Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Polished concrete floors with Arden Homes 2Jun 02, 2018 9:51 am Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Polished concrete floors with Arden Homes 7Jun 02, 2018 8:25 pm Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Polished concrete floors with Arden Homes 11Jun 03, 2018 12:59 pm Steph73 I have no reason to question the engineers recommendations but that trust doesn't extend to the builder or trades automatically without Data, Calculations & Proofs The addition of extra shrink/crack control steel is recommended in the codes and I would do it normally on my projects for tiled areas as standard. The material cost for the extra steel $12/m2 + concrete $4m2 =$16m2 x 50m2 (H,F,M&K)= $800 + Extras, lets say $1000? + grinding 2 Days Labour + Builder Margin= $9000? You will need to scrutinise the costs further to satisfy yourself.hth Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Polished concrete floors with Arden Homes 12Jun 05, 2018 7:53 pm JB1 We were debating between timber and polished concrete for the kitchen / living room. Like you hydronic slab heating was a prerequisite for us as we live in fairly cold area. Not a problem if you live north. In the end we got hydronic slab heating polished concrete and radiators for other rooms. It cost us about $4k extra for 32mpa white concrete for 70sqm. Most of the extra cost was due to the aggregate and colour rather than mpa. Non polished area is std 25mpa concrete. Owner building so no builder's margin. How thick was your slab? Do you love the heating? Arden have also mentioned that as they are requiring the slab be an additional 15mm thicker than the norm that the pipe heating may not be as efficient as it should be as it may sit too low in the slab, and to which I can see their point (even tho previously they were concerned that the grinding would damage the pipes which would assume the pipes are sitting to close to the top). Anyway - my take is that a little heating would be better than none? Another concern I've just discovered is how the pipes are installed - I'm worried that the amount of care, co-operation and communication required between the hydronic installer and the builder is imperative to the correct placement of the pipes with walls, kitchen cupboards etc needing to be sketched out on the slab so that the pipes are not laid in those areas. I'm not too concerned about the hydronic guy but I am worried about the Arden builders not getting this correct. I am also worried about when the frame goes up that some tradie might cut saw or bolt through to the pipes. Do you think my concerns are warranted? Especially with the latter? I'm just about to succumb to the fact that I can't have these concrete floors its just too fraught with risk of something going wrong Re: Polished concrete floors with Arden Homes 13Jun 07, 2018 3:26 am Difficult to tell the exact thickness but looks closer to 120mm than 100mm. I haven't finished building yet so can tell you if I love it or not, but I hope so. Hydronic guy told me having the pipes too close to the top of the slab is no good as it won't heat the slab properly. Makes sense. I marked out the walls, island bench etc myself. They recommend keeping the pipes 200mm from the walls. As long as walls are marked correctly I don't think there will be a problem. However all this concern may be in vain if they won't let you install hydronic. Re: Polished concrete floors with Arden Homes 14Jun 07, 2018 2:52 pm I've chickened out. Too many risks of the hydronic pipes being damaged by either the concreters or the tradies or both - which would mean $8500 down the drain, plus an unwarrantable floor. Am seriously considering having the polished concrete with no heating in slab and relying on the ducted heating to keep everything warm. Decisions decisions ..... going to make my mind up over the weekend. Thanks for all your advice Re: Polished concrete floors with Arden Homes 15Jun 07, 2018 3:17 pm steph73 I've chickened out. Too many risks of the hydronic pipes being damaged by either the concreters or the tradies or both - which would mean $8500 down the drain, plus an unwarrantable floor. Am seriously considering having the polished concrete with no heating in slab and relying on the ducted heating to keep everything warm. Decisions decisions ..... going to make my mind up over the weekend. Thanks for all your advice Steph 73 There is lot more to polished concrete than just polishing a slab, slab thickness, cover, strength of concrete, and reinforcing. The first thing is to control concrete shrinkage cracking, you don't want large cracks visible and I have seen many. That requires meticulous design and placement of reinforcing steel. The other issues are concrete vibration, aggregate seeding and curing as well as controlling quality of concrete batching. If you just polish up normal slab you will find it patchy between areas of aggregate and areas of fines and once you put sealer on top it may be patchy between areas that have been vibrated well and the areas that have not. A lot of things can go wrong and do. Unless you have a well experienced builder in polished concrete you will more than likely be disappointed. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Polished concrete floors with Arden Homes 16Jun 07, 2018 3:31 pm LOL, If they order pea soup concrete it will be patchy and weak Get your engineer to inspect,specify slump, strength and take samples Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Polished concrete floors with Arden Homes 17Jun 07, 2018 5:26 pm building-expert steph73 I've chickened out. Too many risks of the hydronic pipes being damaged by either the concreters or the tradies or both - which would mean $8500 down the drain, plus an unwarrantable floor. Am seriously considering having the polished concrete with no heating in slab and relying on the ducted heating to keep everything warm. Decisions decisions ..... going to make my mind up over the weekend. Thanks for all your advice Steph 73 There is lot more to polished concrete than just polishing a slab, slab thickness, cover, strength of concrete, and reinforcing. The first thing is to control concrete shrinkage cracking, you don't want large cracks visible and I have seen many. That requires meticulous design and placement of reinforcing steel. The other issues are concrete vibration, aggregate seeding and curing as well as controlling quality of concrete batching. If you just polish up normal slab you will find it patchy between areas of aggregate and areas of fines and once you put sealer on top it may be patchy between areas that have been vibrated well and the areas that have not. A lot of things can go wrong and do. Unless you have a well experienced builder in polished concrete you will more than likely be disappointed. Yeah, there's that too - being disappointed. Although I wasn't going for the pretty, precise coloured concrete and aggregate seeding look. I actually love the warehouse what you get, is what you get look - I'm more into that rustic look. Not keen on the concrete shrinkage cracking tho. 3 5995 Old Home Restoration / Renovation To reduce noise transfer without compromising the aesthetic of your exposed I beams, consider filling the 100mm gap between the I beams and the floor above with dense,… 6 10975 |