All across the country, more and more people are realizing that concrete can be just as useful inside the home as outside of it. Concrete is becoming more popular in use as interior floors and countertops. Concrete has many great advantages: it is extremely durable, has a near limitless amount of customization options, and is relatively easy to maintain and clean.

You’re going to want to make sure you know how to properly care for and maintain your interior concrete to keep it looking new and extending its life for as long as possible.

Concrete Floors

The biggest enemies of concrete flooring are dirt and dust as they can cause abrasion to your floor’s sealer, wax, and/or polish. Since concrete floors don’t have grout lines or crevices, it’s harder for dirt and dust to become ingrained in hard to clean places – which is nice.

However, to best maintain your floors, you’ll want to prevent excess dirt and dust from making it into your home and regularly clean up what does make its way onto your floor. A great way to prevent dirt circulating in your home is to make effective use of door mats. Choose more abrasive mats on the exterior side of entrances that will effectively knock loose dirt off the bottom of visitors’ shoes. You should also use interior mats as they will help to collect and trap moisture and dirt from the bottom of shoes before they can be introduced to your floor.

Inevitably, there will be dust and dirt that enters your home. Microfiber mops work best for cleaning concrete floors. You should get in the habit of frequently dry dusting your floor to remove loose dirt and dust before it can cause abrasion. It’s also a good idea to wet mop your floor periodically. It’s best to either use a microfiber mop with only water or to use it in conjunction with a neutral pH cleaner. NEVER USE acidic cleaners such as ammonia, bleach, and vinegar as they can greatly damage your concrete’s sealer, wax, and/or polish.

Other concrete floor maintenance tips:

• Use floor protectors on the bottom of furniture legs to prevent scratching
• Don’t drag heavy appliances or objects across the floor
• Clean up all spills immediately
• Avoid abrasive soaps, pads, or cleaners
• Make sure to ask your Concrete Contractor when you’ll need to reseal your floor

Concrete Countertops

Dirt isn’t as big an issue for concrete countertops, but maintaining them is very similar to maintaining concrete floors. If you’re looking to keep your countertop looking new for as long as possible, you’ll want to pay attention to the condition of your wax or sealer. While there are a lot of different waxes and sealers available, your countertop will probably need to be resealed once a year or once every two years. However, conditions could dictate that resealing occur much more or less frequently. If you decide to protect your sealer with a layer of wax, it will need to be reapplied much more frequently, usually once each month.

Since concrete countertops are much more likely to be exposed to acids found in common foods, it’s important to clean concrete countertops immediately after spills or acidic food and drinks come in contact.

Other tips for maintaining concrete countertops:

• Always use pH neutral soaps and cleaners
• Avoid abrasive cleaning pads
• Clean up spills immediately
• Contact your Concrete Contractor with any questions you might have

If you’d love to learn more about concrete countertops or floors, contact RGS Contracting. We’d be more than happy to answer your questions and help you get amazing use out of your interior concrete.