Decorative Concrete Floors: A Comprehensive Maintenance Guide

When it comes to decorative concretes, what really makes them more attractive than their finishes is the fact that they require much less maintenance than their traditional flooring counterparts. Even though the maintenance is simplistic, maintaining your decorative concrete is a crucial part in both how long your concrete is going to last and its overall appearance for years to come. So today, we are going to be giving you a comprehensive guide on maintaining your concrete in residential settings and even in high traffic commercial settings. We will even go through a few specific plagues of concrete that are very common. So, let’s get started!

A common misconception of decorative concrete is that the general maintenance is going to be very harsh and take you hours to complete. This is a myth however and concrete is by far one of the easiest flooring systems to maintain and clean on a day to day basis if your concrete is equipped with a seal coat or if you are using polished concrete. For polished concrete, all you really need for general maintenance is a soft bristle broom and a standard wet mop to get the dirt and grime off your flooring. The only difference with other decorative concretes like stamped concrete is that you simply replace the soft bristle broom with a standard broom. Also, make sure you check with the materials recommended cleaning agents so you don’t risk using a material that is going to react negatively with your coating.

If your decorative concrete is going to be seeing constant traffic, like in a home or light-duty commercial facility, there is one thing that we can recommend to maintain the aesthetic appeal of your concrete. We recommend the use of a concrete wax that will be placed over the top of your concretes seal coat. While the sealer can do a fine job by itself, constant traffic no matter how light it is will wear through your sealer in as little as weeks. With a wax protecting your sealer, it can last years longer. Wax is also much easier to spot when it’s degrading as well and can be repaired by simply placing another layer of wax right over the top. Even if your wax looks to be in good condition, we recommend that it be replaced at least once a month to ensure proper performance.

In areas that see constant walking, running and sadly inevitable scrapping, diligence is of the utmost importance. While regular general maintenance is a must, we also recommend using one of the high-grade sealers on the market such as urethane and even epoxy sealers. These high-performance sealers will make your life much easier when placing concrete in high traffic areas and will even last longer than the water-based and solvent-based sealers. Maintaining your concrete in high traffic areas is a constant process so we have found that making a routine maintenance schedule can help keep your concrete looking as beautiful as you first installed it a much easier process.

Sadly, decorative concrete is still concrete and faces the same degradation as the years go by. Thankfully, signs of damage such as cracks can be swiftly dealt with if caught in the early stages and life will go on. But if you allow your flooring to deteriorate farther and farther, you will find that the only solution will be to resurface your concrete with an overlay. But some home and business owners have let cracks, scrapes and gouges become an aesthetic of the flooring, giving it a more rustic feel.

Another common plague of concrete based flooring systems is the discoloration of the material when exposed to certain liquids such as wine or chemicals like acid. But, if you maintain the sealer of your concrete, you will find that your flooring will be near impenetrable to most moisture. If you find yourself lacking in your maintenance, the discoloration can become a reality and fortunately can be repaired with ease. There are multiple solutions to this problem such as re-staining your concrete or even using a tinted sealer to hide and change the color of your flooring

With decorative concrete becoming one of the most common flooring systems on the residential and commercial market, it is key that you stick to a strict maintenance regiment. If you follow this guide, we can almost guarantee that your life with concrete flooring will be smooth sailing!