Scratch repair on polished concrete is decided by depth, not by the bottle on the shelf. A surface mark responds to a pad; a cut through the cream needs diamond steps; a gouge needs filler. Applying the wrong one turns a five-minute job into a visible patch.

Test with a fingernail across the scratch. If the nail catches, the scratch is deeper than the film and a maintenance product will not remove it.

Match the method to the depth

Depth	What it is	Method
Surface haze	Film-level rub mark	White pad, dry buff, or neutral cleaner and pad
Light scratch	Under 0.1 mm, no nail catch	Spot polish with 400-800 resin on a hand machine
Visible cut	0.1-0.3 mm, nail catches	Step back one grit, then re-polish two steps
Gouge	Deeper than 0.3 mm	Clean, fill with matched paste, polish flush

Spot polish sequence

1. Clean the area and remove any sealer or coating locally with a red pad.
2. Identify the last grit the floor received. Start one step coarser, never two.
3. Work a 300-400 mm area with a hand machine, 4-6 passes, overlapping half.
4. Finish with the original last grit, then buff.
5. Compare under the same light angle as the rest of the floor, not under a torch.

Why spot repairs show

• Starting too coarse leaves a lighter, over-exposed spot with more aggregate.
• Polishing only the scratch leaves a ring where gloss changed.
• Sealer applied to the spot only creates a sheen difference at the boundary.
• Using a different pad brand can shift the finish slightly; keep the same consumables.

Full-floor versus spot

If scratches are clustered in one traffic lane, repair the lane and blend the edges with a 1 m feather zone. If they cover more than about 20 percent of the floor, a full two-step refresh is faster and looks more even than thirty spots. Price the two options before starting, because the customer will ask.

Always match gloss afterwards. A repair that is flat but the right colour is still a repair the customer sees every morning.