Polished Concrete, Sealing New Plain Concrete |
Water Based Sealers – Pro Polish 770 Grout Binder
Grouting your polished concrete is usually a tough gig. To really get a great polished concrete surface finish, you need to grout the slab. People do grouting many different ways. When I polished concrete the following process usually results in a smooth finish.
- grind the surface to the desired finish (salt and pepper or full stone exposure)
- Finish with an 80 grit cut finish
- Some people spray densifier before grouting
- Mix Pro Polish 770 at 4 parts water: 1 part concentrate
- Make sure the surface is nice and wet before pouring your binder and brooming evenly around.
- You need to run your machine over the surface to create a paste from the binder and the concrete dust, this will be massaged into the surface
- Once the paste is thick and creamy and you have full coverage you can then scrape off the excess grout
- If the concrete is really porous, you may need to repeat the process.
- Let the surface dry and then cut the surface back with 50 to 100 grit ceramic style diamond pucks.
- Once all the topical grout is removed and the floor is clean and blemish free, apply your densifier and start the polishing process
Polished Concrete |
Sealing Polished Concrete with Pro Seal 896 or Pro Seal 898
Cream finish, polished concrete is a very inexpensive process compared to a high gloss, full stone exposure mechanical polished concrete.
Specifications for Polished Concrete Mix
- Minimum 32 Mpa Concrete
- Preferably use a topping slab on top of the structural slab, if using expensive colours and stone blends from concrete companies this will save you heaps
- Vibrate well and evenly always
- Helicopter the surface well to compact cement and fines, this is called burnishing
- Make sure you have a very experienced concreter finishing your surface
- Densify the surface as soon as possible, I use a potassium silicate densifiers from Con-treat
Preparation for Polished Concrete Sealer
- Diamond grind or burnish to a 200 grit finish without breaking through the surface to stone
- Vacuum all dust from the floor
- Wet the surface and wipe clean with wet microfibre flat mops
Polished Concrete Sealing with Pro Seal 896
- Spray apply Pro Seal 896 at 4 parts water to 1 part concentrate
- Using a microfibre flat mop, spread the Pro Seal 896 evenly over the floor and then cross wipe to be sure you have an even coat
- Repeat a second coat in approx 2 hours
- For higher gloss finishes, high speed burnish with a hog hair buffing pad within 24 hours, usually do the next day after sealing the concrete.
