Lightly polishing my concrete floor

[Chucktown]

My 23'x24' floor was poured in December. The day it was poured, the wind blew like crazy, resulting in small bits of organic matter finding their way into the top of the concrete.

It was power troweled, saw cut joints, and a plastic membrane was sealed over the top for a full week.

The aggregate appears to be limestone, which I'm afraid means a heavy polishing job is out of the question. I've picked at a few spots where I can see some of the aggregate and it's white and chalky. The surface is otherwise extremely hard.

The spots where the organic matter is exposed. I polan to pick it out and fill with an epoxy.

My questions are:

Do densifiers react with the aggregate as well, or just the concrete?

If the concrete is already very smooth and very flat, what is the minimum I could start with on polishing pads? Ideally I could just dust mop the entire floor when needed, and I'd like it smooth enough to do that without too much hassle.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Densifier reacts with the unhydrated lime in your concrete, on a molecular level.
No lime, no reaction.

Early grinding is called a "cut" and without it your floor will not polish evenly. The cut levels the peaks and valleys. If you don't care about the looks, start with a 100 grit pad.

 

[thegarageguy]

I think what you are looking to do is called a topical polish. It's done by using a high speed burnisher and special diamond impregnated pass, densified and polish guard. Many new Home Depot's and Lowes are being spec's this way now.

 

[dcs Inc]

The box stores are having the concrete contractor burn a finish at placement. Meaning, they over trowel the surface often partially blackening it. This with integral color at placement and then the poor mans topical polish seems to be the way these guys are going. They also understand they have to do a high buff every evening because this type of application has no lasting shine.