As a third generation finisher who has been finishing concrete for twenty six years I can say that its hard to tell by pics.
In the first pic it looks to like person who pulled straight edge never got the end of the board down to the line on the wood(straight edge is 80% of floor flatness). Where the gray meets the white is probably a bump. or the trowel machine is not running flat and hitting all the way out to end of blade. What most do is turn blades up higher which in turn causes the ring mark from the blade. If the straight edge was down all the way the machine (if Hitting the floor correctly) would hit everything but a couple of inches along the edge. Where float blades used? Hand troweled edges are hard to make make match a machine trowel. So there will be a little difference between the edge then the center.
The second pic of floor does not look that bad. I see some white spots (or small circles) out in the floor. If these are the little lumps you are talking about, these appear to be from buildup on the bottom of blades that have fallen of when burning a floor to slick finish. The only way to stop this is to pull machine off and clean the blades off. All in all from this pic floor doesn't look that bad.
Third pic in front of garage door. Floor looks fuzzy but not burnt to shine (left under machine). It is common practice to leave floor fuzzy (if fuzz is left, it is sealed concrete, no pin holes) but we usually hand trowel. If customer requested all shine then the time has to be priced in by contractor. Contractor should have an idea of the amount of time to finish if he has been doing any work at all. Also from this pic it doesn't look like the blades on the machine were hitting the floor evenly. We also bump up accelerator another 1/2 percent to help callback load to (or last load if small load, because small loads do not generate near the heat a full load will to set in cool weather) catch up with the rest of floor in cold weather. You can also use hot water to help the set time. I always ask for temp reading but not from from first load out of plant. First load from plant always seems to be warmer because materials generate heat sitting in bins.
The fourth pic again hard to tell but doesn't look to bad, but pic looks a little fuzzy to me.
If I were you I would get another finisher to have a look because pictures wont tell the whole story. But I will tell you this. I have never met a finisher who doesn't already know it all.
If I were the contractor I would look into some diamond polishing pads. and polish it up. In my opinion if you grind and take it down to the rock. Then it will really look like someone goofed. When ever I see a floor that has been ground down to exposed aggregate (unless its colored rock or glass), my first thought is someone lost it or it got rained on. When My Dad did KCI airport They would pour 20 grand and pray for rain because it was cheaper to grind then it was to pay help to finish. That's back when the cement had time cool after coming out of the kiln. Today's cement is still warm and sets like a house fire.
Another thing I have read is people are scared to use calcium for accelerator and use NCA (Non Corrosive Accelerator) instead. NCA needs sunshine to set it off. All the horror stories of calcium but I can show you buildings my grandpa,my great uncle, my uncle and my father did many many moons ago that have calcium are still standing and the floors look better then most all these floors today. People can always use epoxy coated steel if scared of calcium. Today's concrete is not rock, sand, cement and water. They all have fly-ash because the cements are being blended with it from manufacturer. Then concrete company adds more to mix. We have been doing floors with a tri blend, 25% fly-ash, 15% slag, 65% cement, 20% water 80% plasticizers (they finally made concrete that cant be finished) . Im sorry but it takes cement and moisture to make paste to bond around the rock to build strength and finish (the other 2 would trowel like wet dirt if used by themselves). Sand is a filler. Concrete is no longer concrete its chemical. That is why we no longer pour 4" slabs no more. 5" is as thin as we will go. Unless customer takes the responsibility.
There are three things I guarantee about concrete: It gets hard, Its gonna crack, and nobody is gonna steal it.
Good luck and hope you get it resolved.
P.S Hello to everyone because this my first post.
