Written by: Robert_Porter

Polished concrete may not sound sexy, but in fact it has an ancient pedigree.

 

A polished concrete floor was discovered in the City of Jericho, believed to date from around 7000 BC.

 

Despite this, modern polished concrete was discovered by accident in the 1990s when a contractor working on a Tunisian palace dry polished a concrete floor, by mistake and saw how beautiful the end result looked.

 

What is polished concrete?

Polished concrete is a process by which a concrete floor is ground and polished with bonded abrasives to cut the floor’s surface so as to create a certain appearance, usually quite like polished marble.

 

Typically, polished concrete melbourne is found on floors, most particularly new and retrofit floors. It can, however, also be found on walls, although this is less usual.

 

In both cases the process of polishing concrete is like sanding wood, so a concrete grinder is used to polish down the surface of the concrete to the required degree of smoothness and shine.

 

While retrofit floors can take more work, so costing a little more, new floors are easier to manipulate resulting in lower costs, as long as the concrete has been properly prepared in advance and has no cracks and has been left to be fully cured (about 28 days).

 

Polished concrete is particularly versatile, as the concrete can be penetrated with decorative aggregates creating numerous different aesthetic finishes.

 

During the polishing process the concrete floor is treated with a variety of diamond and bonded abrasives, and these days the polishing can be done either wet or dry. Finally, the polished concrete is treated with a chemical densifier which hardens the concrete to the required specification.

 

Why use polished concrete?

Polished concrete is a low-cost alternative to marble flooring and other decorative floors.

 

It is low-maintenance, non-slippery, dust-proof, and highly-reflective, so reducing artificial lighting needs.

 

All in all, a polished concrete floor should be considered as a solution to many Australian housing needs.