Give Your Concrete Floors A Reason To Shine
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You may have specifically wanted a concrete floor in your home, or you may have inherited in when you bought your home. Regardless of the circumstance, though, you have it and need to keep it clean. You likely were told at one point that concrete floors don’t require a lot of cleaning or maintenance so they are the ideal option. That’s true to a point, but cleaning concrete is something that you need to keep up with so it stays looking like new. Over time things will spill, get dropped or people will walk into your home with dirty shoes that will tarnish the nice polish that you had. Polishing concrete is important to keep it looking nice, but it does require some work if you let it get too far out of control.
The first thing you will need to do is give your concrete floor a thorough surface cleaning. Sweeping up any dust and debris and mopping up any sticky spots or stains with soap and warm water should be the first thing you do. For the next step, you may need to go to a local hardware store or home maintenance store and buy or rent polishing disks. It would be best if you got three different disks–one with a course grit, one with a fine grit, and one with an extra-fine grit.
Using the course grit polishing disk first, use circular motions until you cover the entire floor. This will help remove any of the stains that sweeping and mopping couldn’t handle. Once you cover the entire floor, then use the fine grit disk and repeat the same process. The fine grit will help remove any stains for good and have your concrete looking clean. Finally, use the extra-fine grit polishing disk and repeat the process even more thoroughly. The same circular motion should be applied and it is good if you have some overlap when you are polishing. The extra-fine grit is what will give your concrete the nice shine that you were wanting to achieve. Finish your concrete off with a good concrete floor polish and your floor will look like brand new!
While those steps seem simple, polishing concrete is not the easiest thing to do and can take a lot of effort to do it properly. You can prevent your concrete floors from getting damaged and tarnished by cleaning up anything that gets spilled on it right away. A mop and warm water is the best way to clean up any sticky mess that could take away the shine of your concrete if not taken care of right away.
Also, be sure to sweep your concrete floors frequently. Any dust or dirt that gets tracked in from shoes or clothes can act as an abrasive to the floor and scratch it. While you may not notice the scratches right away because they are very small, over time the floor will lose its shine and you will have to use polishing disks on it again to restore it. Cleaning concrete by mopping often is also a great preventative measure to make sure your concrete holds its shine.
Concrete floors are becoming more popular in homes because you can stain and color them to give them the shine and appearance that you want. With the proper care, these floors may not have to be cleaned with polishing disks for many years. However, if they aren’t maintained properly, then you may end up having to buy extra equipment or even hire professionals to come in and restore the shine. Polishing concrete is not the easiest thing to do, but the good thing is that it doesn’t have to be done that often if the floors are taken care of routinely.
