What’s The Difference Between Buffing and Polishing Floors?
The state of your flooring makes a big impact on the overall feel of your commercial space. A shiny, well-cared-for floor ensures a professional environment that leaves a good impression on clients, customers, and employees.
As floor-care experts, our Anago franchisees spend a lot of time working on floors of all types to get them clean, shiny, and looking like new again. One of the questions people commonly ask about floor care is “what is the difference between buffing and polishing?” The two processes may seem similar at first, but there are some key differences in how they work and the results that they produce.
Floor Buffing
Buffing your floor both cleans it and restores shine. A floor buffing machine uses a special buffing pad to remove scratches and nicks from the floor’s surface. This process essentially strips away the top layer of flooring to create an even, smooth surface.
Having your floors buffed restores them and gives them more shine, but doesn’t achieve the same level of gloss as polishing. Buffing can be done on its own or it can be followed up with high-speed polishing for a glossier look.
Floor Polishing
High-speed floor polishing, also called “burnishing,” is a floor-care method done after buffing in order to create an intense shine. A harsher process than buffing, burnishing/polishing machines work at a much higher speed than buffing machines, however they are generally used after buffing takes place so opting for polishing does not take less time overall than buffing. Burnishing is popular in commercial spaces because it achieves a high-gloss, glasslike finish that looks very new and professional.
Buffing and polishing are both effective on stone, concrete, marble, laminate, tile, and any other hard-surface flooring. Anago’s franchisees specialize in floor care for commercial spaces, from buffing and polishing to steam carpet cleaning to grout and tile cleaning.
Looking for specialized floor care for your commercial space?