Your own concrete,
ground to a shine,
in Madison homes and stores
We cut the slab down with diamond tooling, harden it with a densifier partway through, and the gloss you end up with is the concrete itself.
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How deep the diamonds go
A polished floor has no product sitting on it. The tooling works across the slab in passes, each grit finer than the last, and the concrete tightens up until it throws light back into the room. The grinding is done dry, with a vacuum pulling the dust away as we go.
Partway through the sequence we put down a densifier. It reacts with the free lime in the cement and hardens the top of the slab from the inside, which is why a finished floor stops shedding the fine gray dust that bare concrete gives off for its whole life.
What decides the look is how far down we cut. Stay near the top and the floor keeps the cream finish it was poured with, smooth and fairly even in tone. Go a little further and the fine sand in the mix shows up as a soft speckle. Keep going and the stone comes through, and a plain gray slab starts to read like terrazzo.
Nobody can promise what the stone will look like until the first pass opens it. Some owners find that the best part of the job. We say it plainly before the grinder starts, so whatever comes up is a surprise you signed up for.
What a polish puts on display
Polishing works with the slab you already have, and it covers nothing. Whatever is in the concrete when we start is in the finished floor, now under a shine that makes it easier to see. The floor in the photo at the top of this page is a fair example. It was stained and polished, and the hairline cracks run straight through the gloss.
- Old cracks. A crack that has stopped moving can be filled, but the fill stays visible as a line across the floor.
- Patches and plumbing cuts. Anywhere the concrete was cut out and poured again is a different batch with a different color, and the grind brings that difference forward.
- Stains that soaked in. Oil that went deep comes up with the cut. Some spots lighten as we go down and some stay.
- Whatever is on it now. Paint, sealer, carpet glue or an old coating has to be ground off first, and what is under it decides whether polishing still makes sense.
The upside is that nothing can fail underneath it. There is no film to lift, so the floor you see after the last pass is the floor you keep.
A stain can even out a slab that is patchy, up to a point. Past that point you are fighting the concrete, and a coating that covers it is the better floor. Our page on solid color epoxy for Madison walks through that route. If you are not sure which side of the line your slab is on, get a quote on the floor and we will tell you after we have seen it.
Sales floors and living space
Retail and working floors
Madison’s retail runs along County Line Road, and a sales floor is close to the ideal job for polishing. There is no film to scuff through at the door or the register. When the traffic lanes start to look flat, they get burnished back with polishing pads and the rest of the floor is left alone. A polished floor also bounces light around, so a dim stockroom or back hall gets brighter without new fixtures. Stock rooms with carts and pallet jacks are the same story, since there is no coating for a wheel to chew at.
Grinding is loud and the noise carries through a building, so on a commercial floor we plan the grinding around the hours the building can give us, usually one section at a time. A finished section can be walked on as soon as the last pass is done. There is no cure to wait out. If you run a store on that stretch, tell us about the space and when it can close.
Houses
At home it is usually someone who wants the concrete itself as the floor: a basement, or an open main floor where the slab was going to sit under carpet anyway. A polished slab still lets vapor through, since it is bare concrete, and that counts for a lot in a basement, where a sealed coating over a damp slab can lift.
Garages are where we usually steer people the other way. A car drips oil and brake fluid, and a densified slab is hard but still open enough to take a stain from a spill left overnight. Most garages in Madison do better with a coating over them.
Keeping it looking right
Upkeep is light, and nearly all of it is about grit. Sand tracked in on shoes works like sandpaper underfoot, and over the years that is what takes the shine down.
There is nothing on a polished floor to wear through, so looking after it mostly means keeping dirt off it.
To see finished floors before you decide, look through the gallery. The grit sequence and the densifier are covered in more depth on the polished concrete page, and the rest of what we install around town is on our Madison page. For your own slab, send us a note or call (205) 238-8111, and Kortni will set a time to come look at it.
How shiny does it get?
That is your call, within what the slab allows. The gloss depends on how far up the grit sequence we carry the polish. Stopping sooner leaves a softer satin look. Going through the finest grits gives a high gloss that mirrors a doorway, the way the floor in the top photo does.
Will it be slippery?
A high gloss polish is not slick when it is dry, though it is shiny, and that matters in a room that gets wet. Entryways and other damp spots can take a non slip treatment over the polish. A room that is wet all day is better served by a coating built for it.
How much dust gets into the house?
Less than most people expect. We grind dry with a vacuum hooked to the grinder the whole time, so a little gets into the air and there is no chemical smell. The noise is the real nuisance. The machines are loud and run for hours, so plan the day around them.
Can a polished floor have color in it?
Yes, through a stain. The color goes into the concrete itself, so it cannot peel or flake off. Acid stain reacts with the lime in the slab and comes out mottled, while a water based stain gives more control and a wider range. We try it on a small area of your floor first.
Does it need waxing or a sealer every year?
No. There is no wax on it and no top coat to peel or redo, because the hardening is in the concrete. Over time the busiest paths lose a little gloss, and a few passes with the polishing pads bring them back. Keeping grit off the floor stretches that out.
Our basement has carpet glue on it. Can it still be polished?
The glue comes off first, with the grinder, and then we can see what is underneath. Some basements clean up into a slab worth showing. Others carry decades of patching and paint, and those usually do better under a coating or a refinish. You will know which kind you have before we go further.
The other Madison systems
Is your slab worth showing off?
Call (205) 238-8111 and describe what is on the concrete now, and you will get a straight answer on whether polishing suits it.