polished concrete

[sports fan]

Gday
Sorry dont know if im posting this in the right area but here goes anyway.

Got a standard 2 bed unit, which is carpeted with lino in kitchen. Its time for replacement and im tossing around a few ideas!?

Any one here ever had any experience with polishing the concrete floor of a unit?

Is it unsuitable to do so? The slab will have damage from the carpets smooth edge and glue marks from the lino, can this be repaired or ground out?

Just an idea any feed back will be appreciated. Cheers

[Dusty]

Go for it. I reckon it looks grouse.

Fix up the bodgy bits from the smooth edge and what not. Grind out the stains from the lino glue. And coat it heaps.

Here is one I coated a few years back. It was a single pack polyurethane in un-labled cans that the owner supplied so I have no idea what brand, or what company made it.

This floor has eight coats. Concrete seems to need more coats than timber (three is standard for timber) so plan on being generous with the coats.

[sports fan]

that floor is sweet dusty !

what did you apply that sealer with? roller?

im pretty keen on doing this i guess il i have make the call when the carpet & lino comes up..

[Vernonv]

That's is a really nice look. I assume that the concrete was NOT polished (using mechanical means) and that it was simply coated with clear finish.

Would it look a bit patchy if you had lots of areas to fill and/or grind, or otherwise repair?

[sports fan]

yea thats my main concern how it will look with patches around the perimeter and will grinding the concrete show?

maybe there is a topping or something i could put over it.. its hard to get info on this

[Dusty]

Whatever you do to the concrete prior to applying the coatings will be visible, such as patch ups, ground out spots, that sort of thing. However, at the end of the day it will still look pretty damn good.

The floor in the pictures (above & below) were ground down prior to being finished with the polyurethane.

The edges are cut in with a good quality brush and the rest of it is rolled on with a Mohair roller. When coating concrete you have to go like buggery, as there are no places where you can stop, and if you do stop you risk leaving over-lap marks. So you have to get on with it.

Here is another house, (same client,different house) although these pictures are not of the final finish and the eventual final coat was a satin finish rather than a gloss. Still looks pretty good.

[brynk]

the only downside is that my drool marks show up on such a fine work of art...

r's brynk

[burraboy]

It's a nice look alright, but I'm assuming that the floor WAS ground and polished. Did you do that Dusty? What machinery did you use, standard floor polisher or something else? Is this service one that is offered by all floor polishers? Do you strike many concrete floors that do not provide a good finish?
I have a weekender with a painted slab floor and really must do something with it, polishing looks great and I have admired other floors I have seen polished, I wonder if it falls into DIY territory.

[billbeee]

Nice photos and jobs Dusty,
I've done a few polished concrete jobs and in my experience the owner never wants to go the final bit an achieve a finish like you show here.

It is above all, extremely dirty, mud crap gets everywhere, fairly expensive in labour and consumables.

You start with coarse diamond pads and work finer.

The hire machines I have used have been two head, mainly for preparing floors for other finishes, but the last job I did we bought a 3 head machine for about $7000. Had a reverse switch to reverse the rotation. (every half hour or so with a conventional machine you have to stop and switch the pads around manually, this exposes fresh edges on the diamonds). This thing paid for itself on the one job.
In addition you need other (hand) grinders to get into the corners.

I would say check out the costing, could turn out dearer than ceramic tiles.

Cheers
Bill.