Substitute for polished concrete flooring?

[IanR]

Agreed, they are offering floating and "grinding" then sealing, so the costs look more reasonable.

 

Will they do this on a structural slab? - a good find if they will.

 

If you are having EPS under your floor, it may pay to hoover the EPS before the concrete pour. The power-floating can/will bring the little white balls of EPS up to the surface, which may not be noticeable when floated, but can become visible once ground.

[janedevon]

Yes im looking at 100 mm celotex then ufh it has been suggested to me to put a layer of polythene over celotex prior to clipping in ufh pipes, this would help as well as your hoovering idea.

Is structural slab a reinforced slab?  im pretty clueless and learning as i go but i certainly like the look of the finished product.

 

[IanR]

A structural slab is load bearing and would therefore include reinforcing of some kind (steel mesh or fibres etc), and the load bearing external and internal walls are supported by it. The Insulation underneath it therefore needs a similarly load bearing capability,

Your Celotex is not loadbearing, so it and the concrete on top will not go under the load bearing walls, it will go between the walls.

This means it is likely that that there will be cold-bridging from walls to sub-floor as they won't be isolated from the sub-floor by the insulation.

Your UFH will have to work a little harder to replace the heat lost through the walls to the sub-floor. You're likely to be mitigating this with an upstand of insulation between edge of newly poured concrete and the walls, but you are generally limited in how thick this can be.

An insulated structural raft fully isolates the UFH from the cold sub-floor, so can generally be left on 24/7 at a very low temperature, maintaining a constant house temperature. Depending on your overall insulation levels and airtightness so may need a higher temperature on the UFH due to losses. That higher temperature and the use pattern of the house may mean it is not economic to leave the UFH on 24/7. Depending on those temperature swings will decide on whether 100mm thick of concrete around your UFH slows the perception of its response time down.

It will likely still be OK. But it's no longer the certainty of my original comment.

Edited July 4, 2016 by IanR

[janedevon]

Many thanks, with regards to the edging near walls is there a specific product that is used around the edges of all perimiter walls ? And i presume this cant be too high as it will effect the level of concrete poured over it?

[IanR]

It can be another Celotex board product, It would sit vertically off the Celotex on the floor and against the wall. In your case it would be 100mm high so it comes up to the top of the concrete pour and stops the concrete contacting the wall.

 

The thickness is limited by your wall build up, and what is "overhanging" the poured floor, ie. plasterboard plus skirting board, so the upstand is then not visible.

[Mikey_1980]

So our floor was cleaned sealed and waxed today, the below is the end result.

[Nickfromwales]

I wish the floor I was tiling today was as flat as that ! Looks very good considering they can't really see how level it is until it has a shine to it. 

Hows it feel underfoot?

[Mikey_1980]

Its great underfoot, and really easy to clean with no grout or anything to scrub at.

[IanR]

@Mikey_1980 Very nice floor!

 

Looks very consistent, Is it as good as it looks all over?

[ToughButterCup]

@Mikey_1980, looks brilliant.

We have two tests to pass:

• @MrsRA
• Sid the Tom Cat

And I don't know  which is the worst.

Sid won't like it because he won't be able to strop the carpet, or get a grip on some of his high-speed turns

SWMBO will love it. But I'll be shouted at when I come in with boots on.

Hmmmmm. Whom to please?

[janedevon]

That looks great, got my polished concrete guy coming over on Tuesday for a quote 

[Mikey_1980]

It great for the cats (we have four!) they can't claw at it and any spills wipe straight off, the same for muddy boots just a mop or sweep and it comes straight off.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Mikey_1980

[ToughButterCup]

50 minutes ago, Mikey_1980 said:

It great for the cats (we have four!) they can claw at at any spills wipe straight off, the same for muddy boots mops or sweeps straight off.

[AliG]

My wife waxes and wanes on whether she likes polished concrete or porcelain tiles.

Ignoring that for a second, what is the best kind of floor for a polished finish?

Our current spec is a concrete slab, 100mm celotex, 80mm sand and cement screed allowing 25mm for floor finishes above. There is UFH in the screed.

My calculation is that I am looking a roughly £120 a square meters for the screed, tiling and fitting, each is around £40 a square metre.

Presumably I could get a polished concrete floor for a similar price and I like the idea of no grout to catch dirt.

But I see so many ways of making a polished concrete floor. What would you recommend? 100mm of concrete that is polished, or can you polish a screed or a screed floor with a polished surface. There seem to be so many ways to do it?

We aren't going for a liquid screed as the architect and builder feel sand/cement is easier to manage when there are showers etc to work around. Also there is a swimming pool. I don't think these issues exist with concrete rather than screed but there seem almost too many options to look at.

[IanR]

11 hours ago, AliG said:

Our current spec is a concrete slab, 100mm celotex, 80mm sand and cement screed allowing 25mm for floor finishes above. There is UFH in the screed.

My calculation is that I am looking a roughly £120 a square meters for the screed, tiling and fitting, each is around £40 a square metre.

Presumably I could get a polished concrete floor for a similar price and I like the idea of no grout to catch dirt.

 

Before I decided on an insulated raft, I was looking at a similar, more traditional, buildup. For a polished finish, then its a "simple" case of concrete screed that is then polished.

 

I didn't go this route in the end, but really liked some Lazenby floors that I looked at, with jots of different shading options. If I remember correctly it was about £90 - £100 sqr m. for pouring the concrete screed through to polished finish.

 

It does require expansion gaps though. I think around 30 sqr m, or 6 linear m is about the max they like to do without a split.

 

Alternate would be a micro-top / micro-screed / skim-coat finish over a standard screed. But I found this was almost as much as a concrete screed, so more money overall.

Edited July 16, 2016 by IanR

[Bitpipe]

On 6/24/2016 at 20:47, IanR said:

I considered polishing our passive slab (incl. UFH). It was only the lack of control you have over how it will look that stopped us doing it.

Ie. If you're polishing a screed: more prep can be done,  dyes added and controlled cure to ensure a consistent finish but on a passive slab,  with strong concrete,  the finish is a lot less controlable. 

 

We've now decided on a poured resin. It's very clinical and not a look that suits everyone. But it gives a seamless finish, even over expansion gaps; it's also softer, warmer and better acoustics.

 

By coincidence a neighbour has just put it down in a new build. It will mark and care needs to be taken with things like kitchen fit, there's no dragging cabinets accross it. But hard enough for dog claws not to mark. 

 

Maintenance will be similar to a polished concrete or stone, requiring  a new top coat (seal) in 5 to 15 years depending on traffic. But can be refinished or colour change at any point in the future. 

 

Costs around £75 - £100/m2 which is a rip off compared to prices on the continent. 

 

I was quite impressed with Senso Floors UK, but they have just bought themselves out from their Dutch partners and are now branded as Sphere8, should be the same quality, but I haven't been back to them yet. 

 

We've just had our resin floor laid (107m2)  - it's not been plain sailing but we seem to be there now. We used a firm who use the Sika comfortfloor system which has a 3mm rubber crumb mat under the resin and make the floor wonderfully soft underfoot.

 

Substrate was two layers of ply (9mm and 12mm), cross laid and screwed and glued to the 22mm OSB floor deck.

 

The first sub layer pour did not cure properly and neither did the second - lots of imperfections and a hazy matt surface both times - no clear reason why but some suspicion that the humidity may have exceeded tolerances or issues with the chemicals. The house is a MBC passive build so airtight and highly insulated but we ensured that the property was ventilated.

 

Anyway, third time has appeared to work fine and they are now top coating it, I have been hugely impressed with their professionalism and determination to get it right at no additional cost to us  - happy to share their details via PM if anyone is considering similar.

 

We also looked a micro screed which, although 3mm thick, gives the appearance of polished concrete so that's an alternative for the OP. 

[janedevon]

Have just had 40 tonnes of concrete poured, guys are panning and power floating as we speak they reckon they will be here until 10pm!!

 

[ToughButterCup]

36 minutes ago, janedevon said:

Have just had 40 tonnes of concrete poured, [...]

 

 

@MrsRA will want piccys Jane. Please!

Ian

[janedevon]

As requested from 7.30 this morning 4 concrete guys arrived installed mesh on chairs, 9am pump arrived, 10 am first load of concrete arrived one hour later second lorry, then we ran out oops 32 tonnes not enough quick call and another load. Levelled then left for 4 hours before panning then blading and power floating main house being polished to an aggregate show so 4 mm will be ground off, before polishing, the workshop area will be powerfloated with only poloshing no aggreagate show so the guys are still working on that area just took the pics now should look like glass before they finish.

Polishers come in 4 weeks today cant wait.

 

 

 

[ToughButterCup]

That looks a picture (sorry).

It's really useful to illustrate the process. In my mind's eye, I saw wheelbarrow's full of 'product' being heaved in by moonlighting, handsome firemen..... (apologies again)

Oh dear. I'll get my coat.

Ian

[Pete]

Thanks Ian

[janedevon]

Floor polishing started today the guys bought a genarator the size of a caravan, looking forward to the result in 3 days !!!!

[Mikey_1980]

It will look fantastic. Start saving large cardboard boxes up if you have lots of building work still to do to lay down on it to protect it, we brought a loads of Corex first of all but were advised that we needed to take it up every evening to let the floor continue to dry, I the end we used the boxes

from the kitchen for two months which protected it from any damage.

[Trw144]

Yes, my tillers recommended putting something down under the corex because they can make it sweat and mark the tiles. You can get 150m2 of dust sheets off ebay for £80 though, and I m then going to lay the corex on top.

[janedevon]

thanks guys will ask the polishers today what they recommend, apparently we have a super strength concete so should be tough wearing, floor being damped down this morning to keep the machines cool !

should be some good colour though as we have local limestone so shades of yellows pinks and reds starting to show through against the grey concrete.