Honing or polishing: choosing your sheen

Start with your space

Choosing Between a Honed and Polished Sheen

Sheen is one of the first decisions in any polished concrete project, and it’s as much about how a room feels as how it looks in a photo. A honed finish gives you a softer, low-glare surface, while full polishing pushes toward a reflective, glass-like sheen — and the right choice depends on the room’s light, its use and the mood you’re after, not just a sample panel viewed under showroom lighting. Exposure and sheen are also separate decisions: a lower-gloss honed floor can still show plenty of aggregate, while a highly polished surface can look comparatively plain. Neither finish should be judged for slip performance on appearance alone.

An approximate area is fine. The right system starts with an assessment.