If you have been charmed by the durable, low cost elegance of polished concrete floors and surfaces, you may be in a hurry to start the job of polishing concrete floors in your home. Before you do so, wait. If you have never done it before, you may find that polishing concrete is not the simple job it may appear. Polishing concrete could even be extremely dangerous for the DIY fan to attempt.
Although you may be able to rent the equipment for wet or dry concrete polishing from a hardware store, the sheer weight of the machine for polishing concrete means that it is not a job for one person. You would need to wear gloves, goggles to protect your eyes from flying particles and a protective face mask to prevent you from breathing in the dust that is a by product of polishing concrete. If inhaled, the dust can cause silicosis and for that reason it is essential for anyone who undertakes the job of polishing concrete to take every safety precaution and also to be very sure that all silicate dust is cleaned away after polishing so that it is not stirred up and inhaled at some later date. Cleaning up afterwards is a big job in itself and protective masks would also be required for that task.
In addition to the stringent safety precautions required for polishing concrete, it is important to be aware that, at its best, polishing concrete is a skilled task and a non expert is unlikely to be able to achieve the same high quality results a professional would.
Although an expert may be able to complete the job beautifully and within a reasonably short space of time, polishing concrete is a dangerous task in all but expert hands and so, for safety reasons, it is probably best left to the experts.