Concrete Floors

When planning a new build and thinking about how you will live in your new home, concrete as a flooring option is often chosen.

There are a few myths floating around about polished concrete floors and with a few under our belts here’s what we know:

CONCRETE (n) comes from the Latin word “concretus” which means compact or condensed.

C – COLD: “They will be cold.” (so will tiles and wood flooring. But you know what, concrete is actually a conductor making it a more eco-friendly choice. A kitchen placed in a good spot on a section, probably North-facing will ensure loads of day time sunlight hitting those polished concrete floors. The concrete soaks the sun all up, holds it in and then radiates back our slowly meaning warmer floors than that of other floor covering choices out there. Myth busted!

O – OW WHEN YOU DROP SOMETHING: Yes this is a worry, dropping a plate or glass on a kitchen floor with polished concrete is no different than that of a tiled floor. It breaks and goes everywhere – sorry guys no glossing over this one.

N – NOT FOR KIDS & PETS: Having cleaned all of our homes before handing over the keys, we can honestly say concrete is a breeze consisting of a sweep up, then mop. As a parent, this is the best of both worlds – luxe living with purposeful easy cleaning. You can even go nasty chemicals and just straight steam clean your polished concrete floors, no areas or weave for bugs to hide.

C – COSTLY / CAN’T BE DONE: This one we hear a lot, choosing a floor covering for your new home is exciting and of course, you want something cool. There is a cost for having the concrete floors polished, and it is a fair amount of work when compared with rolling out a carpet but still achievable within your build budget, if you want them, they are yours to have!

R – REALLY HARD TO POUR PROPERLY: If a builder tells you this, then run – run for the hills. Any concrete foundation should be perfect, smooth, exact and ready for ANY floor covering to go on. So why would it be hard to do? They basically just told you that their workmanship wasn’t up to scratch. A polished concrete floor should be the finishing to an amazing job, not an extra job.

E – EASY TO STAIN: Another myth busted! Concrete flooring is once polished is one of the easiest flooring systems to maintain as it does not require any type of aggressive cleaners lift dirt away. The best daily maintenance is simply using a dust mop and sweep up what needs to be and you are done! Steam mopping would be a deep clean for concrete, easy peasy for family life.

T – TIMELESS: A polished concrete floor may be the height of luxury living at in this new millennium and it is easy to see why you would choose style over a fad for longevity. You can go as light or as dark as you choose when pouring the concrete pad and select the depth of the grind – this means the amount of tiny or small pebbles you will see. Rugs can then be added for extra warmth where needed or to update a style and add colour when decorating, concrete floors are a beautiful base element.

E – ENTIRELY YOUR CHOICE: As with everything in your new custom built home, it should be up too you. We don’t have to live there so why should we have the final say on your selection.

And here’s how the real deal actually do it, watch the boys at Concrete Polishing in action