Polished concrete floor..

[montagrier]

Hello...I was watching TV last night and this women had a polished concrete floor in one of her rooms...It was the kind where its brought a lot of the stones to the surface not the supermarket version.

Its something that I have heard of many times but never really thought about actually doing... so anyway I am going to have a go in one of my rooms....  call it boredom if you want I just fancy doing something different.

I was wondering if anyone here had done it and could throw a few pointers in my direction before I start...

I say thank you in advance because I know deep down you are a brainy bunch...and the answers will be good................

monti

[Hoddy]

I liked that floor too.

The company that did it was www.questltd.co.uk

Hope this helps.

Hoddy

[Wozza]

For polished concrete floors you can hire a concrete polisher - is looks like an industrial floor scrubber, but has three or four blades instead of a scrubbing brush. If you have the patience, you can bring a concrete floor up to look a little bit like marble. Saw one being used recently, so know that you can get them here. Didn't see the programme on TV, so don't know if this is what was featured, but once worked on a building site for a car showroom and all the floors were polished concrete.

As I remember, you start polishing when the concrete has dried enough that you can walk on it without leaving footprints - we had to keep the floors wet overnight to slow the drying process, so that the guys could spend the next day polishing.

You must be really bored to tackle a job like that! If you're that bored, I have a few little jobs thatwould keep you busy...

[montagrier]

Thanks for the link but they are keeping their methods close to their chest....

was hoping someone had tried this before and could talk me through it a little..

cheers

monti

[painterman]

Hi Montagrier,

My reply is not about polished concrete floors but polished concrete counter tops (sink and kitchen work tops to the likes of me). I've not ever done this procedure but we (self and better OH) bought a book called ' concrete countertops' by Fu-tung Cheng with Eric Olsen ISBN : 1561584843 by Taunton Press cost us £17.46 and my wife is most impressed by it.

The book describes and gives colour illustrations of how to make the kitchen worktops etc, but the bits that may be useful to you I have quoted in a private message to you because I'm not sure if I'm allowed to quote it on a public forum because of the copyright things.

So, I know that kitchen worktops are a bit different to flooring but I'm sure there are some similarities there too.

The book also tells you briefly about the different types of cement and their uses, so as to avoid shrinking and cracks, but it also tells you about how the finishing techniques of grinding/polishing affect the final colouration of the concrete and the aggregates that you use with is and the sort of sand that you can use too, and then  it goes into detail about the different types of cement in some detail. Great book to give you some insight to working with concrete in this decorative way  but a floor on a much larger scale....?  Personally I'd like to tackle the kitchen worktop side of things for us but a floor would be too much for me if I wanted it polishing- that, I'm afraid, I would leave to those who do that for a full time living because if I were to do this wrong, what a job to correct it????

If you're brave enough to do a whole floor and have the time, patience, and energy, then I wish you good luck. I hope that you find the excerpts that I quoted from the book useful

Regards, Painterman

 

[montagrier]

painterman........... thank you..

monti

[Kitty]

I have two rooms with concrete floors (18 sq m each room approx) - the result of a wooden termite-infested floor being taken up and replaced.  It was done about a year ago and I have been deciding what to do - carpeting, tiling etc.

This thread idea seems interesting. 

Can the polishers be used on very dry concrete for largish areas?

What is the French for concrete polishing?

[Wozza]

Cathy

The concrete polishers that I am familiar with have to be used on drying (not dry) concrete.

Sorry!

Warren

[Athene]

Please could you send me too the relevant bits on worktops? How did you get on making these? How have they worn? Are they easy to clean?

[Pierre ZFP]

Not exactly polishing but I was shown a good trick once if you want to have the stones from the ballast in concrete showing.  After laying and tamping, spronkle the top with sugar.  This slows down the setting process so sometime later (next day) you can hose off the partially set top layer and expose the stones.  Quite good for paths etc.

[Athene]

Thank you Pierre that is a useful tip! We are looking to try and make the money spread as thin as poss so any ideas like yours are always welcome! Yes, it would be great to have stone slabs as a 'trottoir' round the house and for a patio but we have not got the 'readies' for this so sugar paths maybe the way forward!