Friday, January 23, 2009

The Basic Methods of Concrete Polishing

By Mikkan Drane

Polished concrete is a generic term adopted on the fast becoming popular floor styling option in the market today. Its an option preferred where a home or establishment owner gets to expose the concrete flooring but without its grey dullness. The polished concrete style out stands the usual floor styles used like vinyl, hard wood floor, or tile option.

Concrete polish flooring can be styled in a wide range of possibilities, most especially when its all about the colors and patterns that you are after for. Featuring an affordable make that is energy efficient, dust free and low maintenance qualities. There are three popular methods that needs to be followed depending on what you want for your concrete floor: trowelling, burnishing or honing.

A steel trowelled finish is a concrete polishing process that can be achieved by hand or with a power trowelling machine. Whichever you will use depends mostly on the area to be processed. Trowelling marks are one of the downsides on this option however, if advised, can be fixed and or avoided. It gives off the typical natural grey concrete look, but can be upgraded to a lighter color by incorporating an amount of off white cement.

Burnishing is done right after the steel trowelling process, if you are desiring a more elegant, smoother and shinier flooring. This procedure actually started out with alternative burnishing materials like floor waxes, resin based and liquid polishes coatings. The effects resulting from the burnishing process improves the quality and appearance after the trowel method.

Honing is the process that you can adopt after the trowelling and burnishing options. This method is actually a concrete polishing option where a deeper depth is achieved. You'll know a concrete floor is honed when you start seeing presence of aggravates that is becoming part of the aesthetic design in the end result.

By using your creativity, and knowing how to mix up all these processes along with the right tools, and the right materials, you will surely get a concrete polished floor that is classy and elegant in the end. Add in the right color combination, the pattern and style and you are definitely in for the best polished concrete floor to brag about. - 16732

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