Things Needed To Do Before Polishing Concrete Surfaces

2022-01-21

Polished concrete floors are strong, durable, and beautiful when given proper finishes. Before making any finishes on a concrete surface, we’ll need to ensure that it’s well-prepared to get the best results. The followings are some essential things that we should do before polishing the concrete surfaces.

Perform concrete crack repair

Many concrete structures are durable when built well. However, they sometimes get damaged and they’ll need concrete crack repair as time passes.  Concrete cracks can be a severe problem during polishing. For the concrete to look flawless, we need to do concrete crack repair to get a surface that is a close match to the rest of the perfect surface. As such, we should vacuum the remaining dust and clean up the dirt, then using an appropriate sealant to repair the cracks before polishing. We can use a cement mixture to patch peeling and shallow surface chips.

Do joint repairs

When dealing with concrete, there are some kinds of joints that you’ll often encounter. The construction joints are located between slab pours. The isolation joints separate concrete slabs from other construction components such as drainpipes or columns. These are joints created before the pouring of the concrete. We should clean and fill these joints with a concrete filler or sealant. Repairing such joints reduces the chances of peeling and chipping at the joint edges. The process also improves the look of the finish.

Test the hardness of concrete surface

To choose the right bond and grit of diamond tooling to use in polishing, you have to first determine the hardness of the concrete surface. The scratch test kit is a perfect tool for measuring the relative hardness of the concrete surface. It has eight points that are forged using different materials. The materials represent the Moh’s hardness scale, which ranges from two to nine. To test the surface, scratch it with picks of varying hardness. The results of the test will help you choose the most cost-effective and efficient diamond tooling for polishing. Selecting the ideal concrete diamond tooling prevents unnecessary wear to your devices.

Choose the right diamond tooling and equipment

When polishing, you have to select a bond that is the opposite of the hardness of the concrete. We should polish hard concrete with soft bond diamond tools because it’s easy to expose them. But if polishing the soft concrete, then hard bond diamond tools are needed. A proper choice ensures that no wear and tear will burn through the diamond tooling more quickly than necessary. Also, choosing the suitable concrete grinder after deciding what diamond tooling to use, some diamond tooling are intended for hand-held grinder while some are designed for walk-behind grinder. Choosing the right equipment can make the entire polishing process easier and more efficient.

If you follow the above steps and well-prepared for the concrete surface before starting to polish, you’re likely to end up with the best concrete finish that will give you a sustainable polished concrete floor.