9 hours ago, saveasteading said:

Harder, smoother.

But yours looks polished to me. It is done with the same machines, just after the surface is hard enough to walk on, with a different angle on the blades.

 

These are very neat straight cuts.

the reason for filling with mastic is to keep biscuits and other detritus out of them, and to restrain the edges which will otherwise get hipped away over time (with chairs dragging etc).

Theoretically it keeps the crack free of obstructions , should the slab ever want to expand again...but they don't expand again.

I call polished when it's ground back and polished whereas ours is just floated. 

 

Agree on reason to fill cracks but our robot hoovers every day 🤣. It's purely a design detail we like regardless of practicality 

On 11/06/2024 at 17:03, cheekmonkey said:

We've recently done something similar.

 

Your slab looks great. Thank you for sharing. What system did you use for your insulated raft?

 

Many Thanks

4 hours ago, SarahHutch said:

Your slab looks great. Thank you for sharing. What system did you use for your insulated raft?

 

Many Thanks

@SarahHutch it was essentially a traditional slab style make up, blockwork perimeter with stick on 150mm perimeter insulation strip that also acts as expansion & limits thermal bridge.  Slab make up was 100mm rejects / sand / membrane / 150mm insulation / slip membrane / mesh on 40mm feet with UFH tied to it / 150mm concrete

i looked at some of the pre-formed systems but they were so expensive & didnt really work so well for fixing the SIP down do, whereas with this system our sole plate is bolted down to the blockwork.

On 22/03/2022 at 06:58, Conor said:

I did the sums and there is little or no saving. You're talking £100m² + for the finished polished floor. Think insulation plus screed was about £35m², then £50m² for your tiles and it's still under the cost of the polishing. 

Can you share anyone who is coming in at £100m2 as I've had quotes > £150m2 and I cannot fathom how they've arrived at that price.

1 hour ago, flanagaj said:

cannot fathom how they've arrived at that price.

That may be a matter of area. Whatever the size, there will be a fixed cost of hiring the pumps and floats. Plus it takes many hours to wait for the concrete to go 'off' which is a cost too.