polished floor....wavy

demille restoration · 05-05-2007, 11:45 PM

ive seen several pictures on here of people showing their work when theyre done polishing a floor, and the reflections are wavy. is this acceptable to present to a client, as long as the proper procedures were followed, grout is clean, no crystallizer, etc? ive been doing countertops for a year now, and i like to make the stone look as perfect as possible, but im just getting into floors, is it unrealistic to pursue a perfectly flat reflection?

StoneBuddy · 05-06-2007, 12:30 AM

It all depends on the floor and stone in question. Some machines leave a wavy finish regardless of stone or installation. Truth is, most clients don't look hard enough to notice. If it is better than when you got there, usually is all they care about.

Some planetary machines leave this wavy finish no matter what, but I have found it helps to cross-hatch metal bonds, going left-to-right over whole floor, then front to back with same grit. Once you're to your resin bonds, it doesn't matter so much. The waviness comes during the grinding process, but you won't see it until you finish, so just take time with metal bonds and work them in all directions no matter the machine.

cheesedog · 05-06-2007, 12:57 AM

theres a floor im quoting next week, and im going to do a sample. the lady is very concerned that it wont be the way it came from the factory. it is a limestone floor, and has a very high polish from the factory, i know i can get it back to that polish but im worried about the waviness. is it common for limestone to be wavy, and also could the backing plate pose a problem. like a weighted metal vs. a foam-backed plate? sorry to hi-jack the thread

Huligar · 05-06-2007, 01:02 AM

I would like to add to what stone buddy just said. You need to work with what you have and the budget that was given. If you are going to do a ground in place, you can make the floor perfect. To avoid leaven waves in the floor, just keep your tool on the move. If you stay in one spot longer than the rest of the floor, you will leave an indentation.

Huligar · 05-06-2007, 01:07 AM

cheesedog and others, the stiffer the pad the closer you will get to a flat floor. Those foam pads is best used when you need to float over lippage and rounded edges.

StoneBuddy · 05-06-2007, 07:40 AM

I am about to buy 3 new heads for my Cimex and modify them to be rigid. I believe truthfully that the foam backers have too much give, which causes the waves.

Jo, you're right, when grinding in place, you CAN make it perfect. But it is all about WANTING to make it perfect. If you grind and polish a floor and it is wavy, WILL YOU take the time and effort to re-do it, or will you walk away?

Cheesedog AND Demille, what equipment are you using for floor work?

Cheesedog, if you are doing a sample, make sure you do a large enough sample to determine whether or not you will have a wavy floor, and make sure you use exact equipment and processes you plan to use on full job. A lot of guys new to this will go in and polish a tile or two by hand as a demo, and when doing full job, results are different and they don't know why or what to tell custy.

If customer is worried, then you need to take all measures needed to prevent it, mostly "over-doing" your grinding steps.

And Jo makes a great point, NEVER work one spot too long. If one spot has bad lippage, you don't need to rest machine in that spot and work it, it HAS to stay moving.

WHAT EQUIPMENT and what pads are you using?

PICTURES?

cheesedog · 05-06-2007, 09:07 AM

i have a normal 150lb machine from granquartz (not planetary) and im using granquartz 3 inch resin pads. i started to do our showroom and got up to 400 grit and noticed it was wavy, so i stopped. but i was using the standard foam backed plate and im hoping thats the cause, i ordered the weighted plate it should be here monday. if it has the foam im going to take it off. im gonna start over on the floor and see what i come up with. im doing a sample in the lady's powder room, not too big but big enough. i think the cleaning lady was mopping a couple times a week and thats how the stone got so worn out, it doesnt look like your normal traffic pattern.

J Koessler · 05-06-2007, 01:03 PM

Hi Cameron

Great thread! Many good comments. It also depends on how you're defining wavy. I also have seen the photos you mentioned. Many of them could have had a smoother reflection if more time was spent on the first cut of the floor. North to South and East to West is the most important method to remove enough material evenly to get that smooth reflection.

If you ever restore a large terrazzo job, that's when you may experience a wavy floor, no matter what you do.

cleanimage · 05-06-2007, 04:05 PM

depressed tiles

pre inspection for these is important if your going for a flat floor

in my limited experience, using a klindex planetary, the lipps arent as bad as the depressed tile edges.

technically to have a flat floor, you would have to grind the floor to the lowest depression, which may be impossible

what i have done on, short of using hand tool, is use circular motions to blend

hope this helps

unless the floor was poured and trowled by lazers, i dont think you can achieve a 100 percent flat floor, maybee 90

carl

cheesedog · 05-06-2007, 07:07 PM

someone says east to west north to south,and someone else says circular. i use the circular motion, never stopping in one spot, but i do work one lip while using circles. and when i say wavy i mean theres a wave in the middle of one tile. its not because of the lowest depression in the floor, its because the diamonds are not staying completely flat. it just doesnt seem like it would be acceptable to leave a client with a wavy floor, if it can be done better. it shouldnt take any more work to make it flat, i think i just have to figure out what equipment and setups to use to do so. im just looking for some advice. im sure theres a couple of ways to do it to make it right i guess it depends on what works for you.