Polished concrete
A floor mechanically ground and refined through progressively finer diamond abrasives, combined with a chemical densifier, producing a hard permanent sheen.
What does polished concrete mean?
True polishing changes the concrete itself rather than adding a coating, so there is no film to peel, scratch through, or reapply. The level of aggregate exposure and the final gloss are specified separately, and the required grinding steps make it labor intensive. It is not appropriate for slabs that are cracked, soft at the surface, or contaminated with old adhesives without remediation.
In practice
Much of what retail customers call polished concrete is actually a ground-and-sealed or burnished floor, which looks similar on day one and wears very differently.