Why does my quote say defects will show in the finished floor?

Because they will. A polish does not put a new layer on top. It grinds and shines the slab you already have, so every dip, hole, crack, and soft spot is still there when we leave. Your quote lists each kind of defect so you can pick what we fix and what we leave.

Why are the fixes billed by the hour?

Nobody can say how long a defect takes until the crew is working on it. A boot print can be shallow or deep, and a crack can be clean or crumbly. So each fix you pick is billed at $67 per hour, counted by the crew hour as worked, plus materials where the option says so. Those hours are not in the total on your quote.

What happens if I leave every option as it is?

Nothing extra is charged. We polish the floor with our standard process, and the defects stay and show in the finished floor. Many owners are fine with that, because a polished floor with some history is still hard, bright, and easy to clean.

Polished concrete slab defects: we did not pour your slab

Last updated: October 20, 2026

We did not pour your slab. Here is what that means for polished concrete slab defects: a polish works with the concrete that is already there, and it cannot change what another crew left behind. It grinds the top, hardens it, and shines it. If the slab has dips, holes, cracks, or soft spots, the polish shows every one of them.

So every Slab Boss Polish quote on a slab we did not pour lists 4 kinds of defects. Each one starts at “leave it as is,” which costs nothing. You pick something else only if you want us to work on it. Any fix you pick is billed by the crew hour as worked, because nobody can know how long a fix takes until we are in it.

To make a boot print go away, the whole area has to come down to its bottom. That deeper cut shows more rock and a different color.

The 4 kinds of defects we see

These 4 show up most on slabs that other crews poured. Each one has its own page with the choices, the pros and cons, and what each choice costs.

1. Low spots and boot prints. The slab is wavy, or someone walked on it while it was still soft. A polish machine rides over the high spots and skips the low ones, so the low spots stay dull next to the shine. See low spots and boot prints in polished concrete.

2. Holes and cracks. Nail holes, cutouts for pipes, and cracks all stay open unless we fill them. A filled spot never matches the floor perfectly. See holes and cracks in polished concrete.

3. Soft or uneven surface density. Some parts of a slab are harder than others. The soft spots soak up more liquid and polish up duller or rougher than the floor around them. See uneven concrete density and polishing.

4. Cut depth. How deep we grind decides how much rock shows. Our standard cut is 2 passes with a 30 grit tool, and it gives most floors a salt-and-pepper look. Going deeper is a gamble on what is down there. See cream polish vs salt and pepper vs full aggregate.

Why is there no single fix short of a new slab?

Each fix trades one look for another. Fill a hole and it goes flat, but the fill is a different color from the floor around it. Grind out a low spot and it goes flat too, but that deeper cut shows bigger rock in that 1 area. Cut the whole floor deep enough to flatten it and it can look great. It can also find rebar or a stake someone left in the slab.

A floor with no history takes a new slab, poured to be polished. Short of that, you choose which trade you can live with. That is why your quote leaves the choice to you, 1 defect at a time, across all 4 groups.

What the price on your quote covers

Your total covers our standard polish of the slab as it is. Any fix you pick is billed per crew hour as worked, plus materials where the option says so. Those hours are not in the total. Your quote spells out what you picked and what you left.

How much do the fixes cost?

Every fix costs $67 per hour, counted by the crew hour, as the crew works it. Some fixes also need materials, like resin or patch mix, and those options say “plus materials.” Leaving a defect as it is costs nothing at all.

We bill by the hour because a fixed price would have to guess. Guess high and you overpay on an easy slab. Guess low and the crew has a reason to rush a hard one. By the hour, you pay for the work your slab needs and nothing more.

How to choose your concrete crew

If you have not poured yet, this part saves you the most money. Most of what we fix by the hour starts on the day of the pour, and a crew that knows the floor will be polished can stop most of it before it starts.

Tell the crew before the pour that the floor will be polished. Then ask them 4 things:

How flat will the floor be? Ask what gap they expect under a 10-foot straightedge. A gap of 1/4 inch puts high gloss within reach. A gap of 1/2 inch or more puts it out of reach without corrective grinding.
How will they keep people off the slab while it is soft? Boot prints in a soft slab turn into low spots in a polished floor.
Will they pull every grade stake? A stake left in the slab can show up when the floor is ground.
How deep will the rebar sit? Rebar close to the top limits how deep anyone can grind later.

A crew does not have to be bad to miss these. Most slabs poured to structural spec land at a gap of 1/2 inch or more under the straightedge, and nobody poured them wrong. They hit what the inspector passes. A polished floor just asks for more than that.

When we pour and polish the same slab, we follow our Pour-4-Polish spec, and its 4 steps are Set, Portland, Even, and Cure. If you already have a slab and want to know where it stands, run a straightedge across it and send us the numbers.

Where do you start?

Start the quote for a Slab Boss Polish. Each of the 4 defect groups links to its own page with photos and diagrams. Pick what you want fixed, or leave it all as it is. Your quote will list what you chose and what you left, so there are no surprises when the crew is done.