Mike and Lindsey have been going full steam ahead on their ‘House of Good Taste’ remodel, and today they share their secondary flooring material decision. The couple appreciates the many good suggestions readers offered and — after much deliberation — they have chosen polished concrete as the finish for all of the non-terazzo flooring in their home.
Mike writes:
We want to first thank everyone for their input on our floor decisions. We were overwhelmed by the responses, and it truly shows that Retro Renovation is a real community with real enthusiasts. We hope we did not disappoint anybody with the direction we went…
Choosing the secondary floor to the terrazzo has been by far the hardest decision in this remodel. We explored many options and spent countless hours discussing, researching online and visiting flooring stores. During the process we created a list of considerations that really helped to narrow down our choices. The secondary flooring had to be:
- Appropriate for the style of the house
- Not visually compete with the terrazzo
- Large dog and toddler friendly
- Help minimize or eliminate the transition point from the terrazzo (about an 1/8″-1/4″)
- Budget friendly of $8-$10 sqft installed
- Work in every room where there isn’t original terrazzo flooring, meaning there would only be two types of flooring throughout the entire house
- Able to work with the other finishes we have planned. Sorry, can’t give those away yet! 🙂
We never really warmed up to the idea of tile, not exactly sure why. Probably because the complete back half of our current home is tile and we are a bit bored with it. There are also what seems like a million tile choices, making it a bit overwhelming.
Then hardwood quickly rose to the top of the list, however, we had differing opinions about using a wood floor… causing a few heated discussions in our household. Thankfully, we were able to narrow down our hardwood considerations to a natural maple in a 2.5″ wide plank, engineered glue down. For those unfamiliar with natural maple, it is usually the flooring choice for basketball courts. It has a mostly uniform light color with some small darker sections running through it. We weren’t completely sold on the wood, so we got a local store to let us borrow a box to lay down text to the terrazzo and stone walls so we could get the full visual effect.In the end, we decided wood was not quite the right choice for us. Which made us return to an idea we had in the back of our minds the whole time — polished concrete! It met every item on our list, except the one that never seems to fall in line, the annoying little thing called ‘the budget.’
We had already called a few different companies about the terrazzo restoration, and luckily during this search we discovered a well referenced company that can do both terrazzo restoration and concrete finishing. Greg with Pro Surface Solutions turned out to be exactly the specialist we needed to get the job done.
After several meetings with Greg, we decided we both wanted and needed to do a full concrete overlay as opposed to working with the existing slab. The hallway leading into the house had be overlaid because the removal of the saltillo tile had left surface completely unusable. The slabs in the rest of the rooms were in varying condition, but most has significant cracks and issues. The kitchen had been tiled at one point, and we were told the tile lines would show through unless we did an overlay. Lastly, doing a overlay could also give us 100% completely flush transitions form the terrazzo and uniform finish from room to room.
In our initial research on concrete, it seemed like a simple and cost effective solution. Even one that was a reasonable DIY project. But for what we were trying to accomplish, it was going to be a much more complex process — one best left to professionals. We wanted polished concrete not stained or epoxy coated, meaning that our surface is just diamond polished, treated concrete that results in an almost glass like feel and look.
Seeing the step-by-step transformation of the hallway really shows all the different steps it took to reach the finished look.
At this point, the polished concrete floors are not completely finished. They were taken to a certain level and then covered for the remainder of the construction. Right before moving in, the floors will be uncovered and the final treatment and polish will be applied.
Next up is the terrazzo restoration!
Mike and Lindsey, the polished concrete looks great so far. It will be nice to see it all done next to your refinished original terrazzo flooring. Kudos to you for doing your homework, considering several different options and in the end meeting all your criteria for secondary flooring — well except for the inevitability of going over budget. We can’t wait to see how everything comes together in the end.
Mad about MCM says
Following your journey and loving going along with you every step of the way! I can’t imagine the polished concrete looking any better than it already does. I love that its left natural and simply polished to high shine, for sure the route I would go also. I am guessing that makes pretty impervious to staining?
Can anyone who has this tell me, it it a very slippery surface or no more than a glossy hardwood is?
carol says
It is only slippery when wet. I have polished concrete in my house right now. This is not by choice however. We had a pipe leak in the wall and pulled all the carpet out. Fortunately, the floors were polished and sealed when the house was built. I love them and they are in great shape but Hubby whines about the hard surface. A concrete floor is hard on the body when a person is older. Caring for them is a peice of cake! It is an ongoing battle between us to keep or cover. I don’t know what they were sealed with, if anything, because they take 30 minutes to dry when mopped, but standing water stays for hours. So far, after 3 years, no stains. Very easy to care for.
Paige says
Stunning! Mike & Lindsey I think you made an excellent choice! It also looks amazing & very close to terrazzo.
It’s just gorgeous, so glossy & I personally love any flooring that isn’t carpet!
We have recently purchased a home that has 4000 sq ft of terrazzo & a studio addition with laminate
Paige says
Yikes, it cut me off!
We have talked about getting rid of that, but had no idea what we would replace it with, I’ll be showing my husband this article today!
Thank you for sharing this!
Anything you could share about your terrazzo flooring?
There isn’t anyone in the area we live in that specializes or is familiar with the flooring & I don’t think ours has ever been cleaned!
I’ll be the one to do that!
Paige says
Stunning! Mike & Lindsey I think you made an excellent choice! It also looks amazing & very close to terrazzo.
It’s just gorgeous, so glossy & I personally love any flooring that isn’t carpet!
We have recently purchased a home that has 4000 sq ft of terrazzo & a studio addition with laminate
Robin, NV says
Looks fabulous! Great choice, it really works with the terazzo and the overall feel of the house.
Out of curiousity – what’s the maintenance on a polished concrete floor? Does it require re-polishing periodically?
Mike and Lindsey says
Robin
general cleaning is just vacuuming/sweeping and using a wet microfiber mop.
Important to clean up spills quickly, as bare concrete can be stained (actually gets etched) by acidic fluids. We have a sealer mixed into the polishing steps that is supposed to help with fluid penetration.
We were told long term maintenance is a burnish (heated polishing) to bring back the polish every 4-5 yrs or so.. more or less depending on how perfect you want to keep them.
JKM says
Excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT choice! I really like concrete floors and have several friends who have them – and they all love them. I wish I could have them, too, but they’re not the right “look” for my house. I’m enjoying the updates!
Jay says
Great Choice! I had a hunch the final choice would be concrete, a finish that visually compliments the terazzo but doesn’t compete with it. Tough too! Just keep a firm grip on your dishes. Area rugs and runners will realy stand out against the neutral finish. The house is starting to come together. Looking forward to the next installment.
Janice says
I love the way the concrete looks and I agree it was the better choice than the wood. I can’t wait to see the finished product and am enjoying reading about the process.
Christa says
These look really great. I put in concrete overlay in my house, but the installer talked me into a hand applied finish instead of the polished look I asked for. Yours looks much better, I wish I had stuck to my guns/found the right installer.
Mike and Lindsey says
Christa
Something we did not include in this installment was that at the last minute we chose to go with a epoxy coating instead of the bare polished concrete. Bare polished concrete can stain and that had us worried, but after they put the first coat of epoxy down we did not like it at all and had them grind it off and go back to bare polished. It changed to the color to a light brown and felt like plastic. It added on 3 extra days to the job and some wasted cost, but very happy we changed our mind and went back to the bare polished surface.
maggie snodgrass says
I am impressed with the kitchen floor. We have the same terrazo in our house in Texas. Sad to say in the bedrooms we put carpet to keep it warmer in the winter. we are now in the process of doing the kitchen floor and have chosen black and white vinyl (diner look) but are now going to consider the polished concrete. Is it slippery when wet for a kitchen?
cellen says
I think you were just being polite when you said you hoped you didn’t disappoint anyone with your flooring decision, but it’s your house. You should do whatever you like. Your house decisions are yours alone – we’re just along for the ride.
Laurie Louise says
Bee-yoo-ti-ful! You two inspire me!