Indoor polished concrete

last year

Looking for some experts' opinion on this topic. We engaged a contractor to polish and coat our first floor concrete. The builder had installed loose carpets so the contractors had removed carpet, cleaned, polished and added a coat to the base concrete (no staining). We were told they are done but we had noticed a lot of 1) uneven surfaces where they had filled the holes, but not polished nor smooth. 3) scratches on the surface and 4) uneven when it comes to shine. Some spots are smoother and shinier than others and when you look under the sunlight, you can see streaks. Kind of look like grease spots. See attached photos.
Can anyone please tell me if this is normal or they had done a bad job and need to fix it?

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Comments (17)

millworkman
last year
last modified: last year
Is this the slab or was this a floor specially poured to be a polished concrete floor as they are not the same?
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User
Original Author
last year
This was the original slab that they tried to polish. Given it was original, the builder had marks and dents on my them. The contractors I said they can't pour concrete layer on top of the slab as the thin layer will easily wear off.
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Your photo looks like a surface stain rather than an integral color. Depends on the look you want. We did have some pigment added to ours, just so it would be less "sidewalk" colored. We are really happy with how it turned out. We do have hydronic heat, which is wonderful. That alone requires serious insulation since you don't want to be heating up the earth. Our contractor was extremely fussy with the subs regarding protection of the slab during construction. The whole thing was always covered with a layer of Ramboard and a layer of a felt-like geotextile. (Think of all the things that go on during construction with your finish floor already in place.) I think it was after the interior construction that the concrete guy came back and did the polishing and sealing steps. (We looked at tiling the slab instead, but it was going to be another 10K)
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User
last year
last modified: last year
Slabs are ugly things. They are never meant to be a finished floor. You can’t polish a bird and expect it to be a diamond. You need to buy a diamond. An expert concrete finisher can most certainly apply a microtopping to a slab, with the right procedure and bonding agents. It’s done all the tme. Not ever cheaply. Very $$$$.
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millworkman
last year
Unfortunately then you get what you get as to the best of the floor finishers ability.
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chispa
last year
I would lay a nice engineered wood or tile floor over that cement slab!
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User
Original Author
last year
haha. the original idea is to have a polished concrete that looks a bit retro but modern at the same time.
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PRO
User
last year
That was never meant to be a finished surface.
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User
Original Author
last year
There is a difference between polishing existing slab vs adding a micotopping overlay, both of which are options. Cheaper option (still at $7k for 1k sqr ft, cheapest we can find) is to polish the original concrete for a glossy look. We had contacted three contractors and it's the same process that they follow. I guess this is new so no one knows what it is so this question is a bit out there.
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User
last year
Again, a poured foundation slab will never be pretty or perfect. It wasnt designed to be. Especially one that had carpet, and carpet tacks, on top of it. You are asking for the inpossible. You got as good as it gets. Which is why you should have had it tiled with a concrete porcelain lookalike in a 24x24 or 24x48.
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User
Original Author
last year
I appreciate the input from folks here so sending some updates. As mentioned, microtopping overlay wears down over the years so it'll require reapplication after a couple of years. As such, polishing the slab these days is a more preferred method as you see in offices and wearhouse. People started to do it residential which is what we did. The contractors came and will redo the filling to make it smooth. The inconsistency in gloss is a result of inappropriate burn at the end, which they will redo. Some of the uneveness and difference in color are inherent in the slab and thus unavoidable. I think this is a combo of bad workmanship (which they will fix) and our wrong expectation that everything will look smooth and nice. Just gotta meet in the middle and I think the remediated result will look very nice.
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User
last year
Only folks who do not know what they are doing will have a microtopping ”fade away”. 🙄🙄 That’s someone telling you they are unqualified.
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PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
last year
"They are never meant to be a finished floor."

They certainly are. The finishers don't bring the fines all the way up.
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User
Original Author
last year
Thank you Joseph. I was staring to think I'm crazy ὠ2
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User
Original Author
last year
Here's what they have done after remediated it. We think they forgot to burnish it at all after applying the concealer. Looks so much better!
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3onthetree
last year
Well this was entertaining. An OP who thought they were the first to want a polished floor, has the typical homeowner's unreasonable and misguided aesthetic for exposed concrete, doesn't understand the material and how to achieve it, and a commenter who thought he was contradicting the other sane comments but actually was supporting them, and finally the OP feeling reassured by that same misplaced comment. Better than telenovela!
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PRO
User
last year
Thats gonna peel in no time.
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User
Original Author
last year
I think this is the last time I'll post anything on Houzz as this community does not seem very friendly. It's a bunch of folks that think they know everything and is quick to judgement. I was looking for advice and not judgement. It's funny that people think I can actually get contractors to do something that no one has done before. If you look online, there are various places and materials on polished concrete for homes. We did it because one of our neighbors has done it. You don't need to teach me how to think and again, I am satisfied with the work after they had fixed it.