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The grind-in-pace stone floor is far superior to a factory-finished installation for several reasons.

Monolithic Looks

For beginners, you cannot match the monolithic looks of a grind-in-place stone floor with a factory-finished one. The grout lines are almost invisible, providing a monolithic appearance. However, you will notice that the grout grooves separate the tiles in case of factory-finished installation.

No Grout Lips translating to Easier Maintenance

The entire floor will look flat without any grout lips. Rather the grout will correctly flush with the rest of the stone floor, and you will not have to take care of protruding grout lips here and there. Ultimately, you can maintain the stone floor for years together with ease because the grout will never get dirty.

No Failed Experiments

Sometimes, the vivid imagination of some specifier runs wild to spoil your floor decorum. The grind-in-place technique will keep everything within reason. For instance, the specifier cannot mix it with materials like wood, granite, or other incompatible materials just like that. Who would ever think of doing that? However, you can still create a few minor accents to improve the overall looks.

Why is that important? Because, as the old saying goes:

"If you cannot install a stone floor with the grind-in-place method, you cannot restore it either!"

Onsite Finish

The finish produced by the grind-in-place technique will be onsite and not done in some mysterious way in some far-off factory where you have no role to play. Instead, you can reproduce the finish on the field during restoration time without leaving any scope for surprises.

A Professional Touch

Finally, the most crucial feature of a grind-in-place installation is that it must go through all the critical installation phases. Only a professional can accomplish this by getting involved in the nitty-gritty in a project like that, and that is no small feat. You can avoid the possibility of handing over this responsible job to a fly-by-night tile operator who works out of the back of his pickup truck.

Old School Is Still the Clear Winner

In several instances, you might have observed that the latest, more advanced technologies have brought about improvements in how they used to do things with the older methods. There has been remarkable progress in the stone floor industry and the techniques used in grinding machines, abrasive systems, etc. The old school in this industry is still the clear and undisputed winner.

 For Example, if you closely observe the two pictures below, you will notice subtle and apparent differences. Although these pictures are pretty much self-explanatory, you can appreciate the superiority of the grind-in-place method over the modern factory-finish technique. You can hardly see any grout grooves as the grout lines are almost invisible since they correctly flush with all the floor components providing a monolithic look to the floor. In the factory-finished installation, you can clearly notice the grout grooves that distinctly separate the tiles from one another.

Example of grind-in-place installation Notice the monolithic look of this floor

Example of factory-finished installation Notice the grout grooves separating the tiles