Some owners of industrial facilities may have reservations about having their concrete floors polished during facilities renovations. Such people may fear that defects in the concrete will be visible once the concrete is polished. This article discusses some measures that concrete contractors who specialise in industrial concrete services may take to ensure that your concrete floors will not have defects once they are polished. Use this information to ask for clarification about the techniques that your chosen contractor will implement to avoid visible defects in that polished concrete.
Not Stacking Concrete
Some people pour concrete in one section of a form, and then use tools to move that concrete to the different parts of the concrete form. Such an approach can cause polished concrete defects because the tools used to spread the concrete usually move only the smaller particles of the concrete, while the aggregates remain where the pile of concrete was poured. This causes the polished concrete to have bumpy sections at the locations where aggregates are concentrated, close to the surface of the concrete. Experienced contractors avoid such defects by using a concrete pump to place concrete at different locations in the form so that minimal spreading has to be done manually.
Proper Consolidation
Defects can also result when the people consolidating poured concrete using concrete vibrators use the wrong techniques, such as letting the vibrator stay in one location for a longer time than it stays in another location. Such a practice can cause the concrete to segregate, as heavier particles move to the bottom of the area being vibrated. Other sections of the concrete will have aggregates that are evenly spread within the concrete. This irregularity can cause the polished concrete to lack consistency on its surface, since some areas may have depressions due to lacking aggregates.
Not Walking on the Concrete
Contractors can also prevent concrete defects by avoiding walking on the freshly poured concrete as they prepare it for polishing. Walking on the pliable concrete pushes the aggregates deeper into the concrete, as the paste or soft materials come to the surface. This can result in depressions appearing once the concrete is polished. Instructing workers not to walk on the concrete averts this cause of defects in the finished product.
As you can see, providers of industrial concrete services know the mistakes that can result into polished concrete defects. Consequently, they do everything in their power to avoid those defects from affecting the floors that they polish. You should therefore select an experienced contractor and let him or her polish your new concrete floors without any fear that the concrete will have visible defects.
Share