Polished Concrete: When to Consider a Power Trowel

Power trowels can be used for a number of applications, but they’re mainly used by construction and flooring contractors to grind down concrete slabs evenly until they’re smooth. In recent years the power trowel has become an essential resource for polishing concrete floors, competing with traditional diamond grinders. 

But when should you consider using a power trowel for your concrete floors? Let’s go over a few key scenarios that warrant the use of this equipment for concrete polishing.

Your Floors Require Restoration

From the weight of heavy equipment to chemical spills, foot traffic, and impact damage, concrete floors must put up with a lot. Without proper protection and maintenance, your floors will begin to show signs of wear, such as fracturing, spalling, staining, and more. 

There are many ways to repair and restore your concrete floors, including concrete polishing. Using a properly fitted power trowel, professionals can grind down your dilapidated floors and apply a densifier to not only restore but actually enhance their appearance.

You Want to Increase Workplace Safety

Polished concrete isn’t merely an aesthetic advantage, though. Using a power trowel to polish your floors also contributes to greater workplace safety in several ways. 

First, polished concrete’s sheen may look slippery, but these floors are in fact highly slip-resistant, providing plenty of friction for workers, mobile machinery, and customers. Plus, a shiny concrete floor provides a brighter, more visible work environment, which helps personnel safely navigate the space and perform their tasks. And because these floors are resistant to chemicals and bacteria and easy to clean, your facility can stay sanitary with less effort.

You’re Looking to Cut Long-Term Costs

Taking care of a concrete floor can be a major expense, especially if you wait until there’s a serious problem. By polishing your floors with a power trowel, you can vastly reduce these long-term maintenance costs. 

For one thing, the polishing process completely smooths and protects the floor, removing any nooks or crannies where dust, dirt, and pathogens can enter. Next, because polished floors don’t require coatings, there’s never a need to replace an outdated top-coat. Also, without coatings, you’ll never have to worry about removing burn marks from tires or other equipment. The added durability and longevity of a polished concrete floor also means that fewer repairs will need to be made over the floor’s long lifespan.

In short, maintaining a polished floor is simple, requiring fewer resources and labor hours than would otherwise be necessary for taking care of non-polished concrete floors. Plus, using a power trowel to polish your floors is cheaper than using diamond grinders and other traditional methods. All of these time and labor savings translate to reduced costs for your business over time.

You Must Maintain Regulatory Compliance

Depending on your industry and region, concrete floors must abide by certain standards, usually outlined by OSHA and other federal or state-sponsored environmental safety boards. While concrete floors don’t have to be polished to comply with these regulations, polished floors often meet these requirements with ease because they’re naturally slip-resistant, bright, and don’t contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that harm personnel and the environment. So, if you’re looking for a simple way to stay up to code, you might consider using a power trowel to polish your floors.

The popularity of polished concrete floors is on the rise, and power trowels are becoming the tool of choice for getting the job done efficiently and at a reasonable cost. If you’re considering having your floors polished, Painters USA’s power trowel concrete polishing services are perfect for your needs. To learn more about us and our many services, contact us at 1-800-999-8715.