Nowadays, you can easily find the most up-to-date flooring designs and materials. One way to innovate the floors is with refinished concrete. Or dig up the foundations and install a new type of materials for a low price. There are so many of those that can be used interchangeably with one method to another. Include resurfacing and refinishing techniques into that. What’s the difference? Experts can tell you that exactly! Today’s article gets the pros’ approval here to reveal what they know. This is the 411 to concrete refinishing.
Refinishing vs. resurfacing: Fact Check
In the world of flooring, two terms often take turns in their meanings. They were refinishing, and resurfacing sounded the same. But if one looks at the methods closely, there are distinct differences to see.
Simple vs. Complex
Both refinishing and resurfacing fall on concrete repair categories. The two will also have their simplicity and complexities in the process. Read more about Why Choose Concrete Lifting Services?
Change Vs. Revive
The next factor that you need to look at is its purpose. Why and what will you refinish?
You need to refinish the floors if you see their outer form fading. They may have on them a type of film coating. Or it could be staining or micro-topping. A more popular type of finish can be simple coloring.
Moreover, refinishing is going to be your choice if you notice these signs and issues:
- Color fading on the concrete floor surface
- The cement material or appearance starts to become obvious
- The flooring surface, especially indoors, does not prevent slips anymore
- Thin layers of the concrete floors are scaling or
- The top surface does not repel water, and moist can potentially leak into the slabs
You can avoid these scenarios from happening. Look into refinishing and its essential steps.
Reapplying Your Concrete Floor Finish
You may not need to overhaul the flooring system, but prevention is what you can do initially.
Wounded people need first aid to prevent injuries from getting worse. That is the same with the floors. Mats and carpets will not suffice. Covering the damaged areas can heal cracks and severe damage. You can refinish the flooring for an effective treatment quick following these steps:
- Sand or rough up the surface to remove the messy coating on the floors
- Wash and clean the surface
- Scrape the remaining residue of the old layers
- If no coating were used, then a pressure wash would help to scrape off the entire old covering or layer
- Choose the suitable refinishing material or technique
- Seal and coat the concrete floor
Resurfacing Flooring Material
Meanwhile, you may need to perform resurfacing if you want to change the flooring material entirely. On another note, local flooring experts and stamped concrete Chicago applied overlays for removing damages on the floor to provide a polished and seamless surface.
By now, there are many things that you want to consider if you want to resurface the floors. What makes the flooring qualify for resurfacing? What if there are no pressing issues on the material? “Can I resurface if I want to replace the other material with concrete?
The straight answer is yes, you can. Here are other unpopular ideas to have floors resurfaced.
- Resurface to replace an entirely different material with concrete or other flooring types
- Resurface when a floor finishing did not come out as you like
- Resurface if obvious and potentially hazardous damages surface
- Resurface for faulty concrete
- Resurface when concrete floors got weak base slabs
When NOT Refinish and Resurface
Lastly, it is noteworthy to take a look at those times when not to refinish or resurface. Consider replacement or provide a complete overhaul to the floors with the following cases:
- Weak reinforcements
- Crumbling concrete
- The ground movement caused the concrete to break and crack
- The base slabs break due to soil corrosion
- Sinking slabs
