Thread: Polished concrete vs Burnished concrete

I know what burnished is, but had to look up polished.

Burnished is done when the concrete is originally put down and still not cured. The surface is worked by trowel (or apparently there are other methods, I've only seen troweled) to give a smooth, hard wearing surface. It looks polished, but because the surface is worked while still uncured, the upper surface becomes more compacted and hard wearing than it might otherwise be.

Polished is concrete that's been polished after it's cured so it's smooth and looks interesting, kind of like coarse grain granite. I don't think that it's as durable as burnished concrete is with regards to wear, but polished looks better to me.

But I'm not a concrete layer, I've only seen them put down square kilometres of burnished stuff and know exactly what that stuff is.

(Helicopters (power trowels) running flat out for hours...)

Stu.

Stu,

I think you might have nailed it. Everything you said makes sense to me. Thanks a lot.


Mik

Originally Posted by solution

Stu,

I think you might have nailed it. Everything you said makes sense to me. Thanks a lot.


Mik

Hope to help. My company polishes concrete but we are mainly Vinyl floor covering installers. Polished concrete is cut with diamond grinding disc's. starting at about 16 grit eventually working up to 3000 grit with a lot of processes in between, to polish a concrete we add, during the process, whats called a densifier which in itself hardens the concrete a great deal. At the end of all of this we apply a penetrating sealer which only fills the minuscule pours that may accept staining agents and does not leave a film on the slab. A similar cheap option is a concrete sealer which is 1/3 the work, half the price and a tenth of the life span. Burnished concrete which is becoming a problem for us as vinyl layers, is were the concreters, work "extensively" the slab usually with a helicopter bringing a lot of the cement to the surface and hardening it in that way. Either true polished concrete or Burnished concrete are both from my 30 years experience going to last the distance providing you have started with a reasonably high compressive strength. Burnished concrete is becoming a problem for us as floor layers because is can mask below grade concrete, but also highly burnished takes a lot longer to dry out and can in itself give us unreliable readings on a moisture meter. Good luck with your search.

The burnished type if concrete is done as the concrete is originally poured. The burnishing is typically done during the first hour or two after pouring.

The polishing is usually done any time after the first couple of days of the curing period of the concrete. This process some times results in what is known as "Terrazzo" floors. While some people love these floors they are a nightmare for people that build furniture as they are NEVER flat.