Concrete Polishing in California

David Ferguson · Feb 27, 2008

I have found this forum extremely useful while planning and building my new shop/office space in Paso Robles, California. I have a professionally installed epoxy floor in my current home garage/shop, and have been pretty happy except for a couple of small chips from dropped tools/parts, and some UV fading on the part outside the garage door (installed about 8 years ago). Oh yes, I have seen some damage from metal sparks and welding splatter.

For the new shop, I decided to go with polished concrete. I originally looked at Perfect Polish after seeing them at a racing trade show. Even though they are based in Tenn, they had a west coast estimator stop by my building, and gather the necessary information. The cost was about $3.50 / sf, including some hand-polishing for my doorways and around my 60' floor drain.

I ended up going with a local Paso Robles concrete contractor, Pristine Concrete who just added the HTC Superfloor™ polisher/process to his arsenal. The cost was about the same.

They started the process on Monday with 80 grit. I was really impressed with the system which uses 2 separate in-line vacuums to pick up large and small particles from the grinding process. It was relatively quiet and not at all dusty like I feared. I will try posting some pictures, and updating this thread as the process continues.

Jabberwalk · Feb 27, 2008

I worked for HTC before starting PremierGarage. You will be glad you did not go with Perfect Polish. I have seen their work across the country and was not impressed. Just be careful with any chemicals on the polish- It is still a unsealed concrete floor and is easily damaged. I polished my 5000 ft warehouse and it is very easy to keep clean!

GunMoto · Feb 27, 2008

Subscribed...

MajorPayne · Feb 27, 2008

im in for this too...ive been putting off getting this done to my shop

thegarageguy · Feb 28, 2008

Thats a bad *** machine!!

AGBill · Feb 28, 2008

David:
Appreciate you posting pictures of your concrete polishing... I would definitely like to see pictures of the finished floor.

Can you let us know what type of sealer they use after the polishing is complete?

Bill
Arroyo Grande

David Ferguson · Feb 29, 2008

After the initial grinding, they will apply a densifier. This is a type of resin that penetrates the top of the concrete and makes it harder. From what I understand this actually takes a long time (months) to cure and during this period, the floor is more susceptible to staining. So they will apply a topical sealer at the end -- it is intended to last while the densifier cures. After that wears off the floor should be cured enough that it will not absorb stains.

AgBill - since you are in my neck of the woods, feel free to come take a look. I'm there Friday - Monday each week. I'll send you a PM with my phone number.

I'll get some more pictures of the progress tomorrow, and will update the thread over the weekend.

David Ferguson · Mar 1, 2008

Concrete archaeology

After they ground the first pass, we found that someone (wearing Keds!) had walked across the slab, then floated the floor to cover it up. This required additional grinding to get below the footprints. Here's a picture of one of the footprints:

Before they add the densifier, here is what a part of the floor looks like:

Here is a close-up of the floor showing what is revealed when you polish off the top layer of concrete. The extreme left edge of the picture is unpolished for comparison.

89MustangGX · Mar 1, 2008

Looks great. I'm really impressed.

I hadn't put much thought into this, but I am now.

If I understand this correctly, you will have the polished look like we see in the last pic, it will be stain resistant, easy to clean, there's nothing to peel, and the only way the finish can chip or crack is if the concrete actually chips or cracks -- is that right?

This is really starting to sound like the perfect solution to me.

What do they do around the seams in the concrete, anything special?

Is this extremely slippery when wet -- or at least more slippery than unpolished concrete?

Any reason why this couldn't or shouldn't be done in a smaller two car garage?

Adam

Jabberwalk · Mar 1, 2008

Adam-
Polished concrete is very easy to clean and looks great. There are downfalls. It is slightly more stain resistant than unpolished concrete, but not by much. It is not chemical resistant at all. brake fluid will etch it, oil will stain it. It will need periodic repolishing every few years to keep the shine up. It is great for industrial area like warehouses. It reflects light and is easy to maintain. In a showroom it will look great- You can see the underside of cars in the floor reflection! but in a working garage- I would consider an alternative. I polished and dyed my dads floor black. It looked great until the first brake job.

89MustangGX · Mar 1, 2008

Jabberwalk said:
Adam-
Polished concrete is very easy to clean and looks great. There are downfalls. It is slightly more stain resistant than unpolished concrete, but not by much. It is not chemical resistant at all. brake fluid will etch it, oil will stain it. It will need periodic repolishing every few years to keep the shine up. It is great for industrial area like warehouses. It reflects light and is easy to maintain. In a showroom it will look great- You can see the underside of cars in the floor reflection! but in a working garage- I would consider an alternative. I polished and dyed my dads floor black. It looked great until the first brake job.

Thanks for the extra info. I do wonder about a couple things: The OP stated that they add a "densifier," which sounds like it basically seals the concrete permanently so it is harder and resists stains. That would also make it sound like it resists etching as well. How do they maintain these types of floors in places like dealer service centers that keeps them from staining and being etched? I started looking around after I saw this thread and found a lot of "working" garages that have this type of floor -- or at least what looks like this type of floor. What are they doing differently? That would be the type of floor I am interested in.

Adam

Jabberwalk · Mar 1, 2008

A densifier basically hardens the concrete. Look up sodium silicate. That is the most common used densifier. It prevents concrete dusting and helps it maintain a shine longer. It does not seal the concrete. Funny you should post those pics. The second one is a nissan dealer done with HTC equipment. If you go to your local super target or some super walmarts you will see polished concrete in the supermarket area. Look at the pickle or ketchup aisle. You will see damage from the brine of broken bottles. Don't get me wrong- Polished concrete has many great qualities. I just hate for it to be oversold as a miracle floor. You can grind a floor and seal it to preserve the finish and give it more durability, but that does take away the best feature of the polish- no coatings to fail. It you go to lowes or home depot you can also see polished concrete in action. look down the aisles- you will see the high shine along the edge, but lower gloss on high traffic areas. Granted these aisles see higher traffic than most of our garages ever will.

Fuller · Mar 1, 2008

I own 2 HTC 500 machines that we use as a prep tool for epoxy / urethane floors. I've never polished a floor with them but they work great for my use.

-Jabber, are you a Premier Garage franchise?

Jabberwalk · Mar 1, 2008

Yes- I am the competition. :thumbup:

David Ferguson · Mar 1, 2008

Downsides to polished concrete

Thanks for the discussion about the downsides to polished concrete. If I really have a problem with stains, (most likely in the the car-prep area), I suppose I could end up adding a sealer to just that section. The fabrication/machine area will likely not be subject to many chemicals.

I was not planning to fill the saw-cuts, but I have been learning about a flexible product that could be used for that, and cut flush with the floor.

I have heard that polished concrete actually has a higher friction coefficient non-polished concrete -- we'll see if this proves true.

The pictures I've posted are the in-progress pictures. The shine is just starting to come out. I believe it will get even more reflective as they continue the polishing process.

David Ferguson · Mar 11, 2008

The concrete polishing is complete. The process used was from Retro Plate, http://www.retroplatesystem.com The floor was only taken to the 800 grit level, but it's very shiny and reflective, especially since they added a coat of what is called "Retro Guard", and sealer to protect the surface while the Retro Plate cures over the next several months.

Anyway, on to the pictures:

Here's what it looked like after they added the Retro Plate

A close-up of the finish:

Here was the final product after the application of the Retro Guard. It dried quickly, and we could move-back in.

I'm happy with the results, and looking forward to years of use. If I find that I am having staining problems, then I may just just re-seal as necessary. The Retro Guard sealing went on very quickly, and dried quickly so this wouldn't be a very hard thing to do.

I want to thank the guys at Pristine Concrete who worked really hard to give me a great looking floor.

Fuller · Mar 11, 2008

I'm confused, I thought this was an HTC process?

David Ferguson · Mar 12, 2008

I'm sorry that I caused the confusion. I thought it was an HTC process because the guys at Pristine Concrete were using HTC equipment. But it was Retro Plate that was applied.

Jabberwalk · Mar 12, 2008

The Retroplate will help protect the floor and enhance the shine. The floor looks great. What is going in the corner? I can see an unpolished area.

David Ferguson · Mar 12, 2008

We will will be using one corner of the building for some office space (Steel Studs, Drywall, 3 offices and a bathroom). That area will be carpeted (vinyl for the bathroom), so we didn't bother to polish the floor.

bd8134 · Nov 16, 2008

Now a few months have passed, how do you like the polished floor?
Would you do it again?
Problems you have found?

hidollartoys · Nov 17, 2008

This is the same type of floor finish that is being done in our local Home Depot stores. I have also seen this done then a concrete stain applied.

sol · Nov 18, 2008

Some info to add, I had my shop floor 3200 sqaure feet polished HTC superfloor ( basically means polished floor with the equipment coming direct from HTC) Superfloor, retro plate is all the same it pretty much means polished concrete flooring.

I have had the floor in my shop for around 2 years, overall I am pretty happy. The floor is hardly invisible. Regardless what the sales guys tell you IT DOES REQUIRE regular maintance. You really should be buffing the floor every month to maintain the high end shine. Sand, grit and dirt over time start to put little scratches in the finish which dull the shine, that is why the montly buffing is required to take those fine scratches away.

The biggest downfall to polished concrete IMO is BEER will kill it, literally spill some beer on it ( the acidic acids sp?) and the beer will etch the concrete. It really ***** becuase how many of us have the boys over for some beers? we now have to worry about spills or drops of beer, and trust me friends will always spill a beer or two over time.

While polished concrete clearly looks amazing it does require alot of maintance. I got to the point I just placed Racedeck on 900 sqaure feet of the polished floor to protect it haha. Go figure, spend all the loot on polished concrete only to lay race deck over it.

To the poster the floor looks great, get in the habit of once per month buffing it with a netural cleaner and it will look even better.

Cheers

David Ferguson · Nov 4, 2009

Since my reply in another thread reminded me about this one -- I see that someone asked for followup.

We've been living with our floor for 18 months now. We finished building our office space this past spring, and have moved lots of stuff in & out of the building. We've had drywall texturing that landed on the floor, and it just mopped up and looked great. Oil spills have wiped up with minimal staining. The floor is a joy to sweep up, and we wet mop occasionally (usually when vehicles are moved out), this is really just to remove light dust/dirt that accumulates.

I've used the space for welding and other fabrication, car maintenance. It's still my dream shop.

We also had the garage floor in our house garage stained/polished, and it came out even better looking (probably due to the better concrete pour).

I'm still a fan of polished concrete.

Concrete Polishing in California

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