Concrete Floor Restoration
Other crews look at a damaged slab and quote you a tear-out. We grind it back, repair it, and save you the repour. Restoration is cheaper than building a new floor.
Restoration is preparation, not a finish
This is the part people get wrong when they price a floor. Restoration is not something you choose instead of polishing or coating. It is what makes polishing or coating possible on a slab that is not ready for either.
A large grinder takes the surface layer off. With the slab open we can see and reach what is actually wrong, and fill the cracks, holes, divots and uneven spots that were hidden under whatever was down before. What comes out the other side is a flat, sound, contaminant-free slab that will hold a finish.
Skip it and the finish inherits every fault underneath. Polish over unrepaired patches and they read straight through. Coat over a contaminated slab and the coating lifts.
When restoration is the right call, and when it is not
It is the right call whenever the slab is structurally sound but the surface is not. Spalling, trench lines, old adhesive, failed coatings, cut-outs where equipment was pulled, patches that never matched. All of that is surface, and all of it is fixable without pouring new concrete.
It is the wrong call in two situations
The slab has failed structurally
Sunken sections, movement across a crack, subsidence underneath. Restoration works on the surface. If the problem is under the slab, grinding the top of it does not fix anything and we will tell you that on the visit.
The damage is too deep to grind out
Where the surface is past reach, a micro-topping or self-levelling overlay gives you a new surface to finish rather than trying to recover the old one. That is a different job and we will say so.
Where it applies
Industrial and warehouse
Forklifts, trucks and heavy equipment break floors down. Trench lines, spalled control joints and circular cut-outs where machinery was removed are the usual pattern.
Retail, restaurant and office
Old flooring pulled up, adhesive cured into the slab, and years of patch repairs that never matched. Kitchens and back-of-house take the worst of it.
Outdoors
Walkways, driveways and parking structures. Weather and traffic rather than machinery, but the same surface problems.
Why you were quoted a tear-out
A tear-out is the easy quote. Break the slab, haul it away, pour a new one, wait for it to cure. It always works, it is simple to price, and it does not require anyone to judge what the existing floor can take.
It is also the most expensive answer, the slowest, and it puts a skip and a concrete truck on your site. On a slab that is structurally sound, it is solving a surface problem with a structural solution.
The reason crews quote it is that restoration takes tooling and experience they may not have. Grinding a patched, contaminated slab flat is harder than pouring a new one.
The process
- Assessment. What is on the slab, what is under it, and whether the problem is surface or structural. This is the conversation that decides whether restoration is even the right answer.
- Grinding. A large grinder takes the surface layer off and opens the concrete up. Old adhesive and failed coatings come off here.
- Repair. With the slab open, cracks, holes, divots and uneven spots get filled and levelled. Transitions between old patches get ground flat so the floor reads as one surface.
- Finish. The restored slab is now ready for whatever comes next: polishing, an epoxy coating, or a grind and seal.
Before, during and after
What it costs
Restoration is quoted as part of the finished floor rather than on its own, because it is preparation. Commercial polished concrete including the restoration runs $3 to $12 per square foot, and epoxy runs $6 to $15.
How much of that range you use is decided almost entirely by how much repair the slab needs. That is why nobody can price this over the phone, and why a quote given without seeing the floor is a guess.
What is certain is the comparison. Restoration is cheaper than building an entirely new floor, and it does not take the building out of use for a concrete pour and cure.
Projects that used it
- Floor Restoration, Los Angeles Industrial Warehouse. 12,000 sqft in ten days, on a slab patched and re-patched for decades under a bowstring truss roof.
- Floor Restoration, West Hollywood Office
Common questions
Is restoration cheaper than replacing the floor?
Yes, and by a wide margin. A tear-out means demolition, haulage, a new pour and cure time before anyone can use the space. Restoration uses the slab that is already there, so you pay for grinding and repair rather than for concrete and downtime.
Can you restore a floor that has old tile adhesive on it?
The adhesive comes off, yes. But tile leaves a permanent ghost pattern in the slab that grinding does not remove, and a gloss finish makes it more visible. If that matters, the answer is a coating or an overlay rather than a polish.
How do I know if my slab is worth restoring?
The test is whether the problem is surface or structural. Spalling, cracks, adhesive, failed coatings and mismatched patches are all surface and all fixable. Sunken sections and movement across a crack are structural, and grinding the top does not fix those.
Do you restore outdoor concrete?
Yes. Walkways, driveways and parking structures. The damage pattern is different from a warehouse but the process is the same.
What happens after restoration?
The restored slab takes whatever finish suits the building. Polished concrete, an epoxy coating, or a grind and seal where you want a sealed floor without a mirror.
Get a second opinion before you tear it out
If someone has quoted you a repour, it is worth twenty minutes to find out whether the slab needs it. We measure, check for moisture and damage, and tell you straight whether restoration will hold.