What you are paying for is passes
Polishing is a grit progression: a sequence of diamond passes from a coarse metal-bond cut through to fine resin polishing pads, with a densifier applied partway through. Every level of exposure and every step of gloss is another full pass across the entire floor with a machine and a set of consumed diamonds. That is why a deep-cut, high-gloss floor costs roughly double a light cream polish. Nothing else in the price moves as much.
Exposure level drives most of it
A cream polish stays in the top paste layer and takes off almost nothing, so it is fast and forgiving. Salt and pepper cuts one to two millimetres to expose fine sand. Full aggregate goes five millimetres or deeper to reach the stone, which is several aggressive passes with metal-bond tooling before the polishing even starts. The finishes look very different and they cost very differently for the same reason.
Slab condition can add or remove work
Polishing reveals what is in the slab rather than covering it, so patches, staining, trowel burns and old adhesive all stay visible unless they are cut through. Removing carpet glue or an old coating before polishing is a separate line, and on a slab with heavy contamination it can be a significant one. This is why we test-grind a square metre before quoting any polished floor rather than pricing from a photograph.
What it saves over twenty years
Polished concrete has the lowest lifetime cost of anything we install because it has no recoat cycle. There is no film to wear through, so maintenance is dust mopping, damp mopping and a burnish with a fresh stain guard every five to ten years. Against a coated commercial floor that needs a topcoat refresh in the traffic lanes every five to eight years, the arithmetic over two decades favours polishing clearly.
Want this answered for your slab?
Free site visit with a moisture reading, then a written fixed price. Across the BC Interior.