Polished concrete floors - thoughts?

[ProjectPete]

In working with the industrial style of a new house I'm planning to build, I'm tryignt o decide on flooring.

I love timber but I also love polished concrete. Does anyone have polished concrete? What are the pros and cons?

I assume there's an issue with the flooring being colder, but how much of a difference does it actally make? Is it worth the look?

Also if you know how much I can expect to pay per sqm it'd be great to know! Or...maybe it's easy enough to do myself

[Jason]

Hi @ProjectPete,

For the typical home I wouldn't go past timber. It's beautiful, easy to keep clean, looks great for a long time without maintenance, and lovely underfoot. And it's not too hard years down the track to sand and polish so it looks like new again.

But we did choose to go with polished concrete for our backyard games room and are happy with the choice (even with a few unexpected cracks). Now we're been through both a hot summer and a cold winter we haven't changed our mind that it was the right choice for an indoor/outdoor room. It's lovely in both summer and winter. 

There's a couple of previous Workshop discussions on polished concrete floors that you might find useful, and hopefully other members will also share their further thoughts.

• Polished concrete

• Polished concrete in a family room

Hope that's useful.

Jason

[ProjectPete]

As much as we love the look of the polished concrete floors, we're getting more negative (or at least not-so-good) feedback than positive.

We've decided to go with floorboards.

Next is to decide on polished concrete or aggregate to the Alfresco (leaning toward aggregate). 

[BIM_Engineer]

What are the reason you are getting negative feedback?
If it's engineered and done properly there's hardly any cracking
IMO its well worth the effort... just be aware of the pitfalls. eg
Include extra, concrete thickness, shrinkage steel, well vibrated concrete,etc,etc. Hire a Grinding/Polishing Concrete and DIY

[ProjectPete]

The negative was mostly around the cold TBH @BIM_Engineer. My plan was to DIY anyway so no probs there.

But between the colder room temp and the 7star green energy rating we're achieving with our home, we've decided on the floorboards (for now).

[BIM_Engineer]

Yes it is cold under foot..
Alternatively, for concrete slabs you might also want to consider underslab heating
it's quite effective my2c

[ProjectPete]

We did consider the underfloor heating @BIM_Engineer but with all the other upgrades we're doing, it was a case of making a priority call.

[BIM_Engineer]

LOL the only way to deal with upgrades and $ticker $hock pricing is to analyze the prices amongst alternatives using Data, Apps & Pricing Website.
BTW Most of the projects we do these days are to lock up..Clients buy, organise & install themselves the savings are around 20%..even Underfloor heating

[ProjectPete]

Definitely aware of the average 30-35% builder's mark up and wherever I can I'm  doing my own supply as well as install. But between the restrictions of the builder as well as the strict guidelines to meet energy ratings etc for the estate we're a little bit limited limited as to some of the things that we can supply and install outselves. For example i have a glazier mate that could hook me up and save me a lot of money on Windows however the windows had to go through strict certifications to meet standards of the estate and they're not open to even having another supplier / installer regardless of their own certifications. One of the challenges with this is estate but also one of the things that appeals to us.

[BIM_Engineer]

In many cases it is possible to certify alternate solutions as an engineer I do it all the time.OT. I am against restrictive covenants they serve no purpose but to increases prices. I wish the ACCC  look into it more... my2c