Polished Concrete: Commercial Spaces Rely on It—and Why Residential Homes Should Too

Polished concrete looks like a design choice, but it’s really an operations decision, and it can save you serious time and money when you choose it for the right space. We dig into why more businesses across Colorado’s Front Range are skipping new flooring materials and instead upgrading the concrete slab they already have, turning it into a finished surface that’s durable, bright, and simple to maintain.

We talk through the biggest benefits of polished concrete flooring for commercial spaces: long-term cost effectiveness, impressive durability, stain and moisture resistance, and the day-to-day reality of cleaning a smooth, hardened surface. We also get specific about a trend we keep seeing in renovations, pulling up VCT tile and finding a perfectly workable slab underneath, then polishing it to eliminate waxing cycles and constant floor repairs.

Residential polished concrete comes up too, especially for basements and slab-on-grade homes where homeowners want something that looks sharp but doesn’t demand constant upkeep like carpet. We also cover customization options, from colored stain to borders and geometric patterns, plus realistic project timelines for a restaurant-sized floor. Finally, we share where polished concrete is not the best option, including slippery garage conditions, greasy kitchen areas, and certain chemical environments, along with alternatives like polyaspartic coatings with flakes for added traction. 

If you found this helpful, subscribe for more practical coating and flooring guidance, share the episode with someone planning a remodel, and leave a review with the space you’re working on so we can cover more real-world scenarios.

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

Transcript

Welcome To Mile High Coatings

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.

Why Polished Concrete Is Popular

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Polished concrete has become a go-to choice for commercial spaces, and its benefits go far beyond aesthetics. Welcome everyone.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Likewise, good to see you.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, it's it's good to learn from you. And if we can open this up by talking about why so many businesses are choosing polished concrete, what are the advantages?

SPEAKER_02 1:02

There's actually quite a few. Polished concrete has become, I feel like, really popular over the last, let's say, 10 to 15 years. Uh it, I mean, fundamentally, you're treating the concrete slab that that is already there no matter what. You're not adding another flooring type, you're not adding carpet, you're not adding tile, you're not at, you know, uh laminate, LATU, whatever. And so that just in and of itself presents, you know, first and foremost, some cost savings. You can treat the existing floor. Um, and so that there's so many reasons. It's very durable, very durable. It's I mean, it's it's essentially the most durable type of flooring that that would exist. Uh it's super easy to clean. Uh, it resists staining, resists moisture uh absorption. Yeah, and along with the uh sort of easy to clean, you know, there there are there are ways to that that it can be kind of sealed. Uh you don't need wax. And so the maintenance is easy, kind of long term. It's easy to clean, easy to make maintain. Uh light reflectivity is good. Um, so that can help sort of then, you know, depending on how the the space is is set up, you know, what or what the space is, whether it's office space, a lobby, a warehouse, um, you know, they can all kind of have different different uh light uh sort of parameters. And so uh it's just it it's it qualifies for lead um you know credits, I I guess you could say. It uh I I think I I kind of touched on the the cost. It's it's it's probably one of the most cost effective types of flooring, um especially long term because there's really nothing to re replace. You know, something gets damaged, it's you know, likely the concrete's probably not gonna get damaged. So um yeah. Commercial uh or I mean polished concrete is just a huge uh advantage for you know for those types of types of spaces, and it just makes sense to to go that route for a lot of companies.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

And you mentioned like 10 to 15 years ago you saw it you know becoming more popular. Um have you had a lot of request requests then to go in and like update the you know, update to polished concrete for a lot of places that didn't have that, you know, prior to that time period?

Replacing VCT Tile With Concrete

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Tons. And so what what probably the biggest sort of transition that we've seen is the removal of like the VCT tile, which are like those thin plastic tiles, right? The 12 by 12. Um you see them a lot in in like grocery stores. I know our local Target used to have them, and so that gets pulled up and then you know, underneath it, that's just a big old concrete slab. And generally they're in good condition. And so you just polish that and boom, and that's it. So, you know, there's no no VCT tile to wax, you know, have to maintain. Sometimes they pop up and so you gotta replace it and you know, whatever. So, so yeah, so that yes, the the transition to polished concrete, even from old flooring, you know, well, they're you know, they're ripping out carpet and ripping out tile and going to polished, and that's a huge, yeah, uh a huge industry, if you will. Yep.

Polished Concrete In Homes

SPEAKER_01 4:37

And what about residential um settings? Are you seeing a lot of demand there now for polished concrete?

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Yep. And so, yeah, as as the commercial space, as people see this and they they appreciate it, you know, when they go shopping. Um, and you know, and then and then of course, as people are trying to decide what to do with with their with their residence. Um, of course, polished concrete in a residential you know application, maybe it's a basement, um, you know, certainly has its sort of aesthetic value. And so, you know, it may not be the whole basement that we polish, maybe it's the rack area around the bar or um, you know, whatever. But oftentimes too, it can just be the whole the whole basement. Um certainly in the main levels of homes where you have like a slab on grade home, concrete slab, you know, that people will just treat their concrete, whether it's a stained concrete application, but polished is also very uh it's a great way to go. So for the same reasons uh as as as we mentioned before.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

So it is it the durability, like the um reducing the long-term maintenance cost that makes it such a great investment, other than the look, you know how nice it looks?

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Absolutely. That's probably the yeah, yes. To answer your question, yes, it's the durability um coupled with with the the long-term uh yeah, maintenance, which is practically nothing. I mean, you know, you think about other alternatives, carpet, you know, obviously carpet gets worn down, you gotta you know, you clean it out, you know. So you know, uh you ask a carpet cleaner and he says he's supposed to clean your carpets every six months. I mean, who who does that honestly? But yeah, you got carpet cleaning and then you know, obviously where it where it's down, you gotta replace it and then you know and then styles go in and out too of different types of carpets and all that. And and yeah, I mean just just replacing the carpet is is probably more expensive than than than installing polished concrete.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

And I liked what you said too about um keeping it clean. Why is it easier to keep it clean and for hygiene

Easy Cleaning And Better Hygiene

SPEAKER_01 6:41

reasons? It's just an easier surface to to maintain.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Yeah, it's just smooth. It it's smooth and and and hard, so it's easy to clean, mop. Um, you know, so the the the densifier that gets applied on the concrete throughout the college polishing process sort of seals the pores of the concrete. So it becomes so you don't have you know moisture absorption. Um it's pretty good at stain resistance. And and so yeah, it's just it just makes it easy to clean for for those reasons. I mean, you're not you basically just sweep it, you know. You kind of treat it like a kind of like a hardwood floor, right? Just sweep it or mop it.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

So are there a lot of like um customization options um when it comes to like clients, commercial clients, is there a lot that they can do for the look and the feel of it?

Custom Designs And Restaurant Demand

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Well, I guess a feel is like one feeling, but the look of it?

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Yeah, uh, yeah. So so you could do sort of like geometric shapes and patterns with and and different colors. I mean, all shots are gonna be staying in colored. So so yeah. I mean, you you know, you cut borders, you could do shapes, you could do, you know, designs and stuff. I think yeah, we see that all the time. So definitely.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yeah, and restaurants, they must love this because it's easy to clean.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Yep, it's popular, it's getting definitely getting more popular in restaurants. We actually just did one earlier, like a half ago.

Timeline For A Typical Project

SPEAKER_01 8:10

What what is the turnaround time then when you when you do this? You get, let's say you get a new customer and it's a big uh commercial space. Like if they want you to come in and they have a customized polished concrete, you know, floor that they decided on with you, how long does it usually take? Like, I don't know, you maybe you could give us an example of a recent uh client that had a pretty big space.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yeah, so there's one, it was probably 1800 square feet in the dining room, and I think they had some kind of tile or laminate on there. I have glue because we had to remove glue. And so, so something in that range, kind of 1800 to 2000 square feet, probably took us maybe four days to deal with. Um and it can be shorter too. We we can, you know, we can adjust as needed if we need to work overnight. Our crews, you know, we can arrange that. Um if you know if there's enough sort of notice. And uh and so so yeah, yeah, I would say maybe anywhere from two to maybe four days, depending on, you know, there can be potentially repairs to be done and things like

Where Polished Concrete Falls Short

SPEAKER_02 9:21

that.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So and what about cases where polished concrete is not the best option? Where would you say that could be a limited choice or the condition is not uh conducive to that option?

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Yeah, maybe maybe somewhere okay, like back of house, you know, restaurant, you know, in the kitchen uh types of area, that's probably not a great, great idea to have polished concrete there. Um, because you know, you stuff spills, you get greases and fats and stuff on the floor, it can make it slippery, it can potentially absorb um if it's not cleaned up right away. So that may not be a great idea. Um there's other options that we could explore in in that type of situation. Um maybe uh some manufacturing types of places where where there's there's different chemicals used. Um acids can can affect polished concrete because acids can well, you know, can you know may not play nice with with concrete. So those are probably a couple of examples where polished concrete would wouldn't be ideal. Um and actually garage floors aren't really a very great solution for for polished concrete because they can be slippery um w w when they're wet. And so I I remember very specifically there was a this was probably 10 years ago, there was a lady that had her garage floor calls looked great, but she didn't like it because it was just slippery.

Better Options Like Polyaspartic Coatings

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Um and so we she had us come in and do our coating on it. So yeah, just one of those one of those things that's maybe not the ideal. Can it be done? Of course, uh, but it you know, there's maybe some better options.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

What coating did you put on for that woman in particular?

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Uh like our polyaspartic uh our popular polyaspartic option and with flakes and everything, which helps create traction.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Oh, nice. Okay, well, uh thank you for breaking all that down. I think it you know makes a lot more sense and it's good to know where polished concrete works, which is in many places. So it's very pretty. All right. Well, yeah, thank you so much, David. We appreciate you.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Absolutely. Thanks.

Wrap Up And Free Quote Details

SPEAKER_00 11:38

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.