Polished Concrete Floors

Open any home style magazine in Australia these days and you won't be able to escape the fact that a polished concrete floor is the new black.

Concrete and polish wouldn't appear to mix but progreesively sand back a decent slab with an increasingly finer grade of diamond/resin matrix , apply some commercial polishing compound, give it a good buffing and bob's your auntie's sister.

There are pitfalls, however, although an experienced tradesman should be able to overcome any such hurdle.

Firstly no matter what your told, this job is far easier if done at the start, when the slab has just been laid and set. This enables better access to the site for the concrete sanding machines and making the task far swifter and easier for the contractor and cheaper for you the customer.

Trying to use unwieldy machines in an established house and get right up close and personal with floor level glass doors or windows can be tricky. The quality of an old slab can also be poor, especially if tiles have been removed and cracks in the slab are present. It means it's almost impossible to disguise into the finish as any filling will lose "the grain" of the floor and be quite noticeable. This is one reason why polished concrete has until recently only been popular on commercial sites, where the quality of the finish was less important.

Don't want the "grey" look, knowing your "going concrete" from the beginning also allows you to add some colour to the slab to give a truly unique finish. I've seen a polished concrete floor with a chocolate finish that was simply stunning.

The other thing to remember is that concrete is a pretty cold material (unless heated up of course) - it's why we spend so much money laying warmer materials over the top such as carpet and floorboards. This may be countered however at the time of laying the slab by including "in-slab" heating. This is a fairly simple process of laying wire along the mesh reinforcement in the slab deep enough from the surface to prevent it getting damaged in the sanding process. A current is fed through this wire and the net result is very effectiive (and efficient) under-floor heating.

So polished concrete may not be for everyone but with improving techniques and some sound pre-planning it can be great low maintenance solution to flooring.