Power float concrete floor

[vfrdave]

Got my garage floor done yesterday and have to admit I am not that happy with the finish.  In my mind being power floated it should have been very smooth but this isn't.

 

See from the pictures

 

What do you think?

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Doesn't look great to me.  If I had to guess I'd say they left it too long before floating it, so it was getting a bit too firm and has picked up a bit on the float.

 

Ours was a lot smoother than that, with no marks at all to show that it had been power floated.

[Russell griffiths]

That’s shit, but I have the opposite opinion of Jeremy,

its been hit with the power float whilst a bit tacky which is fine, but it should have been done again with the blades angled flatter to shine it right up. 

 

[Russell griffiths]

What time in the day was it finished. 

[Declan52]

Think it must needed a splash of water and polished but it might have been close to  5pm and they just went Nah tools in the boot and hit the road. 

[Visti]

That is quite poor work on their part indeed. We're having power floated concrete as our finished floor in the house and I hope it is much better than this!

[vfrdave]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

What time in the day was it finished. 

 

43 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

Think it must needed a splash of water and polished but it might have been close to  5pm and they just went Nah tools in the boot and hit the road. 

Concrete was in yesterday and levelled by shortly after 9. Power float was in the van and up the road just after 1730.  I thought it was too early and he would have been there to 1900 at least.

 

Question now is what do we do with it, or what do we get the quarry to do with it.

[Jeremy Harris]

It could be ground smooth easily enough, not cheap though.

[Oz07]

Put a garage slab in January. Poured at 0800 and finished at 0800 next day. No consolation sorry!

[Oz07]

Obviously went home to bed inbetween got better things to do than stare at conny 

[vfrdave]

Thanks for the responses at least we are all agreed that it is a poor job.

 

What would you expect the supplier to do? @JSHarris has suggested grinding smooth, I assume much like they do with polished concrete but not to the same degree.

 

Any other options?

[jack]

1 hour ago, vfrdave said:

Any other options?

 

Thin layer of self-leveling topper perhaps? Not cheap but neither is grinding.

[Russell griffiths]

I think the problem you have is the specification

you asked for a power floated floor, you have one. 

Did you ask for it to have a shiny surface like the ones you see in b+q ?

did you specify the tolerance?

 

the main problem is contractors are not used to supplying something not normal 

what you have is perfectly acceptable to 90% of customers, but as self builders we are looking for something better

 

if you had been in America or Australia that floor is far below standard 

but in England for a garage floor it is probably better than 90% of what is normally carried out. 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

I remember workshops at work being coated with an epoxy finish that self-levelled and turned fairly rough concrete into a smooth, hard wearing, finish.  Probably not that cheap, but might be an option, perhaps.

[joe90]

Yes my workshop floor is like that, they poured the floor late in the day and told me to power float it early the next day (all agreed I would float it), the power float just bounced of it,,,, have painted it with thick floor paint but still a bit miffed. 

[jack]

1 hour ago, JSHarris said:

I remember workshops at work being coated with an epoxy finish that self-levelled and turned fairly rough concrete into a smooth, hard wearing, finish.  Probably not that cheap, but might be an option, perhaps.

 

Yes, that's the stuff. I've been looking into it for my garage but I think it's going to be too expensive.

[Pete]

44 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Yes my workshop floor is like that, they poured the floor late in the day and told me to power float it early the next day (all agreed I would float it), the power float just bounced of it,,,, have painted it with thick floor paint but still a bit miffed. 

I know exactly how you are feeling. I used a vibrating beam screed and I had it like a billiard table until the beam screed fell to bits and by the time I had sorted it the concrete was passed being workable. It is flat but far from how US self builders would like it!

[vfrdave]

So the quarry has come back to me with a few options.

- Do nothing and get a partial discount.

- overlay it with some ardex product (no data sheet provided as yet)

 

They ruled out grinding it smooth as suggested by @JSHarris stating it would be cheaper to dig it out and do it again, at which point I suggested that has to be considered.

[markharro]

On 12/04/2019 at 19:12, Visti said:

We're having power floated concrete as our finished floor in the house and I hope it is much better than this!

Hi @Visti how did you floor go? Any issues? How was it done?