish and smoothness, use superfine sandpaper with grit ranging between 200-400.

If there are severe imperfections, then you need to use a floor grinder or special diamond disc. Always start with the coarsest sanding disc and then use a higher-grit disc.

Work methodically

A professional knows how to sand concrete floors, but if you’re doing it yourself, make sure to work down. Always start from the corners and move towards the center of the floor. Start from one corner and sand the area within a 4-foot-square. Work across the length & width of the room.

Once you’ve sanded the entire floor, clean the area and remove the dust. Now, use superfine sandpaper to bring smoothness to the surface. Throughout the sanding, inspect the area to ensure that are no stains and concrete bumps left on the floor anywhere.

Keep sanding the floor until it has achieved the desired smoothness. After sanding, mop the area properly and clear all the dust from the floor.

Protect your work with a Finish Product

Now that you have done all the hard work, it’s time to do something to protect it. Use a concrete sealer to give your sanded concrete surface a clean wet look. It’s most commonly used on sanded concrete floors, driveways, and masonry blocks. It not only helps the surface to look great but also protects it from wear and tear as well as makes it more resistant to spills and stains.

You should apply one to two coats of concrete sealer after the sanding process is finished. To make sure that the concrete surface is in great shape year round, you will need to do proper cleaning year round and then apply sealer yearly as well.

How To Sand Concrete Floors – Maintenance

If you want to take a look at a more in-depth articles on concrete floor grinding, polishing and maintenance, click here. Otherwise here is a quick summary of steps that you should take to maintain your concrete floors:

Regularly clean the floor with a microfiber pad that keeps the potentially damaging dirt particles away from the surface.
Always use clean water and clean mops on the floor.
Use neutral floor cleaner specially formulated to protect sanded concrete floors.
Clean the water, coffee, tea, and soft drink spills as quickly as possible otherwise;, they can leave a strong stain.
Give the cleaner enough time to destroy the grime and other damaging substances.

Wrap Up

Today, sanding concrete floors is a common practice among homeowners. Perfectly sanded concrete floors look way better than fancy stones and woodwork. However, sanding concrete must be done professionally.

If you plan to sand your concrete floor, take this write-up as a reference guide and follow the steps mentioned here. It’ll help you get properly sanded concrete floors.

Hopefully this article answered your question of how to sand concrete floors. We have a few more in-depth guides on concrete floors which can be found here.

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Concrete floors are becoming very common in new buildings due to their durability, ease to maintain and beautiful looks. No wonder why more and more grocery stores, warehouses, factories and even home owners choose polished concrete floors as the most practical flooring solution. At AM Facility Services we offer various types of concrete polishing services to fit your needs. You can contact us by clicking here for an expert quote.

CALL US TO DISCUSS YOUR NEXT PROJECT!

AM Facility Services is a concrete floor polishing and rejuvenation company that’s trusted by businesses from small to large. We take pride in our work and always strive to exceed our customers’ expectation. If you have a project to discuss and are looking for the company that will do the job right from the beginning, give us a call!

Among retail outlets & residential property owners, the concrete floor is becoming the floor of choice. A professional concrete polishing and grinding service uses high-quality equipment & expertise to polish concrete floors and provide high gloss to them. As a result, you get a high-gloss finish that doesn’t need any kind of wax.

Let’s take a deep dive into concrete polishing and grinding to learn everything about it.

What Exactly Is Polished Concrete?

A concrete surface after grinding & polishing is called polished concrete. With heavy-duty grinding machinery, the concrete surface is grinded to a level until it gives the desired shine & smoothness. As a result of grinding, the surface becomes very smooth and dust-free.

Generally, concrete polishing contractors are hired for concrete floor polishing. They have the heavy duty machinery and expertise to offer concrete floor polishing services.

All types of establishments can take benefits from concrete floor polishing. However, it’s generally used in warehouses, retail outlets, wide halls, auto showrooms, and homes.

Benefits Of Concrete Polishing

There are several practical & design benefits of concrete polishing. Polished concrete floors don’t just look great, they last very well too! Which is why it has become a very popular practice. Let’s look into its benefit for both commercial properties and residential properties.

Benefits for residential properties

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Cost-effective

Flooring is a costly part of home construction. If you don’t have a generous budget, then going with concrete floor polishing is ideal. Apart from being a low-cost investment, it offers cost-saving benefits in the long run as well.

Concrete floor polishing offers high ROI by reducing energy & maintenance costs. Polished concrete is highly reflective and improves ambient lighting. As a result, you don’t need waxing time after time to keep it in the best condition.

Longer life

Apart from being cost-effective, polished concrete has a longer life cycle. Unlike other flooring materials, concrete isn’t vulnerable to damage. So it means that you don’t need to perform replacement or repair work as often as you would with other flooring. Concrete grinding and polishing involves quite a few steps which are necessary to ensure the strength and durability of the floors. From shaving off contaminated surface and imperfections to feeding concrete with densifier, closing off the pours and applying a sealer.

This stack of steps makes sure that your polished concrete floors will look great even if they process a high amount of foot or heavy machinery traffic. When you hire a reputable concrete polishing contractor that grinds and polishes your floors correctly, the floors become very resistant to staining, chipping and cracking. The better processes are used, the less you’ll need to spend on maintenance in the long run.

Easy maintenance & cleaning

Even after spending a huge amount of money on luxury flooring, the cost of maintenance and cleaning stays high. However, this isn’t the case with concrete floor polishing. Because it gives a highly smooth and shiny surface, it stays dust-free, and the cleaning becomes easier.

When concrete floors are grinded and sealed correctly from the beginning, they become resistant to spills as well. Even though it is highly recommended to pick up any spills as soon as you notice them, polished concrete floors that were done correctly from the beginning do not usually stain even after spills have been sitting on them for a while.

A wide variety of designs & colors

Polished concrete flooring isn’t only practical, but it has design elements too. There’s a wide variety of colors and designs available in the market. You can choose color & design that syncs perfectly with other design elements of your interior.

When you choose the right concrete polishing contractor, they help you choose the color that’s right for you. Some concrete surfaces already have a nice color to them, but some look plain gray. If that’s your floor, you might want to consider adding a color dye into your concrete polishing or concrete restoration mix. Darker colors will give your floors an even better mirror like deep look.

Benefits For Commercial Properties

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Better for offices with high foot traffic

Investing in luxury flooring for your office might not be the best choice considering the high foot traffic. With a polished concrete floor, you don’t need to spend a huge amount of money on its maintenance and cleaning. Concrete floor polishing makes the floor more resistant to high foot traffic.

Lower maintenance cost

Concrete floor polishing increases the practicality of a floor and prepare it for high use. Polished concrete is easy to clean, and there’s almost no maintenance cost. You don’t need to wax it or use high-end polish solution to keep its sheen. Polished concrete floors lower the associated labor cost. If it’s a warehouse and forklift trucks keep entering and exiting, then there’s nothing to worry about tire marks. Concrete floor polishing prepares the floor to resist tire marks.

High reflectivity

Concrete floor polishing is very beneficial for offices, hotels, showrooms, and public centers where bright lighting is necessary. Polished concrete is highly reflective which increases the effectiveness of your lighting. In the world of concrete a lot of customers want very high gloss. High gloss floors have a mirror like finish and look very luxurious.

The darker the floor is, the deeper the look gets. If you want your floors to have a very luxurious, deep, mirror like look, you should ask your concrete polishing contractor to add the dye into the mix. You will then be asked to pick the color of your liking.

Reduces the tire wear

For the best results, hire one of the highly professional concrete polishing contractors. Polished concrete is highly beneficial for warehouses. Natural concrete has an uneven texture that causes the tires to wear & tear more than polished floors. Concrete floor polishing even the texture of concrete and reduce the wear & tear of forklift trucks’ tires.

It is important to keep your concrete floors dry at all times due to the increase in slip possibility. Part of the reason why concrete floors are so durable is the low friction factor. However low friction paired with water will result in more slippery conditions.

No shutdowns

Concrete floor polishing doesn’t involve the use of any toxic or hazardous chemicals. The cleanliness and polishing process doesn’t require you to shut down your office, plant, or warehouse. You can get back to work as soon as the process completes.

How Is Polished Concrete Floor Installed?

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Typically, the “flooded bay” method is used when pouring and finishing the floor. It takes 5-6 steps to complete a concrete floor polishing project.

First of all, the mixture is created. Then, using the “flooded bay” method, the mixture is poured on the floor. To strengthen the structure, a mesh of steel & fibres is used. The purpose is to prevent the cracks in the floor. The time takes to complete the pouring job depends on the length of the area and the workforce working on site. It can take anywhere between 1-3 days to complete this part of the project.
After pouring the mixture on the area under consideration, laser, rakes, and vibratory screeding machines come into play. This equipment is used to level the surface.
Now comes the polishing part. If you hire one of the best concrete polishing contractors, you get high-quality work because they use a heavy-duty grinder to grind the surface. After grinding the complete surface, a transitional hybrid tool is used to remove the tool marks. It helps to remove the impressions left on the concrete floor from grinding.
After polishing the floor, sealing work starts. The sealing part is the final cleanup of the surface using a non-abrasive cloth. It helps to remove debris from the surface. The sealer is applied using a sprayer. This one particular part requires an extra bit of cautiousness from the workers. To ensure that nothing comes in getting a mirror-like sheen, the area is sealed properly.
When done with the sealing work, the area is left to dry properly. It doesn’t take much time to dry up the area. Typically, it takes around 30 minutes.

The key to getting a high-quality concrete floor polishing, a combination of right tools & right professionals, is mandatory. For the best results, hire professional & reputed concrete polishing contractors only.

When Should Polished Concrete Floors Be Installed?

Ideally, you would want to install polished concrete floor before installing the doors and door tracks. If you’re building from scratch or installing to an extension, make sure to get the concrete floor polishing before installing the doors & door tracks.
It doesn’t mean that you can’t install the concrete floor after installation of these elements. However, the risks of inconsistencies on the floor increase when doors & door tracks come in the way.
To ensure that contractors can easily move on-site, 10mm thick brick foam should be installed to the floor perimeter.
Ideally, partitions walls & kitchen parts should be constructed on top of the polished concrete floor. However, if it’s a renovation work, then you can’t do much about it. In this case, ensure that you’ve hired the best concrete restoration contractor who can work well despite these hindrances.

Is It Hard To Maintain Polished Concrete Floors?

The best thing about the polished concrete floors is their durability and easy maintenance. Unlike other flooring material, the polished concrete floor is relatively easier to maintain.
You don’t need to do anything extra-ordinary or expensive to keep the polished concrete floor in its best condition. Routine maintenance like cleaning and mopping the floor is enough to maintain it. Because of its shiny & smooth nature, you can easily remove dust & debris from the floor.
The exact upkeep regimen & cleaning frequency depends on the foot traffic that the floor experience.

How To Improve The Slip-Resistance Of Polished Concrete Floors?

Concrete floor polishing gives a mirror-like smoothness and sheen to the floor. However, you can easily walk on it. There’s nothing to worry about being slipped over the polished concrete floor. The polished concrete floor is less slippery than waxed floors.

To improve the slip-resistance of polished concrete floors, follow the below guidelines:

Typically, polished concrete floors are slippery when they’re wet. Therefore, don’t keep it wet. If water or any other liquid spill over the floor, mop it as quickly as possible to prevent slip-and-fall accidents.
You can use anti-slip products, which increase the traction of polished concrete floors.
Generally, the areas near flowers, freezers, and frozen food containers are wet. Make sure to mop such areas regularly to prevent slip-and-fall accidents.

Wet Or Dry Concrete Polishing?

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Wet or dry concrete polishing? It’s a frequently asked question by the clients. Before every concrete floor polishing project, customers inquire about which one is best and most suitable for their property.

It’s not a straightforward decision. A few things come into consideration before finally opting out one of them. It depends on the concrete floor condition, surrounding environment, and the desired look. However, any of the best concrete polishing contractors would use & recommend a combination of both.

Wet Polishing

Wet polishing is the oldest method of concrete floor polishing. If it’s a natural stone that needs polishing, then wet polishing is mostly used. However, it has been determined that dry polishing produces more shine.

During wet polishing, water is used as a lubricant to run the machine smoothly—however, the slurry water produced as a by-product that needs to be taken care of. Workers are assigned to get rid of slurry water that requires more workforce and slows down productivity as well.

Dry Polishing

On the other hand, dry polishing requires no water. During the initial phase of the grinding, wet polishing machinery is used to grind most of the concrete. When the surface becomes smoother and appropriate for the wet grinding, the workers change the blades from metal-bonded to the diamond abrasive for fine grinding and more sheen & smoothness.

These days, some contractors complete the whole process using resin-bonded disks to finish the project with dry polishing only.

Applying Dyes To Polished Concrete Floors

Concrete dyes can be used to bring vibrance to your polished concrete floor. Concrete dyes are available in a wide variety of color pallets. The best part of concrete dyes is that they don’t cause any chemical reactions with concrete. Concrete dyes penetrate and bring vibrance to the floor and make it look more glossy & colorful.

Unlike acid-based-stains, dyes create color tones that sync perfectly and produce uniformness. However, a professional and experienced concrete restoration contractor can produce interesting color variations.

Both commercial & residential properties can take benefit from concrete dyes. They are available in both water & solvent-based forms.

Concrete dye vs. stain

The primary difference between concrete dye and stain is how they react with concrete. Dye doesn’t reach chemically with concrete and penetrate porous surfaces to produce results. On the other hand, stain chemically reacts with calcium hydroxide present in concrete and produce color on the surface.

Dyes are preferable for indoor concrete only because they are not resistant to UV rays. Stains can be used for both indoor & outdoor use because of their UV resistant nature.

When it comes to colors, dyes are better than stains. Dyes are available in a wide variety of colors and can be used in stores, offices, and other commercial properties. They can create bold designs and graphics.

Can I Polish The Concrete Floor By Myself?

Yes, if you’re a professional with expertise and tools required to polish the concrete floor. No, if you just want to take it on as a challenge and do not have the tools or proper training.

Concrete floor polishing is a highly specialized work that requires you to have the experience and equipment to polish the floor. There are a lot of technicalities involve in polishing the concrete floor. Therefore, you may not want to invest your time, energy, and money you’re unaware of. The best choice would be to hire a professional concrete restoration contractor or one of the best concrete polishing contractors in your town.

What To Consider Before Hiring One Of The Concrete Polishing Contractors?

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Do you know hiring a professional concrete polishing contractor can make a difference? If you are considering installing polished concrete inside or outside your property, make sure to hire one of the best polishing contractors.

Below are some considerations that you need to make before choosing a concrete polishing contractor.

Reputation

The first and foremost thing to consider is the reputation of the company. You may not want to hand over such an important project to a bunch of workers with a bad reputation. They may deliver a good job, but the chances of getting your project ruined are high. Therefore, always make sure that you’re hiring the best professionals for your concrete floor polishing.

The best way to assess their reputation is to go over the website and social media pages to read customer reviews. Access their previous clients and inquire about their services.

Thankfully, we’re a reputed business with highly trained professionals that provides 100% satisfaction and peace of mind.

Experience

Experience is another important consideration. You may not want your project to be done by a company with no experience. So make sure they have an established name in the industry and considerable experience to handle your project.

We are one of the most experienced concrete polishing contractors in your neighborhood. So if you have a concrete floor polishing project, look no further and get in touch with us.

Project cost & duration

With reputation and experience, another thing worth considering is the project’s cost and the time taken to complete the project. A professional contractor always offers a comprehensive project quote, and that’s what we offer as well.

Results

Since your ultimate goal is to get high-quality work against the time & money you invest. Therefore, it’s unavoidable to look at their previous projects. Before hiring a concrete floor polishing contractor, request to see their portfolio. Once you’re satisfied with their previous results, you can hire them.

We hope the information contained in this guide gives answers to most of your questions. For any queries, you can get in touch with us.

You can review our Better Business Bureau profile here: AM Facility Services on BBB.

Next, you can contact us to schedule a call to discuss how we can help: Contact Us.

However if you are looking for a different kind of service besides concrete polishing contractor service, we provide the following: