Polished concrete floors have become immensely popular in the past 4-5 years, not only for their clean, sleek and contemporary looks, but for its effectiveness, sustainability and durability. While many concrete surfaces can be polished to a certain extent, sometimes we all run into situations where the concrete substrate is so worn out or out of level that grinding and polishing such surfaces becomes not viable economically. In such situations, self-leveling concrete overlays can be installed to level the floors and subsequently polished to create a pristine concrete floor.
Polishing self leveling concrete
Attaching hybrid pads to Lavina
The polishing of concrete overlay is a multi-step process. The number of steps in polishing a concrete overlay depends on –
- Self-leveling concrete overlay
- Time of start of polishing after the concrete overlay is installed
- Polishing equipment
- Grinding and polishing pads
- Ambient temperature and humidity
Polishing Concrete Overlay, Param 6000
Earlier this week we tested polishing Param 6000 with Lavina 25L Pro by Superabrasives Inc. Mr. Nikolay Nikolaev, VP Marketing and Sales of Superabrasives assisted us in testing Param 6000 with planetary grinder Lavina 25L Pro. The observations of the two days of testing process are enumerated below –
- Please note that for polishable concrete toppings, a very flat floor, free from ripples and smoother marks is necessary.
- Polishing after 6 hours of pouring Param 6000 – The surface looked pretty good when 100 grit hybrid pads were used but 50 grit hybrid pads were very aggressive after 6 hours of the pour.
- Polishing after 20 hours of pouring Param 6000 – The following steps gave the best results –
- Start with flexible electroplated pads with 70 grit and then followed with 120 grit pads
- The third step is to go to 200 grit hybrid pads
- After using 200 grit hybrid pads, densify the surface with Hermetix, colloidal silica based concrete densifier. To find out the effect of densifying the surface, 75% of the area was sprayed with Hermetix and the remaining 25% of the area was left as it is. After waiting for 30 minutes after the densifier was sprayed, the following steps were taken.
- Started polishing with 200 grit resin pads followed by 400, 800, 1500 and 3500 grit resin polishing pads.
- The areas that were densified had clarity in reflection than the areas that were not densified.
Please Click Here to watch detailed installation procedure for polishing concrete toppings.
