For our main living area’s floor, we decided to go with a polished concrete. This decision saved us in material, and helped us continue with our earth friendly building approach. No sealant or chemicals are used to finish the floor, and it is low to no maintenance, with no future re-sealing or re-polishing.

Architectural Concrete Technologies did the work for us, while Tyler and Matt continued on the siding and other things.

The first step was to fill in the relief cuts with an epoxy. We chose a lighter grey color to contrast with the darker grey concrete.

When the epoxy is first applied it looks a little messy, but once they start grinding the concrete, it becomes flush with the floor.

They used a remote controlled grinder with diamond abrasives to do most of the work. To get the final product they had to grind, hone and polish the floors to a 3000 grit polish. We thought we were going to have to stain the concrete to a darker grey, but the color turned out just as we would have hoped.

Here is a close up of the floor. We had them finish it to whats called, in concrete polishing terms, salt and pepper. Where it is ground down just enough to see a little aggregate.

One of the greatest parts of the concrete floor can sometimes be its flaws. Small cracks, dings and other imperfections gives the floor more character. In this picture below is an area where more aggregate is showing through. This is caused by the uneveness of the slab.

This picture shows the slight shine of the floor under the lights.

Sadly enough, right after the floor was finished and dry, Tyler and Matt had to cover it up with paper to prevent it from receiving any damage during the duration of construction.

The floor was definitely better than imagined, and we can’t wait to pull the paper back up and enjoy it.