If you’ve ever needed to choose a type of paint for a wall, you’ve probably heard the term gloss — semi-gloss, full gloss, high gloss and perhaps even ultra-high gloss. Although these words are often associated with paint, gloss does not refer to a specific shade of color, but instead the quality of the finish.
The Difference Between Shiny and Glossy
Shiny is defined as “reflecting light,” while glossy is defined as “having surface luster or brightness.” It might sound like the terms are interchangeable, but there is a slight difference. A shiny surface focuses on the intensity of light reflection. A glossy surface is more about the depth and quality of reflected light, how it improves or adds to the surface and its environment.
Here’s another way of looking at it: a mirror or show car is shiny, depending on how well it reflects both light and images accurately. Seeing a reflection in a mirror is expected, and that’s why they’re shiny. A gloss finish — for instance, on a kitchen or bathroom cabinet — has a smooth, silk-like luster that people find attractive and illuminating. You don’t expect to use a gloss finish to check your hair, but its reflective quality is a great accompaniment to the look of certain rooms, especially on an otherwise dull concrete floor.
Making Your Concrete Floor Glossy
When light hits a rough surface, it scatters in many different directions. When this happens, the surface looks dull. Although an ordinary concrete floor might look smooth, on a microscopic level it’s full of bumps, ridges and holes. West Coast Epoxy uses specialized equipment to smooth out your concrete completely, so the light isn’t scattered by a rough surface, but bounces back in a uniform fashion.
After grinding the floor to smoothness, we add a coating that reflects even more light. Just as the level of smoothness applied to your concrete floor is adjustable, we offer coatings with different levels of reflective ability. The uniformity of your concrete surface, along with the glossiness of your chosen coating, brings as much (or as little) gloss to your floor as you prefer.
Of course, the coatings we use at West Coast Epoxy are safe, as well as durable. If you would like to see some examples, feel free to look at our Gallery page. You can also give us a call or schedule an appointment online. West Coast Epoxy can show you samples of how a gloss finish on your Sacramento floors will look so good it’ll get everybody talking.