Why is Polished Concrete the Most Preferred Flooring Solution in 2020?

Modern commercial and residential establishments are no longer laid out with roughly-laid concrete slabs or conventional flooring materials. Architects, designers and floor planners implement the best solutions to provide properties with tactile and smooth floors. Read on to understand why interior designers, architects, and property owners are adding polished concrete to their wish list like never before.

Polish Concrete Floors – Providing the Right Appeal!

Are you in the process of planning out the floors for your commercial establishment, office, store, or any other location that will fetch high footfall? Or, are you looking for ornate flooring ideas to add to the value of your home or that of a loved one? Regardless of their application or location, polished concrete floors are proving to be reliable solutions everywhere. Highly durable, attractive and stylish, these floors are in order when you invest in polished concrete flooring materials. For more information about polished concrete services, please visit our website or contact us directly.

Slip Resistant Best Polished Concrete Floors

One of the most significant reasons behind the increasing popularity of polished concrete finished products is that they are slip-resistant. This feature is a helpful one for homes with seniors and kids. The same applies to hospitals, nursing homes, senior citizen centers, creches, and areas where patients, kids, and elderly visit regularly. Be it in offices, malls, stores, theatres, cinema halls, or any other type of commercial establishment, slip-resistant floors are non-negotiable and highly coveted. The manufacturers and dealers of polished concrete floors have a lot to talk about their benefits, slip resistance of finished floors being the most important of all as it averts accidents and falls.  

Hard-wearing Polished Concrete Floors

Yet another significant feature of polished concrete flooring lies in its long-lasting and hard-wearing attributes. Hardy floors are capable of taking a lot of stress and do not get damaged easily. They can withstand high traffic and are perfect for factories, hospitals, warehouses, and diverse working environments. When installed in warehouses and storage centers, these floors can handle the movement of racks, trolleys, trailers and heavy crates along with human movements. The benefit of using polished concrete floors is that property owners need not invest in repair or restoration costs; at least not for a few years post-installation

Polished Concrete – a Closer Look

Before delving further into the properties and benefits of polished concrete floors, it’s important to understand a little more about this premium flooring alternative. There’s plenty of buzz around ‘diamond-refined’ polished concrete floors and how they are manufactured. According to experts in the field of flooring, and as this guide explains more in detail, polished concrete surfaces usually comprise of very rigid and heavy slabs. Walls, concrete countertops, floors, and furniture made of polished concrete are manufactured from large, heavy and rigid slabs. These slabs of concrete are made of water, sand aggregates, and cement. Once the ingredients are finely mixed, they form a paste-like substance. 

The mixing process is carried out in a ready-mix truck fit for the purposes of delivery to the site of construction. 

In some cases, the mixing can be done on the site itself in smaller concrete mixers. The paste formed is then added to pre-fabricated molds for the setting. The setting of slabs can also take place on the floor surface directly or by laying out on the shuttering. Once the mixture is bound together, another process referred to as hydration is triggered off. During this process, the cement present in the mix starts gelling up. The gel is helpful in providing a layer on the other ingredients found in the concrete mixture. The concrete mixing machine is constantly rotated to enable the cement gel to blend completely with the aggregates and sand. Over time, the gel behaves like a stiffening agent and allows the concrete to set well. Once the process matures, crystalline bonds are formed to stick everything together.

Aggregates in Polished Concrete Floors

The significance of aggregates in concrete cannot be undermined. It is important for the aggregates present in the mixture to blend well with the other ingredients. Regardless of whether the aggregates are to be visible after setting or not, they have to mix to perfection. The trick lies in understanding the processes of preparing freshly installed concrete before moving to the next step. The manner in which the concrete is prepared and laid out would determine the finished look of the floor after all processes are done. For example, to produce high-quality concrete, it is important to have the right proportion of cement and water. These two vital ingredients in polished concrete floors are responsible for their porosity, shrinkage, strength, and resistance to scratches and abrasions. A higher-than-required proportion of water can make the concrete slabs dusty, porous and soft. On the other hand, if the water is not enough then the concrete will be difficult to smoothen out for the purpose of setting. 

Quality Finishing is Important!

Power trowel (power float) is considered as an effective means of attaining benchmarked finish for polished concrete floors. However, as power troweled concrete is quite different from polished concrete, they are priced differently. The use of a power trowel lies in smoothing, flattening and compressing different types of concrete surfaces to make them more durable and hard-wearing after being cured. 

Diamond abrasives are useful for refining the look and finish of power-troweled surfaces. When concrete floors are polished with progressively better grades of diamonds, they start giving off an exquisite look that’s unparalleled. The process of continual refinement is a critical one and cannot be compromised in any way. Once the scratches are removed from the surface of the concrete floors, they give off an incredibly smooth, tight and polished finish – one that reflects natural light and provides the highest levels of resistance to wearing and damages. 

Way Forward

Completely stunning in their visual appeal, polished concrete floors are certainly the right way to go if you are willing to settle for nothing but the best. The benefits of investing in polished concrete are diverse and many. Reach out to your preferred polished concrete providers for installing your dream floors – anywhere, anytime!