Ensure Your Concrete Floor is Smooth Enough to Seal

Question: My new shop floor is fairly smooth but not smooth enough to seal. I don’t need a high shine, just smooth enough to seal so when I spill oil or grease on the floor, I can clean it up. I am thinking 400 or 800 grit will be my endpoint. There are 2100 square feet to smooth out. What do you recommend I buy? I will rent a 175rpm floor buffer for a 17-inch pad.

Answer: Generally, smooth means the overall texture of the floor. Many times interior floors are “troweled tight” or “burned in” with a machine called a power trowel. This machine looks like a fan and helps finishers achieve a finish. If the finish is very smooth, doesn’t have a physical profile and has a sheen just from the finish, it is a great candidate to enhance by polishing the concrete floor. Our Level 1 Concrete Polishing System is a great candidate for these types of floors. After looking at the pictures sent, it appears this floor could be hand finished and has a profile (picture with the key). This doesn’t mean its a “bad floor”. However, you would need to do a little correction if you’re wanting to protect your floor by polishing and densifying the concrete.

I would recommend in this case starting with our 30 grit or 50 grit DNA Satellite pad and working your way up…which is essentially our Level 2 system.

If you run our SNA pads under a low-speed buffer or propane burnisher, you’ll get anywhere from 1k sqft to 4k sqft per pad depending on the texture of the floor. Usually, your first pad gets consumed quicker.

To help protect your floor, you would do the system below which is basically our Level 2 Polish System:

Run 30 or 50 Grit DNA pads, then 100, 200
Apply Concrete DNA Densifier LS or CS (We typically recommend CS for old or more porous floors)
Run 400, 800 Grit Concrete DNA Satellite pads wet.
Buff with 1500 Diamond Pad.
Use EZ Shield Concrete Coating. EZ Shield does not increase the gloss, but will better protect from water and oil.
If you want a more “sealed” look, apply our Water Based DNA Polishing Guard.

In addition, a polished floor is easy to clean and helps protect your surfaces. However, if you truly want to protect your floor from chemicals, you need to: