polished concrete cost difference (Perth)

hi,

I'm planning to build a new house (two storey) - I have a fairly limited budget compared to many of the people building two storey houses. The house would probably end up in 300sqm to 350sqm range.

I want polished concrete in my living room, dining, kitchen, passage, entry, scullery, laundry and powder.

I want to carry that concrete pad out into the alfresco (big - 10m x 4m) and get that honed (not polished).

Not sure of exact square meterage as there is no design yet.

I want a white colour, with a grind somewhere between salt and pepper and full - I was wanting Husqvarna Hiperfloor I think.

If I can't have this then I want porcelain, rectified 600x600 tiles with micro group gap (1.5mm) which look as close to polished concrete as possible.

A similar finish level outdoor tiles for the alfresco (but less slippery).

I am mainly wondering what is the cost difference between fancy level 600x600 tiling and polished concrete (to the specifications I've mentioned above)?

Thanks,
dze.

Floor tiles usually work out cheaper. The concrete slab requires an upgrade of steel reinforcement to prevent cracking (but cracking may still occur). The slab will require protection throughout construction and the mixture of the concrete (if you want white) is another upfront cost. Then you have to pay for the polishing process.

A cheaper option is to go for a really industrial salt and pepper finish on a normal grey mix of concrete - but this is not to every bodies taste.

Floor tiles tend to be the cheaper option as you can shop around for cash and carry prices and also they 'cover up' the slab and any of its defects.

Thanks for the response bauhaus, what would the price difference be (very) approximately?

I mean if it $20k-40k difference then I'm not interested, but if it is only $5k or $10k then I might consider pushing that part of the budget to get the floor finish I truly want.

There are plenty of concrete polishing companies around these days - I suggest getting a few quotes. From my experience the cost is approx $120 -$150 per square metre. The additional cost of a concrete upgrade and aggregate mix etc is probably $5000 +. Tiling costs can be as low as $100 per square metre all up.

Thank you bauhaus, the $5000 amount was the number I was chasing. Thanks

Did you go for polished Concrete?

Varsani,

We decided to hold off building.

We went through a broker and we worked with a particular builder and we were being quoted $1.3k/sqm throughout the design process.

We did not believe $1.3k/sqm was an achievable price and continually questioned the builder on this (because two storeys in Perth tend to go around $1.6k/sqm for project builders) but we were told it was a real estimate.

So 7 design iterations and 2 "real estimates" later we said "OK we're happy with the design - we're ready to go" and they did the real quote and came back at $1.6k/sqm and blew our budget out by $100k.

So we told them to shove it.

We then started to consult with a building designer with a view to shopping around a design we owned to various builders (and cutting out the brokerage fee) but then we discovered our block may be getting re-rated to R50 so we may be able to build a single storey house and that will save us a lot because single storey tend to come in at $1.1k/sqm (we are told). So we are waiting on the re-zoning which may be a couple of years.

Hi, I was wondering what broker you used? We are looking at using a broker. Thank you