Removing vinyl and polishing a concrete floor in Melbourne
- Type of site: Existing home
- Size of area: 70 square metres
- Services: Concrete grinding and mechanical concrete polishing
- Floor: Mechanical polished concrete in low gloss sating finish
- Cost: $7,000 – $8,000
- Time required: Approximately 5 days
Haynes Polished Concrete was engaged by the owners of this home in Bacchus Marsh who wanted to remove all their old vinyl flooring and replace it with new polished concrete floors in their kitchen, living area, hallway and toilet. Haynes is a Melbourne based concrete polishing company that polishes concrete slabs in existing homes or brand new residential builds (like the one we just did in Blackrock)
The owners are embarking on renovating their home but they wanted to update the flooring first before treating the walls, furniture or other areas of the property. They did consider just grinding the concrete and sealing it but they didn’t really like the rough, almost unfinished, look that it produces. They wanted to create an interior design for their home that was modern, luxurious and elevated, so they chose to get fully polished concrete floors instead.
The first step they had to take was to have all the existing flooring removed from all the rooms, so they organised a local contractor to pull up all the old flooring material so that the original concrete slab was exposed. The next step is to then begin concrete grinding all the floor surface areas so they are perfectly smooth before they can be turned into a mechanical polished concrete floor.
For this home there was about 70 square metres of floor space which was split between the hallway, downstairs powder room which had a toilet, living area and kitchen. The cost worked out to be around $7,000 ex gst and we needed to also do a few repairs to some cracks in the slabs. There was carpet and vinyl flooring that had been used previously in different rooms.
Once that was all taken up we had to do a really heavy grind to level out floor which was fairly uneven, this meant it took around five days to complete because we also had to do a fair bit of repairing to holes in the floor from the timber battons that were pulled up from the carpet, some of the cracks from movement and doing lots of hand polishing work around all the edges for each step of the grinding and polishing process.
Can you get your concrete floor polished if it is cracked?
Quite a few homes in Melbourne have been built on concrete slabs and over time the foundations will move that may create small cracks in the slab. Generally speaking this isn’t anything to worry about but it does indicate the home is experiencing some level of movement. If it is a lot then you will begin to notice cracked walls or cornice falling away from the ceiling or even roof tiles shifting. A cracking foundation can simply be due to the changes in moisture in the ground, or in worse cases, a major water leak under the house that is causing part of it to subside as the earth turns to mushy clay.
It is pretty common for us to find cracks in the slabs once we remove the timber floor boards, carpet or vinyl, most of the time they are small hair line ones that are hardly noticeable. In other instances they may be larger and require filling before we can polish them. If the floor just gets a light grind and a seal they most likely you will still see the cracks, they will be quite visible. The benefit of concrete polishing vs just sealing is that we cut deeper into the slab which also means we reduce the size of some of the cracks as we go lower into the base.
These can be patched and then polished to be much less noticeable than before, just takes a little bit more time to complete the polishing stages.
Can you get polished concrete in a hallway or bathroom in Melbourne?
Most of the time people will polish the concrete flooring that is in their kitchen or living area because they are the main parts of the home. Although if you want a truly unified interior design then you can get all the flooring done in the whole house. Hallway, bathroom, laundry or even bedrooms can be done the same way so that there is a single, consistent flooring surface in the home. In fact getting polished concrete floors in a bathroom or laundry make even more sense because these wet areas deal with moisture, humidity and are used daily.
There is a bit more labour involved in other rooms of the house, especially hallways because we have to cut around door frames, corners and tight spaces like around a toilet to get everything finished off perfectly.
If you want to find out how much it costs to get your flooring polished just contact us & Mark will provide a free phone or email consultation and written quotation.
Before and after photos of the new polished concrete floor low gloss satin finish
Can a concrete polisher advise how to pour a concrete slab in Melbourne?
Another aspect that many people aren’t aware of is that a concrete polisher can provide advice and guidance relating to how you should pour your concrete slab to get a desired finish when it gets polished.
Mark has over 20 years experience working in the concrete industry and can help guide you on the type of concrete mix needed to have the right elements added to create a style or colour that you want for your polished concrete floor.
You can see in this example there was a slight variation to the way the concrete slab was poured which necessitated a change to the polishing choices, this was easily managed but could have been planned better if there was closer co-ordination between the slab pour & concrete polishing contractor.
This another reason why it makes sense to use someone that is experienced at polishing concrete in Victoria. Just contact us to get a free quote for your renovation project.
