All Topics / Value Adding / polished concrete interior floor and wall
Hi,
Has anyone opted to polish their concrete floor instead of doing floor boards? Can you give any advise on how to do it, who you would recommend to perform this and how much the cost was.
Also, i dont want the apartment to look warehouse-ish — is there a specific finish over the concrete or the type of polishing that can overcome this?
thanks
Work generally involves using a floor grinder – both noisy & messy (lots of dust) and may also require 3 phase power.
There are plenty of epoxy floor finishes which can be applied over the polished concrete. Depending upon the type of wear properties required 'hydropoxy' is a less volatile/waterbased epoxy. All epoxy treatments are quite pricey (on top of the price of grinding).
Speak to bunnings/painting specialist supplier to determine the best surface application. If you don't apply a surface treatment the floor will become very dusty regardless of how often it is vacuumed.
try Multitech Australia… they are in Qld & Vic …look here
http://www.multitechaustralasia.commackar
We have polished concrete in our renovated apartment and have had a heap of comments about it. Nearly all have been very positive but we have had some asking what we are doing with the floor!! You will get a 'warehouse style' type finish and this we have found appeals to a lot of people in their mid 20-early30's. There is a fair bit of dust involved however a lot of teh new grinders have built in vacuums so not too bad. If you can plan it get all the cutting/grinding done, then do the rest of your renovations then finish with the final coats so you get the best finish long term.
You're best to do a search in your area to find out costs and who can do it, we found it to be cheaper (about $5k for about 120 square metres) than floating boards or tiling and are really happy with the modern finish it gives. You do get dust but if it was carpet that dust would settle into the carpet and stay there so it can be very clean and easy to maintain if you give it the odd vacuum.
I'd only recommend if you are looking for a modern feel though and make sure the person knows what they are doing. Decide how much aggregate (the pebbles/stones int eh concrete) you want showing as this determines how much they cut back. As other posts mentined there's also a range of finishes so you have numbe of options on the final look.
We got contractors to polish the concrete in our 1970s house. It came up quite well. They wet polished it so less dust but more splashing – have to scrub the walls afterwards and it's best if the skirting boards are up while they do it. We have a water based sealant on it. They took it down 5mm or so and you can see the aggregate (rocks) in it. Quite nice I think. Not cheap – $100+ per square meter.
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