I love the burnished look. I didn't get it when I asked for it. There was a misunderstanding with the contractor. He didn't know what he was doing lol.

Concrete will most likely always crack you have to see it like character both looks look great sealed floors give you easier clean up

Concrete is a fluid material and it will crack. This is the reason you either install control joints or cut them in after the concrete has set. It is true that you can not always control where the concrete will crack but if you install the control joints you have a better chance of the cracks occurring at these locations. One thought would be to install burnish the concrete then come back at some later date and polish the floors.

Thanks very much!

Concrete floors can be beautiful if done correctly. Burnished and polish is very expensive to do, at around $30.00 SF in my area. I would highly recommend adding the expansion joints or add saw cuts for alleged crack control. One of my clients didn’t do this and now has spider cracking all over her concrete floors. Looks pretty bad.

Concrete floors must be regularly cleaned and resealed every few years as necessary. The finish that they put on top of the concrete floors has a tendency to break down. For example, if you do not clean the floor regularly, any dirt or sand on the floor will be corrosive to the finish when people walk on it. This can have the effect of breaking down the finish and require more maintenance.

Moisture is a big problem in our area with concrete floor surface is sealed. If this doesn’t happen, moisture will seep into the concrete this is what causes cracking. Even a little bit of wetness can be an incubator for mildew and mold. So really keep up on keeping up with the regular sealing maintenance schedule.

There is also the weight of the concrete that can be a concern. However, with an architect on board, he will take care of any structural issues.

Thanks! This is helpful.

I recently friended someone on facebook that does some amazing things with concrete, here is a link.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Concrete-Revolution-LLC/253954404640338?ref=stream

One of the charecteristics of concrete is cracks. it will crack, it's concretes nature. Now, you can do something elegant to hide or enhance that nature. I will go with acid stained and engraved concrete, meaning adding more cuts as a design like the following pictures. it was just boring concrete.