The beauty of the concrete floor takes shape due to many key aspects. These include materials used, quality of labor, and the skills of installers.
After considering all things, it now all boils down to the concrete finishing techniques used on it. Learn from today’s article the eight common concrete finishings that work for the floors.
Know each method’s strength. On the other hand, you can also figure out how you can work around it if it has its downside. Choose something that will match your style preference or one that will meet practicality.
Concrete Floor Finishes For All Time
1. Stamped Concrete Finish
Almost every homeowner picks out concrete stamping for their outdoor floors.
The stamping designs create a natural, stone, and slate design on the outdoor floor’s surface.
A rubber mat is used to stamp distinct concrete patterns over the fresh mix of concrete. Stamping is the best finish.
It works for both a new flooring system or a place in the stamped concrete as an overlay on an old one.
Stamping results in a polished classic floor with an updated modern glossy finish.
2. Broom Finish
The broom texture is also another classic concrete finishing.
It provides an excellent non-skid surface. The reason behind the name is that it uses an actual broom to create fine stringent lines or creases on the newly placed concrete.
This is an easy and quick finishing which is suitable for outdoor areas. Take note of its effective slip resistance. You may find a sloping garage floor or concrete driveway area. In that case, this is the type of finish that will do the concrete just fine.
3. Trowel Finish
Trowel finish is concrete’s conventional finish done in two ways. It can be a manual trowel or a mechanical one. The distinct job in this process is the use of a flat steel blade to lay and pressed down on the cement mix.
The process is simple and ideal for any concrete flooring. It may be indoors and outdoors. Making it easy for you to identify it with all major flooring surfaces. What the installer does is skillfully level down the concrete mix after it is poured.
The surface comes out as this smooth, seamless, and solid slab.
4. Edged Finish or Edging
Edging creates a smooth edge on the concrete. The process is usually used to make a seamless and subtle surface for outdoor floors like the patios, front ways, or facades.
Edging seems to look simple and practical, but only those experts who got incredible skills and years of doing it can create those seamless concrete curves.
Most business spaces, hotels, and resorts use edging for their exterior steps to achieve an understated elegance.
5. Exposed Aggregate
On the other hand, exposed aggregate bears this raw and undone finish. You find this look among the streets where a bare concrete floor is okay. But, exposed aggregate is now becoming the top pick for designers and installers because of its innovative approach.
In doing this, an installer can choose the level or degree of exposure. They get to use cool flooring material to mix with the bare concrete flooring.
6. Salt finish
Salt Finish is distinct for pool decks. Resurfacing the pool decks also come in various methods. The salt finish uses coarse pieces of rock salt.
After placing the rock salt pieces in, it is washed off with water. Then, pits of sediment-like texture show up. It reminisces of sand and rocks by the shores of the ocean.
7. Stained, Colored, Polished
Simplicity is elegant. This is reflective of some of the most practical ways to finish concrete. These are staining, dyeing or coloring.
These techniques use stains, dyes, or concrete paint to make way for pigments to lock themselves into the concrete layers’ core. Stains can be acid or water-based solutions. The staining penetrates color on the concrete floor.
It is also the same when using dyes and other coloring methods, like latex acrylic coatings and epoxy resin. The clear and thin-film coatings make a pure, clear, and polished floor come out.
8. Other Specialized Concrete Finishing
Depending on the tools and flooring requirements, minor variations of the finishing techniques mentioned above are emerging as trends.
Please take note of them below. Watch out for when one will take the flooring industry by storm next.
- Color chips Finish
- Engraved Finish
- Etched Finish
- Flashed Finish
- Marbleized Finish
- Micro Topping or Over Lay Finish
- Sand Blasted Finish
