Hard trowel finish
A densely troweled, smooth, often burnished surface produced by multiple steel trowel passes. Standard for interior warehouse, retail, and garage floors.
What does hard trowel finish mean?
The repeated compaction produces a dense wear surface with good abrasion resistance and a light sheen. It is inappropriate outdoors in freezing climates because it is slippery when wet and because the sealed surface over air-entrained concrete delaminates. Overworking a hard trowel finish can also darken the surface unevenly, a defect known as burn marks.
In practice
The polished-looking floor in a big-box store is usually a hard trowel finish, sometimes densified, rather than true polished concrete.