Demmert & Associates
Concrete Polishing

History of Cement Polishing

Concrete is an agglomerate of stone and cement paste and has been polished since the world has pozzolith in Roman times. Cement mortar was laid down and the decorative stones were placed into the bed by hand to form a pattern known as a Venetian floor. The floor was then polished by hand. Today, we are only rediscovering this old process and using more modern machinery to accomplish it.
 
How it is Done

In order to polish any material you have to use the process of lapping. This consists of continuously rubbing with a progressively fine abrasive, and the process applies to wood, metals, and stone.

Silicone carbide is the main type of abrasive used to polish concrete and is commercially available with a magnesite or resin bond in all the shapes required. The final buffing is accomplished with either oxalic acid for calcium carbonate or one of the superfine buffing compounds for harder stones.

 
Can your concrete be Polished?

There are absolutely no problems in polishing the aggregate in concrete. Every one of the hard stones can be polished, from marble to diamonds. The difficulty in polishing concrete comes from the attempt to polish the cement binder because of the microporosity caused by the excess water required to make concrete workable. This bleedwater as it comes to the surface creates micropores. Since it is impossible to polish a void, this creates what is known as the eggshell or orange peel effect. In keeping this problem to a minimum the surface to be polished must be extremely dense. We will verify the suitability of your floor for polishing.

For a new slab we can show you the type of finish to produce a beautiful polished floor.

Demmert & Associates
This picture shows the look
of polished concrete.