Polished Concrete Floors
Industrial Strength With High Class Appeal
They’ve been used in businesses for a while and now homeowners are turning to this inexpensive and surprisingly beautiful alternative.
The first step in having your concrete floor done is to have it polished. This is sort of like any big sanding project. You start with a course grit and work down to a very fine one, this process is called lapping. This should be done by a professional as they’ll known how to get the best finished product and when to switch the grit. If you’re looking for a higher sheen you will want to ask your professional about adding some commercial polishing compound on the final pass through.
If you want to change the color and play with it a bit then try applying an acid stain before the grinding. This is another process that’s best handled by professionals. Not that you couldn’t do it yourself but staining concrete is a pretty permanent thing and here experience might be worth the extra expense.
If you haven’t yet poured the concrete you can get even more creative. Talk to your contractor about seeding the top layer with colored aggregate, which will be revealed after the polishing process. You can use colored concrete and/or you can really get creative and have other objects thrown into the mix for a really crazy and fun floor. Consider using glass, semi-precious gems, metal chunks, and other durable pieces. And you can mix and match all sorts of items to come up with a random look or even an organized pattern.
Finished concrete can look like a variety of different materials. You can get a quarried stone look, a marble finish, a granite or a limestone finish. There are veined finishes which most resemble marble but do not end up with a completely smooth surface. If you like the look of Italian plaster on the wall then a steel trowel finish might be the one you want. This finish is completely smooth. Those people nostalgic for the good old days may want a terrazzo finish. Now, for me terrazzo reminds me of the horrible floor tiles we had in grade school but this is actually my preference when it comes to finished concrete. The terrazzo consists of glass and/or marble thrown into the mix for texture and depth beneath a completely smooth surface.
If you love the look of polished concrete floors you can go completely crazy and have polished concrete countertops, tables, chairs, sinks, planters or other decorative pieces. Concrete is coming out of the basement and becoming a staple of modern interior decorating.
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