Concrete Refinishing, Polished Concrete (Diamond Grinding and Diamond Polishing)

Floor Masters should be your first choice for your polished concrete floor (Concrete Grinding and Sealing and/or Diamond Polished Concrete). Whether it be a bar, restaurant, shop, kitchen, lounge, patio or whatever. We can grind and seal, or diamond polish your concrete floor to get a smooth attractive finish.

Why have a polished concrete floor?

Polished Concrete is a great flooring medium that is unsurpassed by other flooring options in many aspects.

•  Polished Concrete has great thermal properties – concrete floors are thick and do not change temperature quickly or dramatically. On the other hand, tiles are thin (10mm) and change to the air temperature in minutes.
• Diamond Polished concrete saves on lighting costs – Mitre 10 Mega estimate that their highly polished concrete floors save them about 80% on their lighting bill because of the light reflection.
• Polished Concrete is robust – under normal use polished concrete will outlast virtually all other flooring options. Polished concrete is even harder, with greater abrasion resistance. There is nothing to come off, warp, suffer water damage or be cut by a devious child.
• Polished Concrete is affordable – Lets face it, you’re probably going to have a concrete slab anyway.
• Polished Concrete is attractive – It is certainly very popular at present. It can be coloured and/or have different coloured aggregate etc.
• Polished Concrete is timeless – Unlike flower print wallpaper or terracotta tiles.
• Polished Concrete will suit most home styles and furnishings.
• Polished Concrete can be used inside and out, allowing that indoor outdoor flow.
• Polished Concrete makes it very easy to change to a different style of flooring in the future (you don’t have to pull anything up).
• Polished Concrete floors can easily be dressed up with rugs that are easy to clean or change. (tip, swap rugs between rooms to change the feel of the room)
• Polished Concrete floors are easy to clean and very healthy because they don’t hold dust mites and everything else dropped on them.
• You have options. You can colour your concrete, or stain/dye it. You can choose what colour and size aggregate you want, add coloured glass or crushed shell (if it’s not an existing slab). It can be cut into a large tile pattern, with or without grout (2mm deep by 6 or 10mm wide lines). You can have very little or a lot of aggregate showing. It’s your floor and we can help you make all the decisions that are right for you.

There are two ways to finish a concrete floor.

1) The previously most common and initially the cheapest way is to “Grind and Seal” the concrete. This involves grinding the concrete to about 120 grit with metal bonded diamonds and applying a surface sealer to the concrete. This will give a good finish that is easy to clean. It is the only way to complete external concrete as an antislip additive can be added to the sealer to prevent slipping. The surface sealer should be reapplied every 3-5 years to keep it in optimum condition and maintain ease of cleaning. The use of a mat in entrances will help reduce sealer wear.

We usually use Acrylic Concrete sealers because they do not scratch as quickly as epoxies and have a reasonable life span. A waterbased concrete sealer will give a lighter finish to the concrete, while a solvent based concrete sealer will darken the concrete (wet look). The solvent based concrete sealers can be Matt or Semigloss. The waterbased concrete sealers are semi-gloss or gloss only.

NEW – we now offer high performance Polyaspartic resin coatings.  We have previously discouraged client from using epoxy and polyurethane resin coatings due to their tendency to yellow or discolour with UV exposure.  Polyaspartic clear coats offer many benefits for a little extra cost.  more on polyaspartics

• Polyaspartics allow fast recoating 1-2 hours
• Fast return to use – 4-6 hours light use – 24 hrs full use including vehicle traffic.
• High abrasion resistance (about 4 times that of epoxy)
• Excellent gloss retention
• Rich colour vibrancy “Wet Look”
• Solvent, odour and VOC version available.

Ask us about our polyaspartic coatings.

Waiting room in Hair salon (whole salon floor was ground and sealed concrete)

2) The latest advancement is “Diamond Polished Concrete” DPC (warning some people refer to grind and seal as polished concrete, the difference is like the difference between a gold plated ring and a solid gold ring).

Diamond Polished Concrete involves grinding to 120 grit with metal bonded diamonds, applying an integral sealer (Creteshield CS or Creteshield 101), that penetrates the concrete and through chemical reaction forms a gel that swells, blocks the pores, then hardens. The result is a floor that is very hard (approx 42% improvement in abrasion resistance) and will not allow the penetration or escape of dust etc. This is then polished with resin bonded diamonds in various grades until the desired finish is obtained. This gives a natural shine to the concrete. Grades include 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500 and 3000. DPC-200 is a matt finish, DPC-3000 is a gloss finish. Every concrete slab is different, what an 800 grit finish looks like on one floor may differ on another. Gloss has 2 elements, light reflection and clarity of reflection. The results can be similar to a granite bench top (if finished to DPC-3000 grit).

At Floor Masters we have developed our own Diamond Polished Concrete system DPC. The DPC system is a result of our own experience and experimentation here in New Zealand with local concrete floors. The major advantage over the other systems is that the DPC system does not need to be polished to the 3000 grit gloss finish (other systems require polishing to 3000 grit). This means we can do a matt, semi or gloss finish to your floor. Not only does this give you more control over the look, but can save you $ if we don’t need to do finer polishing. We have also sourced a great waterbased stain resistor (Creteshield SR) that we apply to the finished floor to give added protection from common staining agents. Creteshield SR also increases the slip resistance to greater than .05 Co-efficient of Friction required by OSH.

Our experience is that most people prefer a semigloss finish “DPC-800”. At this level the aggregate gains colour clarity and the sand starts to reveal it’s beige tones rather than the grey of the cement. About 70% are finished to DPC-800(semigloss), about 20% are finished to DPC-400 (matt) and about 10% to DPC-3000 (gloss)

Summary – Grind and seal is the best option for external surfaces because an antislip additive can be used in the sealer. Diamond Polished Concrete is the best finish for all internal floors as the concrete is hardened and a lot more scuff and scratch resistant. Shower bases can be sealed with an antislip additive.

Price is determined by the size of the area and the gloss level chosen. Big open areas attract a lower rate than small jobs and areas with more obstacles. Contact us for a rough estimate or for a written site quote. We can also quote from plans. Quote request