From Basements To Main Floors: David Nanninga Discusses Residential Polished Concrete

Can You Install Polished Concrete In A Residential Home?

Thinking about a floor that looks refined, feels solid underfoot, and plays nicely with radiant heat? We sit down with David Nanninga of Mile High Coatings to unpack the real-world case for polished concrete in Colorado homes, from basements that need toughness to main levels built on slab where a seamless, modern look makes sense. You’ll hear why this finish resists stains, reduces moisture uptake, and earns sustainability points, all while keeping future flooring options open if tastes change down the road.

We map out where polished concrete excels and where it struggles. Inside the home, it brings durability, easy cleaning, and a timeless sheen to living areas, baths, rec rooms, and storage spaces. In garages, though, frequent moisture and road grime can make a polished surface slippery and more prone to staining if neglected—exactly where epoxy or polyaspartic coatings often win. David breaks down the trade-offs so you can choose confidently based on use, safety, and maintenance preferences.

If upkeep worries you, the routine will feel refreshingly light. Unlike retail stores that autoscrub nightly, a home usually needs dust mopping, a pH-neutral cleaner, and occasional polish guard refreshes—annually for busy spots, and far less for low-traffic basements. We also explore customization: integrated color during densifying or separate stains and dyes, plus borders and crest-style graphics that turn concrete into a design feature. By tuning aggregate exposure and sheen, you can create warm, earthy floors or crisp, contemporary surfaces that anchor the rest of your décor.

Curious whether polished concrete fits your space or if a garage coating would be smarter? Listen now, then subscribe, share with a friend who’s remodeling, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

To learn more about Mile High Coatings visit:
https://www.MileHighCoatings.com
Mile High Coatings
970-314-1023 

Transcript

Welcome And Show Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Mile High Coatings Podcast, where we elevate your spaces to a new peak in quality. Hosted by David Naniga, president of Mile High Coatings, this podcast explores how expert residential painting, concrete coatings, and epoxy flooring can transform garages, basements, patios, and commercial spaces across Colorado's front range. So grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and dive into the world of high-quality coatings.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Polished concrete isn't just for warehouses anymore. Find out how it's making its way into Colorado homes with style and durability. Welcome everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer in the studio with president of Mile High Coatings, David Naninga. Thanks for being here, David. So let's jump right in. Can you install polished concrete in a residential home?

Where It Works Best

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah, um, it's a really popular application. Uh we do it uh a lot in basements, uh, where there's, you know, obviously concrete is is more popular. And then, you know, on on ranch homes, uh, you know, single family style homes where you know the whole main the main floor is concrete, um slab on grade, uh polished concrete is a really popular application. A lot of times in those uh homes, they like to do um the radiate floor heating. And so they they like to you know keep the concrete sort of exposed, if you will, so that you kind of maximize the benefits of the radiate floor um so you're not heating, you know, another layer of flooring. And so polished concrete is is certainly very popular. It also qualifies nicely for lead credits, which is kind of like eco-friendly green um sort of building standards. It's super durable. I mean, concrete itself is very durable, but then when you, you know, when you polish it, you're essentially sort of closing up the pores and tightening it, you know, reducing the the ability for the concrete to absorb uh moisture and and stains and all that. So it it keeps it durable. Um, it create it it adds a bit of a shine to it. Uh most people are gonna notice or see polished concrete in commercial applications, you know, um office spaces, lobbies, restaurants, um, and and certainly shopping centers, uh, you know, Target, Walmart, uh, Home Depot, Loebs, those types of places, Costco, they all have polished concrete. So yeah, it's very economical. The other nice thing about it is if if if maybe a future homeowner doesn't like polished concrete application, they don't have to necessarily remove any old flooring. You know, they can just put something new down. So it, so it, you know, potentially adds uh a little bit of value if for for a future homeowner, you know, if they wanted to change the flooring style, um, you know, and to where they don't have to remove anything. They can just put something right over the top of it if if they desire to do so.

SPEAKER_03 3:10

And for homeowners, are there specific rooms or areas where polished concrete works best?

Garage Drawbacks And Safety

SPEAKER_01 3:16

I mean, really anywhere where there's concrete, uh, certainly, you know, two-story homes, you know, are are gonna have a wood subfloor. So that doesn't, you can't really have that application there. But basement floors are probably easily the most popular because any home that has a basement, the basement is gonna be um, you know, concrete, with the exception of of irritational or rare um homes where where that may not be the case. But but yeah, again, uh a single family home um with a slab on grade, and those those homes typically are not gonna have a basement, but um, but but still, you know, popular uh types of homes uh being built. So I mean you can do it, you know, mechanical rooms, rec rooms, uh bathrooms, uh you know, vault type of uh storage rooms are are are gaining popularity in newer custom homes. And um occasionally you might see a polished concrete on a garage floor, but that's that has a few drawbacks, um generally speaking. So you you don't see that as often.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

What are the drawbacks for the the garage area?

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yeah, I would say probably the biggest thing is the slipperiness. So in a garage where it's it's going to be you know wet more often, you know, from from you know rain or snow, obviously melting uh off the car, you know, you have puddles and everything. Um it it it it could be a concern. Whereas in your house, you know, your floor's not really really ever wet, but it's pretty rare, you know, you're you're not really so concerned about that. And and certainly when the polished concrete floor is dry, it's not slippery. So so I I would say probably that that's probably the biggest reason. And since there's not necessarily a film forming sealer, you know, like with epoxy or polyaspartic um that you see in garage floors, um, it can be susceptible to to staining if it's not maintained. That's probably the other drawback, is polished concrete needs to be maintained a little bit more uh more often than than a coated floor. So those are probably the two drawbacks of why you may not see it as often in a garage floor. It's not a terrible application, but it's just not not as common.

Maintenance And Longevity

SPEAKER_03 5:53

And what kind of maintenance do homeowners expect to conduct then to keep it intact?

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Yeah, so the the the maintenance schedule is gonna look quite a bit different from from a residential perspective uh versus say a commercial floor where clearly, you know, commercial style floor, think of retail center or whatever um hardware store that's gonna have you know just constant traffic um you know all day long. And so you know they have you know auto scrubbers, big big machines, probably ride-on machines that you know go down the aisles back and forth and clean those probably daily, um, you know, at night. And so so those floors require a decent amount of maintenance. Whereas in a home, I mean, with with just you know, a family, I mean, the the foot traffic isn't gonna be insane. Um, the the again, it's it's a very durable finish. You might look at, you know, maybe having something uh done, you know, from a reapplication of what's called a polish guard, maybe maybe once a year, maybe not even that often. It's gonna be case by case. Certainly in a basement floor, you could probably go several years without having to to to do any kind of uh real maintenance on it. And so so that's just kind of a I don't want to call it a wax, but it's it's similar. We'll we'll just we'll just kind of compare it to a wax a little bit. So that's essentially what what a polish card is gonna do. It's gonna create a um a layer that's gonna help with with you know with stains. You know, if you spill something on it, it's gonna still be easy to clean up and and not let um that liquid or whatever absorb into the concrete.

Color, Stains, And Design Options

SPEAKER_03 7:41

And I have a last question for you. Can the polished concrete, is it something that we can easily like customize with colors or certain patterns? Do you have clients requesting that?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yep. Yeah, so you can you can add color to stain to uh to polish concrete. You know, essentially it's it's it's like staining it. There's a couple different ways to do it. Um so during the polishing process, there's a densifier that gets applied, it gets sprayed on, soaks into the concrete and densifies it, makes it harder, makes it uh makes the concrete uh able to be polished. And so there's some products that that act so that it's a staining and densifier in one. Um, and then there's also you know, separate, so you would stain it and densify it. And uh, and so so there's there's different um products, but but still that that have the ability to to color the concrete. You know, I mean there's there's a lot of different you know colors um you know on the palette that you can go with. Sometimes people do designs, borders, you know, they could do a family crest if they wanted to, um, or some some some sort of other design, you know, if they wished. So yeah, it's certainly possible to do that.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

Okay, well, thank you so much, David. That was really insightful. I know I learned a lot, and uh, we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Okay, look forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Thanks for tuning in to the Mile High Coatings Podcast. Ready to give your space a fresh, durable finish? Visit MileHighCodings.com for a free price quote or call 970-314-1023. At Mile High Coatings, we're not just painting walls, we're setting a new peak in quality. Until next time, keep your standards high and your coatings higher!