Diamond-polished concrete floor reflecting natural light through garage-door windows on a commercial job site

Serving Wisconsin, part of the Northwest Floor family

Diamond-Ground · Densified · Mechanically Polished

The floor isn't covered.
It's ground into place.

We grind, densify, and polish your existing concrete slab into a floor that doesn't chip, peel, or need recoating, built for warehouses, retail buildouts, restaurants, and offices across Wisconsin.

Request A Floor Assessment See The Grinding Process

1M+ sq ft

Slab ground & polished

9 grit stages

Coarse to final polish

0 coatings

The slab is the finish

Finish Levels

One slab, three depths of grind.

Every finish starts the same way: coarse grinding and densifying the slab. Where we stop the grind determines how much aggregate shows through, and how the floor reads in the room.

Close-up of fully exposed aggregate in a polished concrete floor, showing individual stones and a high-gloss finish — Full aggregate exposure · high-gloss burnish

01 / CREAM

Cream Finish

Grinding stops at the surface paste, so almost no sand or stone shows. Reads as a smooth, uniform tone, the finish we use most in offices and corporate suites.

02 / S&P

Salt & Pepper

A deeper pass exposes small flecks of sand aggregate across the surface. The standard finish for warehouses, distribution centers, and industrial floors that need to hide traffic wear.

03 / FULL

Full Aggregate Exposure

The deepest grind, cutting into the larger stone aggregate for a terrazzo-like look, used where the floor is meant to be seen: lobbies, showrooms, and dining rooms.

How It's Done

A step-by-step guide to polishing concrete.

Concrete polishing is a sequence, not a single pass; each stage has to be finished correctly before the next one can work. Here's the order we follow on every job.

Assess & test the slab

We test for moisture vapor emission, surface hardness, and any existing coatings or mastic. This tells us which grit to start with and whether the slab needs repair first.

Coarse grind

16 to 30 grit metal-bond diamond tooling strips old coatings, levels high spots, and opens the slab's surface profile so densifier can penetrate.

Expose aggregate

If the spec calls for salt-and-pepper or full exposure, we grind deeper here, cutting down to the sand or stone aggregate at the depth the finish requires.

Densify the slab

A lithium or sodium silicate densifier is applied. It reacts chemically with free lime in the concrete, hardening the surface and closing the pore structure from the inside out.

Fine polish in stages

Resin-bond diamonds step progressively through finer grits, typically 100, 200, 400, then 800 and up, each pass removing the scratch pattern left by the one before it.

Guard & burnish

A penetrating stain guard is applied and the floor is burnished to the finish called for (matte, satin, or high-gloss), then walked for a final quality pass.

Recent Work

Floors ground across every kind of building.

A sample of finished and in-progress work: distribution centers, retail buildouts, restaurants, gyms, and offices across Wisconsin.

Polished concrete floor in a large industrial warehouse storing chemical totes, with yellow safety columns — IndustrialChemical Distribution Warehouse

Polished concrete floor in a fulfillment center with workers at assembly stations and boxes on pallets — DistributionFulfillment & Assembly Floor

Large empty big-box retail space with polished concrete floor and scissor lifts during buildout — Retail BuildoutBig-Box Store, Pre-Fixture

Polished concrete lobby floor at Eat The Frog Fitness gym with reception desk and entry mat — FitnessEat The Frog Fitness Lobby

Polished concrete floor in a fast-casual restaurant dining room with wood booths and a pick-up counter — RestaurantFast-Casual Dining Room

Polished concrete floor down a supermarket aisle with refrigerated cases and shelving during remodel — GrocerySupermarket Remodel

Polished concrete floor in a coffeehouse retail area with customers and bagged coffee display — CafeCoffeehouse Retail Floor

Polished concrete floor between shoe shelving in a footwear retail store — RetailFootwear Store Sales Floor

Restaurant buildout mid-grind with polishing equipment staged on the concrete floor near red accent walls — In ProgressRestaurant Mid-Grind

Specialty retail space buildout with polished concrete floor and slatwall display panels — Retail BuildoutSpecialty Store Slatwall Fit-Out

Finished polished concrete floor in a bright corporate office suite with window blinds — OfficeCorporate Office Suite

Common Questions

Straight answers before you call.

How long does polished concrete last? +

A properly ground, densified, and polished slab typically lasts 20 years or more under normal commercial or industrial traffic, since the wear layer is the slab itself rather than an applied coating that can peel or wear through.

Is polished concrete slippery when wet? +

Slip resistance is set by the finish level and burnishing pad, not the shine. A matte or satin finish with the correct guard applied can meet standard slip-resistance requirements for retail, dining, and industrial floors; we test and adjust the finish for each site.

Can an old or damaged concrete slab be polished? +

In most cases, yes. Coarse grinding removes existing coatings, mastic, and surface damage, and cracks or spalls are patched with a color-matched repair mortar before the finer grinding stages begin.

How much does polished concrete cost per square foot? +

Commercial polished concrete generally runs from a few dollars per square foot for a basic cream finish to a higher range for full aggregate exposure or decorative work, since cost scales with the number of grinding passes and the slab's starting condition. We provide a fixed quote after an on-site slab assessment.

Can concrete be polished in an occupied building? +

Yes. Grinding equipment runs with dust-collection vacuums attached, work is typically phased and scheduled after hours or in sections, and dust barriers are used so operations, retail, or dining can continue nearby.

What's the difference between polished concrete and an epoxy coating? +

Epoxy is a coating applied on top of the slab and can chip, peel, or wear through in high-traffic areas. Polished concrete mechanically grinds and densifies the slab itself, so there is no film to delaminate, and the floor can be re-polished rather than recoated as it ages.

Densifiers & Sealers

Ashford Formula and Prosoco LS/CS, explained.

Densification is the step that actually hardens and dust-proofs a slab; polishing is what makes it shine. Ashford Formula and Prosoco's LS/CS line are the two systems we're asked about most, and while they're built on the same silicate chemistry, they behave a little differently on the slab.

Sodium Silicate

Ashford Formula

A sodium silicate densifier developed by Curecrete. It reacts with the free lime (calcium hydroxide) in the concrete to form calcium silicate hydrate, filling the pore structure from within rather than sitting on top of the slab as a film.

Single-component, ready to use — no mixing or dilution on site
Deep, permanent penetration; not a surface coating that can peel or wear off
Increases surface hardness, abrasion resistance, and resistance to dusting
Works on new pours as well as older, previously untreated slabs

Lithium Silicate

Prosoco LS/CS (and Consolideck)

Prosoco's LS is a lithium silicate densifier — lithium reacts faster and more completely with free lime than sodium or potassium silicates, so it typically needs only a single application. CS is Prosoco's guard/stain-resistant topcoat, applied after densifying and polishing to protect the pore structure from oil, water, and everyday soiling.

Lithium chemistry reacts quickly, often allowing same-day return to grinding
LS densifies; CS (or Blackout, depending on the finish) guards and adds stain resistance
Low-odor, low-VOC — suited to occupied buildings and food-service floors
Pairs directly with Prosoco's polishing and guard product line for a matched system

Sealing new concrete: the short version

Let the slab cure. New concrete needs to cure for at least 28 days (some densifiers, including Ashford, allow earlier application once the slab can be walked on and is fully cured per the manufacturer's guidance) before densifying, so the concrete has developed enough strength and the excess moisture has had time to leave the pour.
Prep the surface. A light grind or scrub removes curing compound, laitance, and surface contaminants so the densifier can actually reach the pore structure instead of sitting on a sealed-off skin.
Apply the densifier. Ashford Formula or Prosoco LS is flooded or sprayed evenly across the slab and kept wet for the dwell time on the label, then squeegeed and worked into the surface with a low-speed buffer or auto-scrubber.
Remove the residue. Any unreacted material left on the surface is rinsed or wet-vacuumed off before it can dry into a hazy white film.
Polish to the desired sheen. Once densified, the slab is ground through progressively finer diamond grits to bring up the level of shine and aggregate exposure the spec calls for.
Guard, if the traffic calls for it. A stain-resistant guard (Prosoco CS or a comparable topical guard) is burnished in as a final layer on floors that will see regular grease, oil, or chemical exposure.

Coverage rates, dwell times, and re-coat windows vary by product and slab porosity — we always follow the current manufacturer data sheet for the specific system on a given job rather than a one-size-fits-all schedule.

Get Started

Send us your slab. We'll send back a plan.

Tell us about the building and the square footage and we'll schedule an on-site assessment across Wisconsin, usually within a week.

Request a Free Quote

Tell us about your project and we'll get back to you.

Email Us a Quote Request Or reach us directly at info@polishedconcretewisconsin.com

The floor isn't covered.It's ground into place.