Mechanically polished concrete is not a coating. We cut the slab you already own with diamond tooling, refine it step by step until the surface itself is dense and smooth, and harden it with a densifier as we go. There is nothing on top to peel, lift or wear through — the finish is the concrete. That is what makes a mechanical polish permanent, and it is the difference between polishing and painting.
That permanence is the honest sell. It is also why we will tell you, further down this page, the handful of things a polished floor will not do — because a floor you understand is a floor you will be happy with in year ten, not just at handover.
Two different products get called “polished concrete”, and the right one depends on the floor.
A mechanical polish refines the concrete itself through a ladder of diamond grits and hardens it chemically. The finish is the slab — there is no film to fail, and with minimal maintenance the floor keeps looking new. Refreshing it down the track means a buff and re-seal, not redoing the floor.
A grind and seal starts much the same way — we still take the floor to a low-level polish — and is then sealed with two coats of a topical sealer over two days. The sealer delivers the look and takes the wear. The difference shows up years later: a topical coating can’t be freshened in place. When it’s time to renew it, the existing coating has to be ground off and the job starts again.
And the bit most people get wrong: grind and seal is not the budget version. At Adelaide MPC the two cost the same, because the preparation is most of the work either way. The choice isn’t price — it’s the look you’re after and which long-term story you prefer: a permanent surface maintained with a buff and re-seal, or a coating with a renewal cycle built in. Some floors and some looks genuinely call for the seal, and when yours does we’ll say so. Read our basic grind and seal and premium grind and seal pages, or ring us and describe the floor.
Every polished concrete quote comes down to two choices, and it helps to walk in knowing them.
How much stone do you want to see? This is called exposure, and it is set by how deep we cut:
One thing we will always say before you sign: exposure is a property of your slab, not of our machines. The stone shows where the concreter’s mix, pour and vibration put it. We cut from the top; we cannot move stone that settled deeper. On a new build, if a polished floor is the plan, talk to us before the pour — the slab spec is where a great polished floor actually starts.
How much shine do you want? Matte, satin or gloss. This is set by how far up the grit ladder we refine and by the guard applied at the end. More gloss is not automatically better: in entries and wet areas, gloss and wet slip resistance pull against each other, so the right sheen is partly a safety question — see honed concrete, below.
Honing is the same diamond process stopped earlier. Instead of refining the surface to a shine, we finish at a coarser grit that leaves a smooth, flat, matte surface with more texture underfoot. It is the standard answer for alfresco areas, pool surrounds, ramps, entries and external paths — anywhere a high polish would be the wrong call in the wet.
On slip: we will never quote you a slip rating off the top of our heads, because a slip classification comes from a pendulum test, not an opinion. Where a slip requirement is specified for your area, we have the finished floor tested to AS 4586 and hand you the result in writing. That is the only honest way it can be done, and we’d be wary of anyone who does it differently.
This is the part most flooring websites skip. It is also where the money goes, so you should know what you are paying for.
1. We read the slab before we commit the tooling. Concrete hardness varies — even across one floor — and it decides everything about how the job is cut. Hardness isn’t strength: a low-strength slab with a hard-trowelled surface can fight harder than a stronger slab with an open one. So we assess the surface we’ll actually be cutting and match the diamond tooling to what the slab is, not what we hope it is — it’s what protects both of us from the floor “fighting back” halfway through.
2. The grind. Metal-bond diamonds cut the slab to your chosen exposure, edges worked to match the field so you don’t get a picture-frame around the room.
3. Grouting the pinholes. Concrete has pores. We fill them with a grout made from the floor’s own fines so the surface reads as one material. Honesty up front: on some slabs a small percentage of pinholes can remain visible even with best practice. We tell you that before we start, not at month eighteen.
4. Densifying. We flood the floor with a densifier — a silicate that reacts with the concrete’s own calcium and hardens the surface paste. Plain English about what that does and doesn’t do: it makes the surface harder and tighter, which is what lets the finer grits produce a genuinely refined floor. It does not make the floor shiny, and it does not make it stain-proof — anyone who tells you their “chemical” does either is selling you the label, not the chemistry.
5. The polish. We climb the resin grit ladder one step at a time — never skipping more than one grit, because a skipped step leaves the previous grit’s scratches hiding under the shine, invisible in daylight and glaring the day your downlights go in. At every grit the floor is checked under a raking light, and the next pass runs at ninety degrees to the last. Slow is smooth; smooth is the finish.
6. The guard. A penetrating sealer goes on at the end — not a coating, not a layer. It soaks into the surface and works from within the pores, which is why there is still nothing on top of an MPC floor to peel or delaminate. It carries the day-to-day stain resistance, and its job is to keep any spill on the surface — so if something does sit too long and leaves a mark, the mark stays on the surface where we can usually correct it with a buff and re-seal, instead of soaking into the slab. The sealer depletes with wear by design and is renewed the same way, while the polish underneath stays permanent. We put all of that in writing rather than pretending otherwise.
7. Acceptance you can see. The standard for the finished floor is the mock-up panel we polish on your actual slab and sign together before the main floor starts — not a photo, not a brochure. The finished floor is walked under raking light, standing, in normal lighting, and handed over with a written maintenance guide.
Grinding concrete makes silica dust, and we treat that seriously — for our crew and for your family or staff. Our machines run with high-volume HEPA extraction, we use wet suppression where the method calls for it, and our operators are trained, fit-tested and health-monitored for silica work. If you’re comparing quotes for work in an occupied home or a trading business, ask every contractor what their dust controls actually are. It is a fair question and the answers will separate the field quickly.
Six things we tell every client before a machine starts, because they are true of polished concrete everywhere, whoever does it:
If a contractor promises you scratch-proof, stain-proof, maintenance-free perfection, keep your hand on your wallet.
A polished floor asks very little, but the little matters:
Every handover includes the maintenance guide in writing — and if a cleaning contractor looks after your building, it’s written for them too.
And if you’d rather not think about any of it: talk to us about a maintenance plan. We’ll set the schedule for the clean and the periodic buff and re-seal, and your floor stays looking the way it did at handover — that’s the whole point of a mechanically polished floor.
Homes and renovations, showrooms, cafés and retail, offices, and the big one — warehouses, workshops and commercial floors, where a mechanically polished slab takes forklift and foot traffic for decades without a coating to fail. Commercial polishing is our bread and butter: if you’re specifying a floor for a shed, a fit-out or a new industrial build, ring us at the drawing stage and we’ll help you spec the slab and the finish class properly.
We don’t publish square-metre rates, because honest ones don’t exist — two floors of the same size can be very different jobs. What moves the number:
Send us photos and measurements, or have us walk the floor, and you’ll get a fixed written quote with the finish, exposure and scope spelled out — and if a grind and seal suits your floor better, we’ll say so and quote that instead.
It’ll resist a lot, but nothing we put on a floor is stain-proof and we won’t tell you it is. Day-to-day stain resistance comes from the penetrating sealer, and its real job is to keep any spill on the surface. Wipe spills up and you’ll be fine — the two to watch overnight are red wine and oil — and if something does beat you to it, the mark stays on the surface where we can usually buff and re-seal it out, rather than soaking into the slab for good. Your maintenance sheet says all of this in writing.
Sheen and grip are a trade-off you choose. For wet and external areas we recommend a honed finish, and where a slip rating is required we have the finished floor pendulum tested to AS 4586 and give you the certificate — we don’t quote slip ratings from opinion, ours or anyone else’s.
Burnishing is the nil-exposure finish — polishing the existing trowelled skin of the slab without opening it up to sand or stone. A full mechanical polish can also cut deeper to expose aggregate first. Which is possible on your floor depends on how the slab was finished — we’ll tell you on inspection.
Yes — gloss comes mainly from how far the surface is refined, and a floor can be taken further after the fact. It’s a scoped, priced piece of work rather than “a quick buff”, and in wet areas we’ll talk slip before gloss.
Mostly you’re seeing the slab, not the polish — different pour days, joints, and where the aggregate happened to sit. That’s the character of a real concrete floor. The agreed standard is the signed mock-up on your slab, assessed standing in normal light.
Sections of the job carry no-access holds while chemistry cures, and the sealer has its own cure time before traffic. We put the exact times for your job in writing at handover rather than guessing here — every floor and season differs.
No, and be wary of anyone who says theirs is. It’s genuinely low-maintenance: neutral cleaner, a mop, and a periodic buff and re-seal. The polish itself doesn’t need redoing.
Call 08 8125 0686 or send us the details for a fixed written quote. Straight answers — and if polishing isn’t the right system for your floor, we’ll tell you that too.
08 8125 0686
