Tips & How-Tos

Industry veterans, entrepreneurs and decorative concrete artisans reveal findings, divulge lessons learned and outline methods used to help advance the industry as a whole.

A polishing machine in a warehouse polishing concrete

Polished Concrete Mockups:
Make Them Count

There are many benefits of doing polished concrete mockups prior to starting a polished concrete job. These include: Seeing the job site firsthand. Learn locations of things like the power, parking, loading and unloading, water, wastewater disposal, dumpster, elevators and lighting, among other things. Learning how hard the concrete. By […]

A warehouse space finished with bonded abrasive polished concrete

Bonded abrasive polished concrete:
The standard polished concrete

Again, here’s the definition of polished concrete: The act of permanently changing a concrete surface, with or without aggregate exposure, to achieve a specified level of finished appearance. So far, we’ve learned about burnished polished concrete (BPC) and hybrid polished concrete (HPC) and that they both have places in the […]

Hybrid polished concrete in a hallway

Hybrid Polished Concrete:
Another Type of Polished Concrete

In the last tip, you learned THE definition of polished concrete: The act of permanently changing a concrete surface, with or without aggregate exposure, to achieve a specified level of finished appearance. You also learned that there are three types of polished concrete according to the American Society of Concrete […]

A warehouse type store with burnished concrete floors

Burnished Polished Concrete:
One of 3 Types of Polished Concrete

First, here’s the definition of polished concrete: The act of permanently changing a concrete surface, with or without aggregate exposure, to achieve a specified level of finished appearance. According to the American Society of Concrete Contractors’ Concrete Polishing Council, there are three types of polished concrete. Each of these has […]

A hand next to a mohs testing kit

Mohs Testing Will Save Time, Money and Frustration

In an earlier concrete polishing tip, I mentioned there are many options when choosing diamond tooling configurations and grit levels. Now we’re going to learn about another variable to consider, the Mohs testing for polished concrete. Today, we’ll learn how to match a diamond tool’s metal bond to the concrete […]

A grocery store with polished concrete that has been densified.

Was enough densifier/hardener applied to the polished concrete slab?

Densifiers and hardeners for polished concrete are either alkali metal silicates or colloidal silica. When you apply the densifier of choice to concrete and it absorbs into the polished concrete slab, the silicate reacts with the free lime (excess calcium hydroxide) and forms calcium silicate hydrate (CSH gel). This reaction […]