Is stained concrete and polished concrete for you?
Our findings over the years:
Determining if stained concrete and polished concrete is for you.
1. What coverings (or coatings) are on the slab (or were on the slab)?
2. What is the condition of the slab? Most slabs make gorgeous floors ranging from rustic distressed stone to smooth medium aggregate to coarse aggregate to a smooth cream-texture finish. Each slab has its own awesome characteristics. We work WITH the slab to maximize and enhance its potential. We don't cover and hide it it with coatings that WILL de-laminate.
3. What type of person are you?
There are artistic/aesthetically-minded practical people and there are conformist people. Conformist people like everything to be uniform on their floor and they usually flock to tile, engineered hardwood, marble, floor paints & epoxies, etc. The artistic types see the stone-like Old World European beauty in the man-made stone (the slab). They also are good decorators adept in cost-saving decorating styles that integrate lighting, wall colors, art work, area carpets, etc. They also see the overall money savings, the practicality, the maintenance savings, and the sustainability advantages. Smart businesses from Costco to major restaurant and retail chains are flocking to the concrete floor look too.
4. The ideal situations are residential floors in main areas, loft apartment homes, outdoor concrete pool decks and patios, offices, restaurants, retail establishments, warehouses.
5. Pet-friendly. Our floors are NOT slippery. We use techniques and integrated micro-anti-skid additives to ensure that. And smoothness is also a function of how fine you want us to diamond-grind the slab. Pets can migrate from the cool concrete to area carpets depending on the season. If they have an accident it is EASY to clean up and it will not pass through the penetrating sealers and hard wax that we use.
6. Perfect for rentals and house "flipping". If you are adept at staging a remodeled home, understand the value of curb appeal, and compare other flooring costs, you will lean toward concrete artistic floors. And why waste money on other expensive flooring when most of the time the new buyers end up changing things anyhow. True story: I once did a house "flipping" remodel on a nice tract home. I put in a gorgeous, authentic, temp/humidity-controlled wine cellar and artistic concrete floors with the look of a model home. The buyers raved and loved the move-in-ready avant-garde look. But.... the first thing they did was tear the wine cellar out and put cheap monotone "el basico" tile on the floors. Go figure! It was the decor that sold the house in the first place, yet they changed it to a conventional look. Bottom line for me: made a profit because the house concrete and floors had this rich, customize, relaxing look. is stained concrete and polished concrete for you?
Advantages vs. disadvantages:
Our industry "go-to" organization is CONCRETENETWORK.COM. They have outstanding videos & information on all types of concrete floor-related questions: