Residential Garage Floor Stained & Polished

This customer wanted to renovate the concrete floors in their garage. The owners requirements were: the floors had to be done in two different sections because they did not have any where to put the stuff they had in the garage, the floors had to cure fast enough to allow the cars to be put back in the garage. The solution was to stain the concrete with a acetone based dye and then polish the concrete with a concrete grinder. The floors were also sealed and burned into the concrete with a floor burnisher.

Stained concrete and polished is a alternative to other garage floors such as epoxies and polyurethane's that need a very fast turnaround.

Check out are website at MVL Concrete.

Stained Concrete & Polished

Stained Concrete & Polished

Polished Concrete

Polished concrete is a popular flooring choice for commercial areas; however, it is becoming a popular choice for residential areas as well. Polished concrete is not just the plain gray floors home depot has; they can be very decorative when acid stains and concrete dyes are used to color the floor. The steps for polished concrete are:

1. Grind the concrete with a 25 grit metal bond diamond, this helps flatten the floor and removes any small humps in the concrete.
2. Grind the concrete with a 40 grit metal bond diamond.
3. Grind the concrete with a 80 grit metal bond diamond.
4. Grind the concrete with a 50 grit resin polishing pad.
5. Grind the concrete with a 100 grit resin polishing pad.
6. Grind the concrete with a 200 grit resin polishing pad.
7. Grind the concrete with a 400 grit resin polishing pad.
8. Apply the acid stain or concrete dye.
9. Densify concrete with lithium silicate densifier.
10. Polish concrete with 800 grit resin polishing pad. 
11. Continue polishing with 1500 grit or 3000 grit if a higher shine is wanted.
12. Apply protectant guard.
13. Burnish floor.

Polished concrete offers a very durable floor that is easy to maintain. Maintenance requires weekly dust mopping and wet mopping with a ph-neutral cleaner found at home depot. 

You can view more photos at MVL Concrete.

Before Concrete Was Stained & Polished

After Concrete Was Stained & Polished

Concrete Patio Resurfaced & Acid Stained

The most common type of concrete problems we see are cracks in the concrete and the top surface of the concrete spalling off. Spalled concrete starts of by a small crack in the concrete allowing water to penetrate deep into the concrete where it starts to rust the steel reinforcement. When the reinforcement starts to rust it produces gasses and expands and starts to shed; this is what causes the top surface of the concrete to pop off. Often you can hear a hollow sound in the concrete where it is about to spall off.



In this picture you can see where the rust from the steel was starting to spread into the top of the concrete. It is very important that water does not reach the steel embedded into the concrete. When pouring the concrete there should be 1.25" of concrete above the steel to prevent water from rusting the steel. It is also a good idea to seal the concrete with a penetrating sealer to add more protection.



If you have areas in your driveway or patio that the concrete is spalling, there is options for fixing it. The first step would be to chisel out any weak concrete and expose the steel rebar. The rebar should then be clean and any rust removed prior to placing a repair mortar.



Once all of the weak concrete is removed, a high strength repair mortar is placed into the area with a minimum thickness of 0.5". 

After the repair mortar has set, a polymer modified cement is applied to the whole concrete patio to hide the area that was repaired. This gives a nice clean surface where it can then be acid stained.

Almost any concrete surface can be repair and acid stained, as long as the sub grade of the slab is structurally sound and is not causing the concrete to uplift and move. Again, most of the problems such a areas of the concrete surface spalling off is cause by water rusting the steel reinforcement.

Please feel free to check out are website at MVL Concrete.



Spalled Area Chiseled Out







Area Filled With Repair Mortar





Concrete Patio Resurfaced & Acid Stained









Flooring Options

There are many different options for flooring, they don't have to be the usual tile or carpet in a house.

Concrete staining is a growing trend for flooring in the residential housing market. Staining the concrete has many unique options that the homeowner can customize and choose how they want their concrete floor to look like; whether, they want a antique look, or a modern look they can achieve these wants with concrete flooring.

Concrete staining is a very durable floor, that is easy to clean. There a number of different finishes that can be applied after the concrete has been stained; from water based acrylic sealers to high end polyurthane sealers. The concrete can even be mechanically polished with a concrete grinder after the concrete has been stained.

The color options for staining the concrete is nearly endless with the capabilities of combining colors and using different products (acid stains with acetone based dyes).

If you would like to learn more information about concrete staining visit are website MVL Concrete.