Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering Re: Polished concrete 21May 07, 2009 10:55 pm Jeez been away for a coupla days and whammo.... Totally agree with you Ben. Couldn't agree more with the no coatings... Tiz most of what we do.. unforunately it is difficult to relate at times, with the consumption of time & diamonds and equipmentetc required to acheive a really nice looking floor:roll: Though in the end their eyes nearly pop out when they see the finish Cost is has been mentioned and our charges are from 105-150sq mtr for polished, for honed about 80-85 densifiers help and been getting some good results with benchtops etc It helps that we pour the concrete and are careful to place the mix. And yes bathrooms easy clean, no VOC's, minimal bacterial surface area thermal mass = good thermal cycling energy savings My 2c since 1991 Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Polished concrete 22May 07, 2009 11:13 pm I was really keen to go polished concrete or a plainer stained concrete finish. In the end we opted out from it because I needed something with a softer impact surface( bad knees). BUT i have to say I had several sales people for builders recommend against concrete because they claimed it would be too cold where I planned to build. Hard to believe given onc_artisan is further south than us. Re: Polished concrete 23May 07, 2009 11:31 pm We do work all over the country... and yes quite a bit locally. I am not here to do an advert, we are booked 8 months out current ecconomic climate considered, I agree more with Ben that you aint seen nothin' yet. The building codes will change soon you watch If the ground temp is 15C you are way ahead to start with Gotta think thermal mass. ... saving some ppl I know after a retro solar passive refurb $1500 a year in heating and cooling cost ...a big house though (nup huge) Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Polished concrete 24May 08, 2009 7:16 am onc, You've touched on a really good point there about the concrete. It is important for who ever is going to be involved in polishing floors to be involved in the project from the start. We have specifications for the concrete mixes which we use and work with the concrete suppliers. We also have guides for the concrete layers to help them keep in mind the finished product when laying the concrete. We go as far as to be on site with the concrete pours with concrete gangs who have not been involved in polished concrete surfaces. Regards, Ben Vander Veen PROGRIND AUSTRALIA Maintenance Free Polished Concrete, without coatings! www.progrind.com.au Re: Polished concrete 25May 08, 2009 1:42 pm kexkez I was really keen to go polished concrete or a plainer stained concrete finish. In the end we opted out from it because I needed something with a softer impact surface( bad knees). BUT i have to say I had several sales people for builders recommend against concrete because they claimed it would be too cold where I planned to build. Hard to believe given onc_artisan is further south than us. It largely depends on what side of the house you put the thermal mass and how much sun you get during the colder months. Ideally it should be placed in direct sunlight. Mass gets far more energy stored from solar radiation than from the heat energy contained in the air. The ideal side is North where you can easily shade it during summer (where it becomes a liability). Ensure you have adequately sized windows to get sun onto the slab. Re: Polished concrete 26May 08, 2009 1:53 pm the hubby and i really really really wanted polished concrete floors throughout our house except bedrooms. we love the look, however henley weren't keen on the idea, as they wouldn't guarantee it would be damaged during construction. we wanted to do the floor first before the frame went up, but they weren't even happy with us putting a cover over it. (plus we didnt want to do the polish after the frame went up, as we were told it wouldn't look as nice). i'm blabbering on now... so in the end we've picked a large floor tile that resembles the polished concrete look were after! and we're happy with that. Re: Polished concrete 27May 08, 2009 2:35 pm aaron4erin the hubby and i really really really wanted polished concrete floors throughout our house except bedrooms. we love the look, however henley weren't keen on the idea, as they wouldn't guarantee it would be damaged during construction. we wanted to do the floor first before the frame went up, but they weren't even happy with us putting a cover over it. (plus we didnt want to do the polish after the frame went up, as we were told it wouldn't look as nice). i'm blabbering on now... so in the end we've picked a large floor tile that resembles the polished concrete look were after! and we're happy with that. Yes I am interested to see how our floors come up as it has been polished before they started any work and now they are building on top of it. It will be interesting and I will post more photos when it is finished... Re: Polished concrete 28May 08, 2009 2:46 pm fitnhealthy Yes I am interested to see how our floors come up as it has been polished before they started any work and now they are building on top of it. It will be interesting and I will post more photos when it is finished... Great! Looking forward to seeing your floors. We have indoor cats, and two dogs that are forever in the house. We wanted the concrete for practical reasons too. Definitely will do it in our second house one day! Re: Polished concrete 29May 08, 2009 3:43 pm Ben Vander Veen Pebble, Slip factor is always a consideration. Our method of polished concrete sits between and R9 and R10 slip rating, which means we can install it into the likes of Food Courts etc. We can also put this into bathrooms and its actually very popular in showers. We have done extensive slip testing and accelerated wear testing through the CSIRO to help support both major retailers as well as home owners with their choice of flooring. That's good to know thanks. In regards to coatings, well I'm imagining a coating would be a bit like varnishing a rock (or a pebble for example) instead of polishing it - it may be a cheaper and quicker fix and give a similar effect but never as good as doing it properly. I'm certainly aware of the time polishing must take, being a bit of a geology fan I had a rock tumbler for a while (it polishes pebbles / gemstones). So for a barrel load of pebbles it took about a month to get the final result (spinning around and around (tumbling) with 4 different grades of powders for a week each). Re: Polished concrete 30May 12, 2009 5:10 pm Just a tip for you guys doing this work: It would be GREAT if you could somehow educate /work closer with the major builders. We would have LOVED polished concrete throughout our house (and no, not because we're too tight to buy carpet ) but our builder really didn't want to know about it right from the beginning. I can understand that it's left of centre from what they normally do, but I think if they had a regular supplier they could work directly with throughout the whole process, from a customers perspective, perhaps we could all be happy. Next time, I wont be taking no for an answer. We could have done it post hand over, but now we just want to get into the house and it's too much hassle to organise retrospectively. Re: Polished concrete 31May 13, 2009 7:32 am JellyLegs Just a tip for you guys doing this work: It would be GREAT if you could somehow educate /work closer with the major builders. We would have LOVED polished concrete throughout our house (and no, not because we're too tight to buy carpet ) but our builder really didn't want to know about it right from the beginning. I can understand that it's left of centre from what they normally do, but I think if they had a regular supplier they could work directly with throughout the whole process, from a customers perspective, perhaps we could all be happy. Next time, I wont be taking no for an answer. We could have done it post hand over, but now we just want to get into the house and it's too much hassle to organise retrospectively. Hey JellyLegs, We work with a number of high end builders, but not volume builders as typically the product is not suited to volume building, as the quality of the concrete is usually not as high, and the agressive time tables to not suit the way polished concrete needs to be done (they are typically framing within 48 hours of a slab pour, where we want the slab to sit for two weeks, then have it another two weeks without any other trades). We do try and work a lot on the education area. I personally sit on the executive team for the Flooring Association of Victoria which is very proactive in education and quality in all areas of flooring. Regards, Ben Vander Veen PROGRIND AUSTRALIA Maintenance Free Polished Concrete, without coatings! www.progrind.com.au Re: Polished concrete 32May 13, 2009 8:19 am I did my own concrete polished floor (with my Dad) and what a mess it makes (this is after the house was painted) you end up with about an inch of sludge on the floor and on the walls. I am now much wiser and would only consider doing it before framing stage on my next house. We cleaned it all up (big job) and now it looks great with an acrylic sealer. Its definately easier to maintain a clean healthy house with polished concrete, and it does a great job of acting as a heat absorber (synk?). Yes I am tight and my whole reason for doing it myself was to save a bundle of cash, as it cost me about $700 all up for 150 sq m of floor space. I rented my equipment from Kennards and got the sealer from Bunnings. Im glad i did it now as I could spend my money on retaining walls, footpath, high quality buffalo grass, ducted vacuum and a kick *** stove. (did i mention how easy it is to clean the kitchen floor.) Can I make a recomendation that the words "tight, stingy, etc" be banned from this site as I believe we all are at some point in our lives,(you only have to stand next to the red cross guys at the train station to see it in action!) Re: Polished concrete 33May 13, 2009 11:29 am Just a question, can you do different colours and styles throughout ?. For my ground floor could I do a more sparkly special stonelike finish for my foyer but a more even uniform look for the rumpus room and alfresco area ?. Building Upside down house in Wantirna VIC Current Stage: Procrastination... it's just all too hard.... Blog: http://thereluctantbuilder.blogspot.com/ Re: Polished concrete 34May 14, 2009 3:24 pm Stu, We do every stage dry (we are one of the few that can), and have dust reports that show we create less ambient dust than your typical office space. But again we do not deal with sealers when we do our polishing. ozkarnak, you can only do that by pouring different types of concrete or using stains and coatings. You cannot colour concrete after it has been poured or during the polishing process. It will bleed right out of the floor. Regards, Ben Vander Veen PROGRIND AUSTRALIA Maintenance Free Polished Concrete, without coatings! www.progrind.com.au Re: Polished concrete 35May 14, 2009 5:21 pm Hi Ben Thanks for that - yup I knew you couldn't do it retro I'm talking slab stage. Is it a pain in the bum to do (different results for different areas of the slab) or quite a common request. Regards Nikki Re: Polished concrete 36May 15, 2009 7:19 am ozkarnak Hi Ben Thanks for that - yup I knew you couldn't do it retro I'm talking slab stage. Is it a pain in the bum to do (different results for different areas of the slab) or quite a common request. Regards Nikki Hi Nikki, It can be done but it depends on how big the areas are. If you are doing small areas it may not be cost effective as each batch of different concrete would be coming out in different trucks. We do not see this a lot, we see other things like where the kids have been allowed to put their own style of aggregate in the floor etc. We did a house down in Budgeree where there were sea shells in the bathroom, and marbles etc in the kids rooms as well as the standard aggregate. This gave a great effect. Regards, Ben Vander Veen PROGRIND AUSTRALIA Maintenance Free Polished Concrete, without coatings! www.progrind.com.au Re: Polished concrete 38May 15, 2009 11:28 pm d@n Are you the Ben that did golf club fitting? Dan, Correct, about 2 years ago I was in the golf industry before being pulled back into one of our family businesses (pro grind). I am assuming you are from NSW? Regards, Ben Vander Veen PROGRIND AUSTRALIA Maintenance Free Polished Concrete, without coatings! www.progrind.com.au Re: Polished concrete 39May 16, 2009 10:00 am Ben Vander Veen d@n Are you the Ben that did golf club fitting? Dan, Correct, about 2 years ago I was in the golf industry before being pulled back into one of our family businesses (pro grind). I am assuming you are from NSW? Nope. Your talent is sadly missed in the golfing world. Re: Polished concrete 40May 16, 2009 7:24 pm Thanks Dan, I believe I know who you are now by reading a few of yours posts. Hopefully one day I will be able to return to the golf industry, but the family business comes first. Regards, Ben Vander Veen PROGRIND AUSTRALIA Maintenance Free Polished Concrete, without coatings! www.progrind.com.au To my understanding early saw cuts are to control shrinkage cracks, so doing them now would be pointless. Control joints may reduce ugly cracking during periods of soil… 3 9861 Hi all I need a guidance on how far I need to space expansion joints in the concrete driveway and its type (keyway/foam.) Contraction joints are at 3m max for a 125 slab. Thanks 0 10939 |