Polished Concrete Floors - Primoris Brick & Paving Company, Cambodia

Polished Concrete Floors

We are introducing a new service offering the highest quality polished concrete floors for commercial and industrial projects around the end of Q1 2010 after completing training as a certified "Certi-Shine" installer by Vexcon Chemicals Inc. The "Certi-Shine" brand is recognised as a leader in polished concrete technology.

Cert-Shine can be used to deliver floors both indoors and outdoors and on new or existing concrete and deliver long term value:
- Economical square metre cost
- Resistant to water, chemical, oil and food stains
- Virtually no maintenance.

The finish can be clear or an unlimited choice of colours in three levels of shine:
- low reflectivity,
- medium reflectivity
- high reflectivity.

History

Polished concrete was first introduced to the market in 1998 with great success - big box stores like Ikea and Home Depot were some of the first to use it. It is now the primary choice of floor finish in big box retail, commercial and industrial structures and is growing in popularity in residential applications.

Benefits

In addition to the unlimited design possibilities possible, polished concrete offers many benefits:

-	The lowest lifecycle cost against other flooring substitutes (ultra low maintenance requiring only occasional damp mopping & eliminates the ongoing cost of coating and floor covering failures and replacement - see more info below)
-	Light reflectivity up to 30% greater
-	Abrasion resistance up to 400% greater
-	Impact strength up to 20% greater
-	ASR SAFE and will not trigger or contribute to damaging surface ASR (alkali-silica reactivity)
-	Non toxic, green friendly (qualifies for LEED points).

One of the big drivers for choosing a polished concrete floor is its low life cycle cost. The National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association of the USA conducted a study on the comparative costs of commonly used commercial flooring materials and polished concrete floors in 2008 (see table below). This examination of flooring costs (based on 10,000 sq/feet) over a 20 year life span illustrates the hidden costs involved in the purchase and installation of various materials and the dramatic difference in the cost of the materials over a floor's life.

Cost per Square Foot	Installed Cost	Annual Maint	Years Av. Life	Replacement Cost	Total Ex. 20 Years	Cost PSF/Year
Vinyl Sheet Flooring	$2.72	$1.39	9	$3.43	$38.14	$1.91
Vinyl Tile Flooring	$1.23	$1.47	15	$1.60	$32.76	$1.64
Ceramic & Mosaic Tile	$6.48	$1.22	20	-	$30.88	$1.54
Quarry Tile	$5.78	$0.58	20	-	$30.18	$1.51
Cement Terrazzo	$8.50	$0.46	20	-	$20.10	$0.79
Granite-Glaze	$6.50	$0.46	20	-	$15.70	$0.79
Polished Concrete	$6.00	$0.00	20	-	$6.00	$0.30

How is a Polished Concrete Floor Created?

The process involves honing the concrete floor with machines that use diamond segmented disks and pads to grind down and then polish up the concrete, using progressively finer disks. The finer the grit of the disk used in the final grind, the higher the level of sheen achieved. The disk are numbered from 16 grit for an aggressive grind, and continue through each step 50 - 100 - 200 - 400 - 800 - 1500 and 3500 grit.

Chemical densifiers (which harden and seal the concrete) are usually applied at the 400 grit level, and then the floor is further polished to the desired level of sheen and then burnished to remove any excess material.


Above - Diamond grinding tool & underneath of a four-head grinding unit Below - 4 head, 2 head and corner floor grinding units

New concrete pours can be coloured using a colour admix and seeded with colourful rock or other material such as recycled glass embedded to enhance the finish (the floor being ground to a point that exposes the aggregate & other materials).

Outside surfaces can be honed to 80-100 grit to achieve very good slip resistance. Slip resistance for inside surfaces can be enhanced with additional a chemical anti-slip conditioners. These products contain special additives designed to improve traction and make wet surfaces safer.

Polished concrete offers three different levels of honing:
- Cream (honed to only expose the sand particles in the floor),
- Salt & Pepper (honed to expose a smattering of aggregate in the floor)
- Aggregate Finish (honed to expose the greatest amount of aggregate in the floor).


Above: Examples of cream finishes (no aggregate showing) Below Left - "Salt & Pepper" finish Below Right - Full aggregate finish

Decorative Concrete Finishes

Concrete can also be stained using water or acid based dyes - the finish is only limited by your imagination! Nearly any effect or image can be created. Floors can be stained and sealed or stained and polished to create the effect you want.

Click to see photo gallery of colour stained polished concrete floors

Compressive Test Results