Category Archives: Polished Concrete

Industrial Polished Concrete Floors

Posted on by

Industrial polished concrete floors have become more popular in the Boston area in recent years. They are in just about every big box hardware store, but also in many restaurants, retail stores and even office spaces.

If your company is considering polished concrete, you’re not alone. Consider the market growth highlighted in ForConstructionPros.com –

“Early polished concrete floors began in the 1990s but by 2019, polished concrete floors accounted for approximately 53.5% of the U.S. market share of the concrete floor coatings market in terms of revenue, according to Grand View Research. Polished concrete slabs are found today in grocery stores, offices, retail, big box and residential. The increased use is fueled by the features polished concrete floors provide, such as high durability, long lifespan, easy maintenance, cost-effectiveness, high light reflectivity and aesthetic appeal. As expected, this sector is projected to increase in the coming years”.

FORCONSTRUCTIONPROS.COM

Example – Industrial Polished Concrete for Tool Rental Company in Boston and Worcester

This project was for a well known rental company for their tool rental division warehouse and office space, in both their Roxbury and Worcester locations. They had different floorcoverings that we had to remove to get at the concrete floor. So a large part of the job was demo of the old carpet, paint, and tile. Sometimes for this type of job, we are subcontractors for a General Contractor. In those cases, the GC usually hires a separate demolition company to demo out the existing floorcovering. But in this case, the only project was the floor, so the client hired us directly. Meaning we had to do the demolition of the flooring before proceeding with the concrete polishing.

After the demo, we needed another step: grinding off the carpet glue and paint with diamond grinding machines. Following that, we honed and polished with the same diamond abrasives we use to polish marble floors. This creates a flatter, smoother surface to the concrete. We do all grinding wet to minimize airborne dust.

Finally, several coats of clear sealer was the finishing touch. Crucially, the project was done on time and on budget, so no last minute surprises or excuses!

Demolition of existing floorcoverings on concrete subfloor
Demo of Floorcoverings
Grinding mastic off concrete floor
Diamond Grinding Mastic
Diamond honing concrete floor
Diamond Honing Stage
Boston Hertz polished concrete floor
Final Look
Hertz final sunlight side view
Sunlight View
Hertz final look polished concrete
Final Look

If you or your organization would like to consider having industrial polished concrete floors, feel free to get in touch with us for a free no obligation quote. We often work directly for the property owner or alternatively through a general contractor during tenant fitup or renovations.

Our contact information:

Act One – Marble and Tile
15 Main Street # 138
Watertown MA 02472-4403
617-221-4002 Text or Call

Service Area Map of Eastern Massachusetts
We Service All of Eastern Massachusetts

Restoring Historic Terrazzo Floor In Downtown Boston Office Building

Posted on by

If you have terrazzo floors from way ‘back in the day’, then you know that they can handle years of foot traffic and general abuse without cracking or wearing away. Is restoring terrazzo a doable thing?

After a long time, these floors can look …tired, to say the least. Worn, soiled, dull, and just plain old looking. Maybe the floor has paint drips on it from previous years remodeling, scratches from dragging heavy items on it and stains and spills that you can’t clean out no matter what you or your cleaning company tries. Because of this, you might look at a floor like that and wonder if the terrazzo can ever be revived again.

Answer: In almost every case, restoring terrazzo is a viable option. In other words, we can refinish it and it will look fabulous all over again!

Terrazzo is somewhat of a hybrid material. It’s composed of chips of marble embedded in either concrete (the old way) or epoxy (the newer way). In any event, we can diamond hone and polish the marble – we do it all the time. As a matter of fact, we also diamond hone and polish concrete floors all the time. In brief, restoring terrazzo is doable as long as you use a contractor who knows marble polishing and concrete polishing.

An example was an old downtown Boston office building at 10 Milk Street, in Post Office Square with terrazzo floors in the elevator lobby and main hallway of an upper floor. The building was from 1903, and the original terrazzo was showing its age. The General Contractor called us in while getting the space ready for a new company to move in on one of the upper floors.

When Restoring Terrazzo, Every Project Has Its Challenges…

A few problems right from the start:

1. Some of the terrazzo had been covered over by thinset cement and ceramic tile on top. Tile was gone already, but thinset cement is very hard to scrape off without damaging the terrazzo
2. Over the years, painters had dropped tons of paint drips and splatters all over the surface – no drop cloths for these ‘craftsmen’!
3. They had obviously dragged large heavy objects like appliances across the floor, leaving heavy scratches that aren’t always possible to grind out.
4. Grout had corroded in multiple areas, requiring regrouting for a finished look.
5. The construction schedule was a bit behind, so in order to get done on time, we really needed to do this job at night so the construction company could have a full crew working each day with no delay.
6. Oh, and by the way, there was no real running water, so we had to buy bottled water and bring gallons of it up the elevator to wash the floor! (Hey, it’s probably the only floor in town that can claim ‘washed in natural Poland Spring Water’!)

The before and after photos are above. If you click on each photo, you’ll get a larger screen view so you can see more detail.

We worked nights only, scraped old thinset off, honed the floor, gently removed about 4,932 paint spots (!), regrouted the joints and polished it up to a good shine, ready for business, on time, without causing any delay in the construction schedule and with no extra charges.

If you’re considering restoring a terrazzo floor or just covering it over with a different floorcovering, why not give us a call or fill out the form to get a quote on refinishing it instead? From a sustainability perspective, your building may even be helping to reduce/re-use and recycle. And you might save a lot of money and time and retain the original look of your property.

If you’d like to get a quote, you can call or text us at 617-221-4002 or simply fill out the form below.

Our contact information:

Act One – Marble and Tile
15 Main Street # 138
Watertown MA 02472-4403
617-221-4002 Text or Call

Service Area Map of Eastern Massachusetts
We Service All of Eastern Massachusetts

Concrete Polishing

Posted on by

Recently more and more of our clients are asking us for concrete polishing services, mostly floors but also some countertops. While we have historically done more marble polishing, concrete polishing is gaining in popularity and becoming more acceptable in even high end residential settings. That’s because we use the same diamond honing process we use for marble to create a smooth, light reflective surface on the concrete. In fact, we even use the same machines and the same diamonds! The sealers for concrete are a bit different, though.

You can have the finish anywhere from very glossy to a low luster shine. In contrast with marble refinishing, we can actually tint or dye concrete to achieve varying color effects. In addition, concrete densifiers are able to strengthen the surface and make it more durable than raw concrete.

Benefits of Concrete Polishing

It’s more cost effective than other floor treatments, and much easier to keep clean than raw concrete. Additionally, it allows you to have a brighter room with more design options than ever before. That’s partly because of its light reflectivity in contrast with either tile or carpet. Now that more and more people have seen the possibilities in restaurants and retail spaces, count on this option to become more common in offices and homes as well.

From a sustainability perspective, polished concrete flooring reduces your carbon footprint. and construction delays by not having to buy a floorcovering material and wait for its delivery and installation. After all, if you already have a concrete slab, polishing it and repurposing it is the ultimate in ‘Reduce [unnecessary floorcoverings], Reuse [what you already have underfoot] and Recycle [create something ‘new’ out of what already exists]! We couldn’t say it better than the folks at Eneref Institute:

“Comparatively, polished concrete is a more environmentally friendly flooring system, as it is “manufactured” directly in the facility. Odorless, non-flammable and non-toxic, installing and refining concrete flooring in situ requires little energy, no solvents and no volatile organic compounds”.

ENEREF.ORG

The photo below is an art gallery we recently honed and sealed for a major university in Cambridge. They wanted to say goodbye to their old institutional carpeting. So we removed the carpet and ground the adhesive off the concrete. The next step was to hone it with diamond abrasives. The final touch was to apply a sealer. Many sealers add gloss, but they emphatically did not want a shiny floor. Following their vision, we used a low luster sealer to lock in color and a low sheen.

Polished concrete floor with low sheen sealer in Cambrdge Massachusetts
Polished concrete floor with low sheen sealer in Cambrdge Massachusetts

Call or text 617-221-4002 or fill out the form below to get your quote.

Our Contact Information:

Act One – Marble and Tile
15 Main Street # 138
Watertown MA 02472-4403
617-221-4002 Text or Call

Service Area Map of Eastern Massachusetts
We Service All of Eastern Massachusetts