Now a car testing facility, this concrete floor was once part of a condominium complex, and was in need of some sprucing up. "Car reps from around the world come to this facility regularly," says Don Pinger, owner of Custom Concrete Solutions LLC, "and the company wanted to fix up the floor and make it look more professional."
"Originally, they wanted the floor dyed and polished with not too high of a shine, fearing that so many fluorescent lights in such a large, open area would be too reflective and glittery," explains Pinger. "But once we did a mock up for them, they changed their mind and decided to go with the concrete's natural color and a higher shine as they realized how much lighter and cleaner it looked.
The concrete's finish was rough, with a hand-troweled, non-mechanically finished surface. Pinger and his crew polished the 8000 sq ft floor with their HTC 800 machines in this sequence: started with 40 grit, went to 80 grit, 150 grit metal, densified it with Retroplate, 100 resins, 200, 400, 800 resins, then 1500 resins. "The concrete was soft-medium, so it cut beautifully," recalls Pinger. "The only real challenges we had were having to use almost double the amount of densifier because the floor was somewhat porous, and finding tons of shredded wood in the concrete once we started grinding. Pieces of twisted wood the size of a large finger were interspersed throughout the floor and you couldn't just pull them out because some of them twisted down into the concrete an inch or two. Some of the larger ones got epoxied while many of the smaller ones were left au naturel. You never know what you'll find once you open a floor!"
The floor was sealed with Ameripolish Stain Shield. Pinger says, "We like Ameripolish because of its sheen and it is easy to work with. It goes on easy, more consistently, and gives more consistent shine. There's minimal amount of streaking."
Custom Concrete Solutions
West Hartford, CT 06107
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