Everything You Need to Know About Polished Concrete
When choosing the materials for your new home or holiday house, you may be wondering – how can I achieve an elegant and luxurious look that’s also low maintenance? This is particularly relevant for holiday homes! One material making waves in 2021, and which ticks all of these boxes, is polished concrete.
This trending floor option, once reserved for galleries and high-end stores, makes for a striking look in the home thanks to its unique texture and seamless appearance. With a range of versatile finishes, there are polished concrete options for almost every home style and design.
Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about using polished concrete in your new home or holiday house.
A range of finishes
One of the benefits of polished concrete is the vast range of different styles on offer. At SX Constructions, we work with the award-winning Honed & Polished Concrete who can achieve a stunning range of high-quality polished concrete finishes.
For those after an incredibly durable, long-lasting and eye-catching finish, we suggest mechanically polished concrete. This finish is achieved through a process of polishing raw concrete with diamond polishing pads. Other options include film coatings, epoxy overlays, and concrete micro topping.
Your choice of stone exposure
You can choose the level of stone exposure and gloss you’re after, depending on the style and design of your home. At our Sunshine Beach and Hinterland Escape projects, for example, our clients opted for a burnished concrete exposure.
Also known as a nil exposure finish, this is when the intricate patterning created by the concreter’s mechanical trowel is retained to give a continuous grey finish across the floor.
Exterior applications for polished concrete
For the exterior of your home, Honed & Polished Concrete also offer a range of outdoor options, which come in matte finishes and are designed to minimise the risk of slipping. This is ideal for areas around pools, alfresco living spaces and patios.
Low maintenance living
When you opt for polished concrete in your home or holiday house, you’re investing in flooring that will last a lifetime. Unlike carpet or timber, which will require maintenance and upkeep, polished concrete will retain its stunning finish for decades to come, with little to no maintenance.
Polished concrete is very easy to maintain. To keep your floor looking clean and shiny, you will only need to sweep or mop occasionally. This makes it a particularly great option for communal areas of the home where foot traffic is substantial, including kitchen, dining and living rooms.
It’s important to note that over time concrete is prone to cracking, and while a quality builder will use techniques to minimise cracking, these imperfections are part of concrete’s appeal – they’ll help to add a rustic and raw charm to any home.
The right builder is paramount
Polished concrete might sound simple, but it can be difficult to get right. Simple things like the weather conditions on the day of the pour can affect the end result. When homeowners are opting for polished concrete in bathrooms or on suspended decks with habitable rooms below, waterproofing must be carefully considered and discussed in detail with your builder and building certifier to ensure compliance with waterproofing regulations.
Polished concrete is easy to damage during construction so it’s incredibly important that you choose an experienced builder. Your construction team will need to take great care to ensure your boutique flooring choice isn’t stained, chipped or scratched during the build.
There is an array of different methods involved with pouring a slab for a polished concrete finish, so take the time to find a builder with a proven track record in similar projects to ensure your polished concrete floors are protected throughout construction and beyond.
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Looking to integrate polished concrete into your new custom home or holiday house? Get in touch with the expert team at SX Constructions today.