How To Polish Concrete By Hand?

olishing concrete floors using hand-held grinders is generally time-consuming. Areas best suited for hand-held grinders are around floor edges and small rooms where the big stand-up grinders cannot fit in or reach.

The process can be time-consuming and painful at times, but with the right tools and technique, it can be speeded up. The power tools you will need are as follows:

• Concrete hand grinder
• Vacuum cleaner and hose
• Personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Concrete polishing discs

Step 1: Every polishing job, whether on a hand-held grinder or a stand-up grinder, should start with the coarsest grit. Start by using a 50-grit grinding disc on the hand grinder and carefully polishing the whole concrete surface. This will flatten the concrete and expose the stone. It is almost like setting up your canvas for painting your masterpiece.

Step 2: Once you finish the 50-grit pad, switch to the 100-grit disc and repeat the process, carefully removing all the 50-grit scratches from the concrete. If you leave any 50-grit scratches, the more those scratches will appear as you go through the concrete polishing procedure. You must remove all scratches from the previous stage before moving on to the next grinding disc.

Step 3: Once you have finished with the 100-grit and are happy with the look of the concrete, you can switch to 200-grit. The process is the same as step 2, but you remove all 100-grit scratches this time. With every grinding disk you use, your concrete becomes smoother and more glass-like-looking.

Step 4: Start again with 400-grit to erase the 200-grit concrete polishing scratches. With 400-grit, you can achieve more industrial/rustic-looking concrete that is darker in color and has a reflective surface. You will have mid-range stone exposure, where the stones will not be as well defined as with higher polishing grits.

Step 5: If you would like to achieve a more high-end, glass-looking, smooth and highly reflective surface, you can move to 800-grit. As with the previous steps, you need to make sure that the scratches from the previous stage are completely removed. Depending on how high you want to polish the concrete, you can go on to the 1500-grit and 3000-grit stages.

Step 6: Once you have achieved the desired stone exposure and polishing grit, you can move on to the final stage. As concrete has a porous surface, even when polished, we need to make sure we turn it into a non-porous one to ensure the long-lasting beauty of the polished concrete. You must clean the concrete and remove dust from the grinding stage to do this. You will then have to seal the polished concrete with a stain guard or penetrating concrete sealer.

Your new polished concrete is ready for use once you are done and your concrete sealer is fully cured. To maintain it and ensure it looks brand new for a long time, all you will have to do is regularly clean it with a damp mop.