Polished concrete for homes
The slab you already own, refined through progressive diamonds until it shines on its own.
The build-up, step by step
Every residential concrete floor polishing job Shanks installs follows the same order, because skipping a stage is how floors fail. Taylor is on site for all of it.
Cut
Coarse metal-bond diamonds flatten the floor and expose as much or as little aggregate as you want.
Densify
A lithium silicate densifier is applied so it reacts with the free lime and hardens the surface from within.
Refine
Successive resin-bond passes take the floor from matte through satin to a full gloss.
Guard
A penetrating guard is burnished in to resist staining without adding a film that can peel.
Right room, right system
Basements, sunrooms, open-plan additions and anyone who likes the concrete itself. There is no coating to fail because there is no coating.
Where it is the wrong call
Slabs that are badly stained, heavily patched or have lost their surface. Polishing reveals history rather than hiding it.
Back in service: Walk on it the same evening. There is no film to cure.
Compare the other systems
Why this floor costs what it costs
Nobody can price a floor over the phone honestly, because two rooms of identical size can be a day apart in work. These are the things that actually move the number:
Condition of the slab
A clean, sound slab grinds in a morning. One carrying old paint, carpet glue, or a failed coating can take a full day longer before anything can be applied.
How much repair it needs
Cracks, spalled edges, pitting and old anchor holes are filled and ground flush before coating. A slab that needs a lot of this can add a day on its own.
Size and shape
Bigger floors cost less per square foot, because the setup, the mixing and the cleanup are much the same whether the room is 400 or 1,400 square feet. Cut-up rooms with lots of edges take longer than open ones.
Which system you choose
Build thickness and the chemistry of the topcoat are the two biggest material costs. A heavier commercial build genuinely costs more than a residential one.
What Alabama slabs do
Most of the housing around Anniston, Oxford and Jacksonville was poured between the sixties and the eighties, and those slabs were hard-trowelled to a tight, closed surface. They look clean and they take a coating badly until they are properly ground, which is why a store-bought kit so often lets go here within a year.
Newer construction around Trussville, Chelsea and Springville is usually a clean, flat pour that takes a coating beautifully, as long as the concrete has had its twenty-eight days. Coating green concrete is one of the few genuinely unfixable mistakes in this trade.
Where the trailer goesWhat the days actually look like
People are usually more anxious about the disruption than the floor. Here is what the days actually look like:
Before Taylor arrives
The room has to be completely empty, including anything mounted low on the walls if the coating is being coved up. Freezers and fridges need somewhere else to live for a few days, and the breaker for the room should be reachable.
Grinding day
The loudest day. Grinders run on HEPA vacuums so dust stays contained, but it is not quiet, and it is worth knowing that in advance if somebody works from home.
Coating days
Once resin is down, the room is closed. Pets and children need to stay out, and doors get taped so nobody wanders in overnight.
Getting it back
Foot traffic the next morning. Vehicles wait the full window, and putting a car back early is the one shortcut that visibly damages a new floor.
Keeping it looking new
An auto-scrubber or a flat mop with a neutral cleaner, and nothing acidic. There is no film to strip, no wax and no recoating cycle, which is the whole reason large buildings choose it. A periodic burnish brings the sheen back up if traffic has flattened it.
Anything Taylor installs comes with a walk-through at handover covering exactly this, plus what to avoid in the first two weeks while the coating reaches full hardness. If something does go wrong later, tell him about it rather than living with it.
The owner is the installer
Shanks Concrete Coatings is Taylor and Heather Shanks, working out of Anniston. Taylor trained directly with Brian Phillips, The Epoxy Dude, in southern Indiana, and he runs the grinder and pulls the squeegee on every job himself. Licensed and insured, Alabama #2602341.
If a residential concrete floor polishing floor is not the right answer for your room, he will tell you that on the first visit rather than sell it to you. More about how Shanks works, or send over the details of your floor.
Residential Concrete Floor Polishing questions
How much aggregate will show?
Anything from a cream finish with none, to a full salt-and-pepper, to a full stone exposure. It is decided in the first cut and it cannot be changed later.
Does it stain?
The densifier and guard resist most spills, but concrete is still mineral. Wine and oil want wiping up rather than leaving overnight.
Is it cold?
Same as any concrete floor, and it works well over in-floor heat because nothing insulates the slab.
Can old glue or paint be polished out?
Adhesive and paint come off in the first cut. What they stained into the concrete may stay, and that is worth looking at before committing.
Will it work over in-floor heating?
Very well, and it is one of the better pairings. There is no insulating film on top, so the slab radiates as it was designed to, and there is no coating to worry about with the temperature cycling.
Four questions worth asking any installer
Ask these of Shanks and of whoever else you are talking to. The answers separate a floor that lasts from one that looks good for a season, and a straight installer will not mind being asked.
How are you preparing the slab?
The only acceptable answers involve a diamond grinder or a shot blaster. Acid etching and a scrub with degreaser is not preparation, and it is the single most common reason a coating lets go.
Are you testing for moisture?
On any basement or ground-level slab this should be a yes with a number attached. Vapor pressure will push a coating off no matter how good the product is.
Who is actually on my floor?
Worth asking whoever quotes you. With Shanks the person who quotes it is the person who grinds it and coats it, and that is not true everywhere.
What is the topcoat?
A UV-stable polyaspartic or aliphatic urethane holds its color. A cheap job leaves a standard epoxy as the top layer, and it will amber in daylight within a year or two.
Other systems for the same room
Residential Concrete Floor Polishing is one of twenty-two systems Shanks installs. If the room is telling you something different, these are the closest alternatives, and Taylor will happily point you at the cheaper one if it is the right answer.
Flake Epoxy
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Metallic Epoxy
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Garage Floor Epoxy
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Grind and Seal
Another system Shanks installs across the same sixty-mile area.
Get a real number on this floor
Square footage, what the room is used for, and what the slab looks like now. That is enough to get you a real number on residential concrete floor polishing.