colored concrete polishing ??

[badfish77]

I have a restaurant im supposed to clean, color stained concrete. I usually scrub with 175, this time he wants to see how it will polish up. There is no floor finish on so how would I make it kind of shiny? I have access to a high speed burnisher, can I shine it up dry after I clean. Or do I need to apply something, maybe a spray buff? How do I make some kind of gloss after cleaning? Pads, soulution? thanks in advance.

 

[Ron Lippold]

I think the are called silverbacks, or you could use twister pads, might ask the rep if will pull up the color. I'm not sure

 

[Concrete Guy]

How is the floor colored? If it anything but integrally colored then true polishing will take the color away. There are guards out there that will give the floor some shine if it is hard troweled or honed. They don't do much for rough concrete.

Do you know how much he is looking to spend? There are many options to make a concrete floor shiny. There is a difference between polishing and making it shiny.

 

[floorguy]

How is the floor colored? If it anything but integrally colored then true polishing will take the color away. There are guards out there that will give the floor some shine if it is hard troweled or honed. They don't do much for rough concrete.

Do you know how much he is looking to spend? There are many options to make a concrete floor shiny. There is a difference between polishing and making it shiny.

ditto....with this added....

and this is why it is important to know how it was colored....

think of wood and sand paper grits.....the lower the number the rougher it is, and the more wood it will take off...and the higher the less wood, but makes it smoother...

if it is a true "stain" if you polish it....more then likly you will take the color off worse case...best case...lighten it...

and like Dennis brought up....how much does he want to spend??? cuz a true polish can be a little $$$$

 

[John G]

Has the floor been hardened? I would make sure it was before attempting to shine it, I would use Cheetah Pads, and finish with a 11,000 grit monkey pad to get the super shine.

 

[Cameron DeMille]

I just did this. It was ground and polished. Then I used Prosoco LS Guard and burnished it. The guard will add a shine. Stone Pro has a new guard. I havent tried it yet, but their demos in their showroom yielded very nice results.

 

[Ron Lippold]

Cn you detail it a little more, how many steps involved in grinding and polishing that floor, and was a densifier used, and general price for something like that.

 

[Jeremy N]

​i am very interested in entry level concrete polshing as well.

 

[Concrete Guy]

I started a new thread just for concrete polishing. Fell free to ask questions there so we don't hijack this thread too bad.

The Concrete Polishing Thread

 

[Cameron DeMille]

I used an Achilli machine. It's an old school machine, but the same can be done with a Cimex (which I have)

I started with 46 metals and went all the up to 5000 grit. This is a wet setup, most people do it dry. there were some extra steps that weren't needed but I did them anyway to get a feel for the new equipment. 46, 60 metals, 60, 120, 220, 360, 500, 600, 800, 1200, 1500, 2500, 5000. The first step was the longest because I was grinding out some bloqouts and divots and wanted to get a little aggregate going. I did 3 slow passes on the 46's.

I have a job coming up where the client wants the interior of his home done, but not a high polish. It will be a little less than half the time that I spent on this. One quick pass with the 60 metals, or maybe not even. Then up to 500 and seal it.

 

[floorguy]

yes i prefer wet....I am sorry i dont care how good of filtration you have...that silca shit is gonna get through....

do it wet keep it on the ground...

though after the dens step then i am dry, due to very little removal on the higher grits....

 

[floorguy]

ohhh and that was a shit load of steps

 

[Cameron DeMille]

ohhh and that was a shit load of steps

Yeah several were not needed. It's a new setup so I was just going through everything, getting a feel for what I can get away with.

 

[Concrete Guy]

I started with 46 metals and went all the up to 5000 grit. This is a wet setup, most people do it dry. there were some extra steps that weren't needed but I did them anyway to get a feel for the new equipment. 46, 60 metals, 60, 120, 220, 360, 500, 600, 800, 1200, 1500, 2500, 5000. The first step was the longest because I was grinding out some bloqouts and divots and wanted to get a little aggregate going. I did 3 slow passes on the 46's.

What diamonds are you using? Those are odd grits for concrete diamonds. And I agree...WAY too many steps. 3000 should be high enough and you can skip a couple in the middle. I wonder if a 5000 would do much to improve a very good 3000 grit polish.

 

[Cameron DeMille]

They're Tenax Frankfurts. I don't think I need the last couple of steps. I could eliminate the 360, 600,1500, 5000 grits, leaving me with a total of 7 steps if I start at 46. Like I said, it's a brand new setup and I just wanted to see what each step does. We actually didn't even buy this machine for this, we bought it for refinishing slabs of granite.


This is the Stone Pro Smart Guard SP I did last night. Awesome clarity and a lot easier to burnish without a propane burnisher

 

[Cameron DeMille]

This is the machine

 

[Concrete Guy]

This is the machine

That looks like it would take a long time to polish with.

One thing I would like to point out is that you are getting amazing results with a machine and diamonds that are not intended for concrete. This proves what I try to tell everyone; it is the operator, not the equipment. It also proves that good stone guys can easily become good concrete polishers.

 

[Cameron DeMille]

Full of water, it's 350lbs on a 12" foot print. it's not as bad as it looks. After the 60 grit everything goes very quickly. It's definitely not good for large commercial stuff, but this machine is a beast. It's on par with my 19" Cimex on 220v 300lbs. It's just a really old fashioned design. We bought it for texturing and antiquing, which it excels at. It's more physical effort though, without a doubt.

 

[Concrete Guy]

Full of water, it's 350lbs on a 12" foot print. it's not as bad as it looks. After the 60 grit everything goes very quickly. It's definitely not good for large commercial stuff, but this machine is a beast. It's on par with my 19" Cimex on 220v 300lbs. It's just a really old fashioned design. We bought it for texturing and antiquing, which it excels at. It's more physical effort though, without a doubt.

I was talking about the small cutting width. But it seems like it would grind the hell out of the concrete with that much weight in a 12" footprint...again it proves you know what you're doing because the floors you have posted are pretty damn flat. Good work.

 

[Cameron DeMille]

Thanks. I was actually surprised at how flat it turned out. You gotta keep the machine moving a lot. a lot of crosshatching fan patterns and such. It's a workout. The only bummer is it's all wet, unless I can find some dry tools in a frankfurt configuration.

 

[Concrete Guy]

Thanks. I was actually surprised at how flat it turned out. You gotta keep the machine moving a lot. a lot of crosshatching fan patterns and such. It's a workout. The only bummer is it's all wet, unless I can find some dry tools in a frankfurt configuration.

And a dust skirt with a way to hook up a vacuum to it.

 

[Cleantechsk]

Was present for this small demo using a new machine from Pioneer eclipse.. 50 year old building where vct was installed..didn't even use the deepest cut they have available but did use a 30 grit to start.

Was pretty neat. Put the machine into burnishing mode and used a special heat pad along with a special product that ...according to them turns concrete into quartz.

This stuff is super durable. Used a screw driver with all my power behind it and first scrapped the unfinished stuff. It scratched quite easy...then onto the finished project..barely anything.

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[John G]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqJ6Rp0Ji7I&feature=c4-overview&list=UUcii7MhWMujUCyA9YMexLPQ

 

[Cleantechsk]

John looks good.
Concrete, other then being dirty looked like it was in good shape though?
How much time did it take start to finish there?


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[John G]

Right at 20 minutes start to finish. lConcrete was in good shape but we started at step one with the Cheetahs anyway.