Maintaining Polished Concrete

As many now know, the polished concrete market has come a long way since the mid to late 90's, when the process was beginning to be developed and marketed. In the early years of this emerging process, most of those who were marketing diamond-polished concrete billed it as a "no maintenance" floor.

Unfortunately, polished concrete is still being marketed by many as a "no maintenance" floor, claiming that all you need is a neutral cleaner to clean the floor and that is about it. The reality is that there is no such thing as a finished floor that requires no maintenance and polished concrete is no different. In fact, there is a very effective maintenance program that was established for polished concrete many years ago. As this surface has grown in popularity, so has this maintenance program. However, before delving into it, one needs to understand why you need a maintenance program to begin with.

A polished concrete floor is very similar to a polished marble floor, in that both surfaces have been ground, honed, and polished by a series of abrasive grits, or diamond abrasive grits. Actually most of the polished concrete industry evolved from the methodology required for restoring natural stone such as marble. Over time, as foot traffic comes into contact with these polished floors, micro-scratches are ground into the surfaces causing light to deflect. This, in turn, causes the floor to begin losing it's high degree of reflectivity. As time goes by, without the proper maintenance program, the daily foot traffic will cause these polished surfaces to eventually lose their reflection. Then you no longer have a polished concrete floor. Rather, you have a concrete floor with very little reflection, if any. Depending on the level of foot traffic, a newly diamond-polished concrete floor can begin to lose its reflection anywhere from a matter of weeks to a year.

However, with the implementation of an effective maintenance program, the diamond-polish on concrete can be extended dramatically. For example, let's take a typical high traffic "big box" store. When concrete is diamond-polished under these conditions, without the right maintenance program, you will probably begin to see wear patterns where the polished surface is beginning to lose its shine, in as little as 30-45 days from when the floor was polished. Conversely, if the right maintenance program was implemented in this same high traffic environment, these wear patterns may not become noticeable for 1 to 2 years from when the floor was polished.

The natural stone industry went through this same learning curve decades ago. Today, most facilities, which have polished marble floors, know that there are fairly standard maintenance programs which extend the life of the polished surface. It is accepted that if they wish to keep their marble polished, the cost of a maintenance program is far less expensive than no maintenance program. For example, let's take a polished marble floor in a busy hotel lobby. If the hotel wants to keep a high degree of reflectivity on the marble, without a maintenance program, the marble will need to be restored (re-ground with diamond abrasives and chemically polished) about every 30 to 45 days in the high traffic areas. With the right maintenance procedures in place, this same floor will not need to be restored for 1 to 2 years. Most facilities, with polished marble, know that the cost of the proper maintenance program over a 1 – 2 year period is far less expensive than having someone restore their marble every month.

The same holds true with polished concrete floors. Contrary to what you may have heard, a “densified”, “polished” concrete floor is not scratch proof, which is just one example of why you need the right maintenance program. This is extremely important to understand for many reasons. First and foremost, if you sell a polished concrete floor, you have obviously done a good job of pointing out the benefits, however, one of the benefits is not “no maintenance” and if you sell it as a “no maintenance”, it may come back to bite you as I have seen happen many times.

Let’s now discuss the maintenance program. To begin with, you need a reliable written specification for maintenance procedures. This can be obtained by researching the market adequately. Once source you could turn to is a company by the name of Dayton Superior, who has an effective program. As I mentioned, by researching the market you can find a source. Next, you have to know who is going to be implementing this program. Will it be the contractor who polished the concrete? Many times, in big box stores, there are janitorial services that are cleaning the floors on a nightly basis. These janitorial companies may be the ones who end up actually applying the maintenance procedures to the floor. Then there are cases, where the maintenance procedures are shared between the janitorial contractor and the contractor who actually diamond-polished the floor. This should be done for a price, of course.

Once you have the proper written specification in hand and it has been determined who will actually be doing the work, then it is time to follow the specification. A quality polished concrete maintenance specification will include:

1. 1. A routine schedule of dust mopping and sweeping the floor.
2. 2. A routine schedule of vacuuming and cleaning floor mats, which should be at every entrance of the facility.
3. 3. A daily schedule of cleaning the floor with a quality concrete cleaner/conditioner, such as Black Diamond® Cleaner and Conditioner, using the proper machinery in large areas and a mop in small areas. This type of product will not leave a hazy residue on the surface like an inexpensive neutral cleaner will.
4. 4. Periodically polish the surface with a quality liquid concrete polish using the right machinery and pads. By using the correct product, you will be able to remove the micro-scratches in the floor caused by foot traffic, which dull the appearance. This will leave the floor with a high degree of reflectivity, just as the day it was diamond-polished.

It is important to note that the liquid concrete polish that you use does NOT contain floor finish (wax) as this will apply a coating on top of the diamond-polished surface and will not allow the floor to breathe. The entire maintenance program is important, but using the right liquid concrete polish in your maintenance program is the most vital portion of the specification and can actually make the reflection last 4 to 5 times longer than not using a product of this nature. The foot traffic will determine the frequency of this step. High traffic may require quarterly polishing, medium traffic may require bi-annual polishing and low traffic may require polishing every 1 – 2 years. When using a product like this, you can expect production rates around 20,000 square feet per 8 hours with one operator.

Polished concrete is a wonderful alternative for flooring with many great benefits. However, if this is what the customer chooses and they are given the impression that their choice is a “no maintenance” floor, big problems can and do arise. Many times, it is sooner than later. When the customer is presented the option of polished concrete, and the proper maintenance specification is presented on the front end, the customer has now been properly educated on what to expect and is not disappointed when the polish begins to dull because they know there is a solution in bringing back the polish. Presenting polished concrete in this manner will avoid many of the problems that concrete polishers and the end customer are facing today.

As written by Mr. Paul Lundberg, VMC Technical Assistance Corporation, Dallas TX 75227