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Polished concrete looks great in photos, and some owners still end up regretting it: the floor is very hard on feet, knees and hips, a concrete house can get loud and echoey, and the slab under your tile may not look like the photos at all. Know all three before the tile comes up. Call (786) 686-1048 and we'll connect you with an independent concrete polishing contractor serving your part of Miami-Dade. Ask them to grind a test patch so you see your own slab, explain what patches and cracks will show, and say whether you're getting a real polish or a grind and seal.
The tile came up in patches and left a cratered surface, and the price went up. Nobody knows what a slab looks like until the floor covering is off, so ask how extra prep is priced before work starts, per square foot, in writing.
Grinding a slab inside a lived-in house makes dust. One couple came home to dust everywhere and the toilets still off. Ask about dust extraction, plastic walls, who removes and resets the toilets and baseboards, and what "clean" means at the end.
A true polish is the concrete itself, ground and densified. Marks that show up fast often mean a topical coating was put on top. Find out which one you're paying for.
Thinking about polished floors after the tile comes up? Call and we'll connect you with a polishing contractor serving your area.
Call (786) 686-1048A concrete floor doesn't give. People who stand a lot at home, or have sore joints, notice it, and rooms with hard floors and bare walls get loud. Rugs where you stand and sit, and soft furnishings, help. If that's a deal-breaker, polished concrete may not be the right floor, and that's worth knowing now.
Eleven of the 102 stories we read were about this, tied for the most common complaint.
Polishing takes heavy grinders and a sequence of finer and finer diamonds. Ask how many passes, what grits, whether they densify the slab, and to see a floor they did a year or more ago.
Another eleven were about a crew that didn't really know polishing.
Ask about the grinder's vacuum, plastic barriers, and what they'll move, remove and put back. Get it in the scope.
And eleven more were about the mess left behind.
No Florida prices turned up in our research, so we won't post a Miami number as fact. One poster summed up the general split as "$6 to $9 a foot for a true polish and $3 to $6 for grind and seal", from outside Florida. Your contractor quotes after a test grind.
What moves the number: tile, glue and thinset removal, filling cracks and patches, how glossy you want it, densifier and guard, and how much furniture and fixtures have to move.
A lot of South Florida homes from the 1950s to the 1970s have terrazzo under the tile or carpet, and many others have a plain slab with years of patches. A test patch tells you which you have; terrazzo usually means restoring the terrazzo rather than polishing concrete. Kitchen tile often runs under the cabinets, so the floor may stop at the cabinet line. Plumbing trenches cut during old remodels show as lines in the finished floor.
Miami's warmth works in polished concrete's favor: a cool, hard floor feels better here than in a cold climate. The noise and the hardness underfoot don't change.
Give your zip code and say it's an indoor floor, and you're connected to someone who polishes concrete.
A small area ground so you see the slab.
Removal, repairs, polish level, guard, dust control and extra-prep pricing.
Coarse to fine diamonds over several days, densifier partway through.
Stain guard, final burnish and cleanup.
The common one is extra prep after the tile comes up: glue, thinset, deep patches and cracks. Get that priced per square foot in the quote, so it isn't a surprise.
They can be filled and polished over, but the repair usually still shows a little. Many people treat cracks as part of the look.
Grind and seal costs less up front but the coating scratches and needs redoing. A true polish costs more and wears better. With pets or heavy use, the polish usually wins.
It's durable, easy to clean and suits Miami's heat. It's also hard underfoot and can make rooms loud. If either matters a lot to you, plan rugs, or choose another floor.
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Phones are answered 8am to 8pm, 7 days. Tell them the job, the size and your zip code, and ask for a written, itemized price.
Have a slab, a deck or a driveway in mind?
(786) 686-1048