Hello everybody,
I just wanted to find out if any of you have moved and lived in your new house without any flooring (apart from wet areas of course). The reason why I ask is that we have our heart set on having a bamboo floor, but we just won't be able to afford it until at least 6-12 months after we move in. Upstairs will have all the necessary tiles and carpet, but downstairs will have - well - the slab and a whole lot of rugs on top. Has anybody ever done this? I know that it won't exactly look and feel the best but do you know if it might be harmful (to the floor later on or us) to have the slab exposed for so long? Any comments would be much appreciated!
Moving in without a floor...
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we had just concrete on the floor of our last house in the main living areas for over 12 months. the concrete dust can be quite unpleasant, but, I've written about this before, there is a simple way to keep it down. Get an old fashioned string mop. Soak it in water. wash the concrete liberally with the very wet string mop , Squishing and changing the water as often as you have to. Repeat. this removes much ? not all of the loose concrete dust. Do it once a week/fortnight/month as required. I found after the first serious going over I only needed to wash the floor with a slightly wetter than standard amount of water not super sloppy. I don't think it would work using a foam mop or another type. the string mop can take the roughened surface of the concrete and hold lots of water to do this.
Concrete dust can be pretty harsh on your skin, making it dry out so that is another thing to be aware of.
If you can go look for some carpet off cuts and see what you can string together to at least make some temporary hallway runners that you can throw away in 6 months time.
If you can go look for some carpet off cuts and see what you can string together to at least make some temporary hallway runners that you can throw away in 6 months time.
My parents house had plain concrete floors for something like 10 years. They ran out of money during building so they decided we could live without tiles
Later they did the tiling themselves.
The whole house flooded a few times while like that (basically us being too lazy to build proper drainage) but it doesn't seem to have caused any long term problems.
Later they did the tiling themselves.
The whole house flooded a few times while like that (basically us being too lazy to build proper drainage) but it doesn't seem to have caused any long term problems.
have you started building yet?
about 14 years ago i worked with a lady who had recently built. she and her partner had decided that they wanted to wait until their gardens were established before laying a wood floor so they didn't have to worry about damage from sand from their yard.
In the living areas of their slab they got the slab stained . just the way people get drive ways stained. they had a terracottta colour put in. I went around to visit them not long after they moved in and saw the floor. It looked terrific. I honestly thought they'd put terracotta tiles down. All the stains and marks created during building added to the character of the floor. they had also marked it out as large flagstone sized tiles and cut a grout section into the slab. then grouted it. the only way you could tell it wasn't real stone flooring was that since they used a circular saw to cut the grout lines they couldn't cut right up to the wall edge and there was a couple of cm's gap. The floor was wonderful and until my knees got bad a few years ago I'd always sworn that this was what i wanted as permanent flooring in a house if I ever built again.
As far as living with a plain concrete floor. here where I live now I know of a couple who still after 14 + years have a plain concrete floor. I've also heard of people painting their floors. But like sealing I'm not sure if you'd have to have the seal removed before wood floor could be laid.
about 14 years ago i worked with a lady who had recently built. she and her partner had decided that they wanted to wait until their gardens were established before laying a wood floor so they didn't have to worry about damage from sand from their yard.
In the living areas of their slab they got the slab stained . just the way people get drive ways stained. they had a terracottta colour put in. I went around to visit them not long after they moved in and saw the floor. It looked terrific. I honestly thought they'd put terracotta tiles down. All the stains and marks created during building added to the character of the floor. they had also marked it out as large flagstone sized tiles and cut a grout section into the slab. then grouted it. the only way you could tell it wasn't real stone flooring was that since they used a circular saw to cut the grout lines they couldn't cut right up to the wall edge and there was a couple of cm's gap. The floor was wonderful and until my knees got bad a few years ago I'd always sworn that this was what i wanted as permanent flooring in a house if I ever built again.
As far as living with a plain concrete floor. here where I live now I know of a couple who still after 14 + years have a plain concrete floor. I've also heard of people painting their floors. But like sealing I'm not sure if you'd have to have the seal removed before wood floor could be laid.
Thank you everybody for taking the time to reply. We will definitely be using carpet cut offs to try and deal with the concrete dust issue and I figure that we will be able to make this work until we get the bamboo floor that we want. We plan to start building in late November this year - so who knows, things might change and we may be in a situation to put in the floor as soon as handover occurs. Thanks again for your time.
You can get the concrete floor clear sealed for a low cost, saves all that dust going everywhere and easier to clean!
You can get the concrete floor clear sealed for a low cost, saves all that dust going everywhere and easier to clean!
That sounds like a great tip! Is this something that we would be able to ask the builder to do or something that we will have to undertake after handover? Do you know anybody who would be able to do this for us? We're building in Mernda - north of Melbourne.
Hi, for many years we had concrete floors as we didn't have enough money to finish the house (we wanted timber)
We sealed the concrete with Bondcrete ourselves. Never had the problem with dust.
We later had the wooden floors laid.
My only complaint would be that the concrete floor gave me very sore feet. Ended up having to wear cushioned shoes around the house.
We sealed the concrete with Bondcrete ourselves. Never had the problem with dust.
We later had the wooden floors laid.
My only complaint would be that the concrete floor gave me very sore feet. Ended up having to wear cushioned shoes around the house.
we have been in our house on 12 months now after building we still have not carpet the lounge/dinning room and master bedroom we have just finished titling the other living areas and the carpet in the other 3 bedrrooms was done about 6 months. we had no problems that have mentioned above by other posters, we had done it is way as we save up the money and then have it done better than borrowing for it. we also live in a rural are were you would thing there would be problems with dirt etc but this would be the same if you had tiles or lino anyway. we have also done it before buying a home were the people had been living with no carpet for 4 years we live he with no carpet for about 6 months again no problems.I found it ok at least there was no carpet to vaccum
You can get the concrete floor clear sealed for a low cost, saves all that dust going everywhere and easier to clean!
That sounds like a great tip! Is this something that we would be able to ask the builder to do or something that we will have to undertake after handover? Do you know anybody who would be able to do this for us? We're building in Mernda - north of Melbourne.
Hi Tanaka!
We plan to do just this - we would *love* to have timber floors but the budget won't permit for the first few years. My work just did renovations and I organised polished concrete for a large (>100m2) area. It was relatively cheap and it came up absolutely beautiful! You can get all sorts of styles and colours if you don't want your home to look too "industrial". We'll just get good quality carpets to the bedrooms and media room, and a few rugs in the other living areas.
Will I get in trouble for posting a link to the guy we used at work? (www.impactflooring.com.au) He has some really great pics on his site. He is obviously in Adelaide though, so I'm afraid he won't be much help... I'm sure there are others in your area - have you tried the yellow pages?
[quote="alulei Will I get in trouble for posting a link to the guy we used at work? (http://www.impactflooring.com.au) He has some really great pics on his site. He is obviously in Adelaide though, so I'm afraid he won't be much help... I'm sure there are others in your area - have you tried the yellow pages?[/quote]
Oh my Alulei! The floors on this website are absolutely fabulous! I'm thinking that I might give up the timber floors altogether after seeing that! I'm going to contact them and ask them if they know of someone in Victoria who would be able to polish our concrete to that standard. I am absolutely in love with the pics! Thank you so much for the tip. If you don't mind me asking, how much did your workplace pay for the polishing of their concerete?
Oh my Alulei! The floors on this website are absolutely fabulous! I'm thinking that I might give up the timber floors altogether after seeing that! I'm going to contact them and ask them if they know of someone in Victoria who would be able to polish our concrete to that standard. I am absolutely in love with the pics! Thank you so much for the tip. If you don't mind me asking, how much did your workplace pay for the polishing of their concerete?
Oh my Alulei! The floors on this website are absolutely fabulous! I'm thinking that I might give up the timber floors altogether after seeing that! I'm going to contact them and ask them if they know of someone in Victoria who would be able to polish our concrete to that standard. I am absolutely in love with the pics! Thank you so much for the tip. If you don't mind me asking, how much did your workplace pay for the polishing of their concerete?
I'll PM you
(You should ask if/when he is going interstate next to do a business - maybe he can keep you in his diary and do yours while he's there? Depends how many coats you get but if you get colour then a gloss/clear on top then the colour needs to dry so he might have some free time if he is doing another job? Would have to ask him, obviously - I don't know how he operates
Hi All,
I've been looking into this long and hard for the last year or so. My advice is to make your mind up 100% that is what you're going to do and stick to it. It's a hassle for the tradies to get their head around and I think this is where I've come unstuck because I didn't communicate it clearly. So, I'm in the position now where my door frames are sitting off the slab to accommodate tiles, and my skirting boards are flush with the slab to accommodate the polished floor
You really need to let your chippy know well in advance that is what you're planning on doing. They'll probably roll their eyes at you because it isn't something they see every day, but stick with it. I'll have photos up on my thread (viewtopic.php?f=31&t=9424) and blog (http://www.lot83.blogspot.com) when I get there. Shouldn't be too far away at this rate!!
OK, $$$$$:
For PROPER polished concrete, you need to make arrangements with your builder well before they start, and don't expect anyone you're working with to like you very much. The concrete needs to be improved to about 30MPA, your builder will proabaly use 20-25MPA as standard. You can get really fussy and opt to change the colour of your concrete, and chose specifically coloured stones to mix through or scatter over - I don't know how much more this would cost though. You will then need to wait 2 weeks at a minimum for the slab to cure, but ideally 28 days is recommended. So, your SS will need to know this WELL before he does the project planning to allow for this down time. Then your polisher will spray the slab with a denisfier thingie (technical chick language) and will spend the next week polishing, polishing, polishing until they reach 1800-3000 grit finish. THEN your tradies will hate you while they work around a finished floor and try not to damage it. Some polishers will do 1/2 the job before frames stage, then 1/2 after so they can repair the damage done by the tradies. It's inevitable: the slab will get messy. Expect to pay about $60/sqm for polished concrete before frame and >$100/sqm afterwards. Still, cheaper than a lot of tiles on the market when you consider laying them and sealing them, and very eco friendly. If we ever build again, I'll do it this way for sure.
Proper polished concrete:
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr64/JellyLegs01/PolishedConcrete6.jpg
For an alternative as you've just discussed - grinding and sealing is the way to go.
The concrete grinder will start with a grit of about 70 and finish at about 1200. They'll use a hand grinder to get around your skirting and kitchen, then a machine to do the rest. They have to dry grind and although they use a vacuum, there's still about 5% dust escapage which is a health hazard and you'll be cleaning it off everything you own for a long time to come if you do it after you move in. After they grind it, they'll either use a polyurethane or waterbased sealer. The polyurethane gives a really nice glossy finish, but it also has a browny/yellow tinge to it. So, if you weren't thinking of brown tiles, you probably wouldn't be interested in that option unless you tint it as has been suggested. The water based sealer has a lower VOC content, gives a satin sheen and brings out the more 'natural' colour of concrete, but is twice the price - $500 for 15Litres (or was it 20L? Sorry, can't remember off the top of my head) which will cover about 40-50sqm. The best quote I've received for grinding and sealing with Polyurethane after handover is $55/sqm and I was told to allow 4 days. MUCH cheaper than tiles, no grout, retains the slab's thermal properties and with the speckly look of the aggregate, hopefully my kids mess will be well hidden too!
Yellowy/browny polyurethane:
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr64/JellyLegs01/PolishedConcrete3.jpg
Google concrete grinding, polished concrete, concrete sealer, concrete polyurethane and see what you come up with. Check out Concreters in your local paper and go and see their work. The guy I will have do ours only advertises in the local paper but let me come to his home and see what he had done there.
Hope that's been some help - as I say, I've spent waaaayyyy too long learning about all this and I really hope its all been worth it!
Love this look:
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr64/JellyLegs01/PolishedConcrete.jpg
I've been looking into this long and hard for the last year or so. My advice is to make your mind up 100% that is what you're going to do and stick to it. It's a hassle for the tradies to get their head around and I think this is where I've come unstuck because I didn't communicate it clearly. So, I'm in the position now where my door frames are sitting off the slab to accommodate tiles, and my skirting boards are flush with the slab to accommodate the polished floor
You really need to let your chippy know well in advance that is what you're planning on doing. They'll probably roll their eyes at you because it isn't something they see every day, but stick with it. I'll have photos up on my thread (viewtopic.php?f=31&t=9424) and blog (http://www.lot83.blogspot.com) when I get there. Shouldn't be too far away at this rate!!
OK, $$$$$:
For PROPER polished concrete, you need to make arrangements with your builder well before they start, and don't expect anyone you're working with to like you very much. The concrete needs to be improved to about 30MPA, your builder will proabaly use 20-25MPA as standard. You can get really fussy and opt to change the colour of your concrete, and chose specifically coloured stones to mix through or scatter over - I don't know how much more this would cost though. You will then need to wait 2 weeks at a minimum for the slab to cure, but ideally 28 days is recommended. So, your SS will need to know this WELL before he does the project planning to allow for this down time. Then your polisher will spray the slab with a denisfier thingie (technical chick language) and will spend the next week polishing, polishing, polishing until they reach 1800-3000 grit finish. THEN your tradies will hate you while they work around a finished floor and try not to damage it. Some polishers will do 1/2 the job before frames stage, then 1/2 after so they can repair the damage done by the tradies. It's inevitable: the slab will get messy. Expect to pay about $60/sqm for polished concrete before frame and >$100/sqm afterwards. Still, cheaper than a lot of tiles on the market when you consider laying them and sealing them, and very eco friendly. If we ever build again, I'll do it this way for sure.
Proper polished concrete:
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr64/JellyLegs01/PolishedConcrete6.jpg
For an alternative as you've just discussed - grinding and sealing is the way to go.
The concrete grinder will start with a grit of about 70 and finish at about 1200. They'll use a hand grinder to get around your skirting and kitchen, then a machine to do the rest. They have to dry grind and although they use a vacuum, there's still about 5% dust escapage which is a health hazard and you'll be cleaning it off everything you own for a long time to come if you do it after you move in. After they grind it, they'll either use a polyurethane or waterbased sealer. The polyurethane gives a really nice glossy finish, but it also has a browny/yellow tinge to it. So, if you weren't thinking of brown tiles, you probably wouldn't be interested in that option unless you tint it as has been suggested. The water based sealer has a lower VOC content, gives a satin sheen and brings out the more 'natural' colour of concrete, but is twice the price - $500 for 15Litres (or was it 20L? Sorry, can't remember off the top of my head) which will cover about 40-50sqm. The best quote I've received for grinding and sealing with Polyurethane after handover is $55/sqm and I was told to allow 4 days. MUCH cheaper than tiles, no grout, retains the slab's thermal properties and with the speckly look of the aggregate, hopefully my kids mess will be well hidden too!
Yellowy/browny polyurethane:
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr64/JellyLegs01/PolishedConcrete3.jpg
Google concrete grinding, polished concrete, concrete sealer, concrete polyurethane and see what you come up with. Check out Concreters in your local paper and go and see their work. The guy I will have do ours only advertises in the local paper but let me come to his home and see what he had done there.
Hope that's been some help - as I say, I've spent waaaayyyy too long learning about all this and I really hope its all been worth it!
Love this look:
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr64/JellyLegs01/PolishedConcrete.jpg
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