Bar Nero, 18 Smith Street, Collingwood
Satin Geoshine™. Basalt with black oxide with grey base. Seeded with red glass.
Polished concrete brings a sultry, late-night mood to Collingwood’s Bar Nero
A 166-year-old pub has found a second life as a sophisticated inner-city bar, anchored by a midnight-black polished concrete floor peppered with glints of red glass.
A pub with history
The British Crown Hotel stood proudly on the corner of Smith and Mason streets in Collingwood from 1860 until it fell into boarded-up silence around 2017. Purchased in 2019 by Melbourne developer and publisher Morry Schwartz, the building was eventually renovated and reopened in 2026 as Bar Nero, its exposed brick and heritage bones framing a seductive, intimate space.
At its heart is a Satin Geoshine™ floor by Geocrete, finished in basalt with black oxide over a grey base. Morry’s love of red inspired the decision to seed the red glass through the mix, while his request for a deep black gave the floor its distinctive midnight finish.
Under low, red lighting, the red flecks through the floor glow like embers. The effect is sultry and dramatic, more cigar lounge than conventional pub.
A rescue job with everything against it
The floor’s smouldering beauty hides a story of near disaster.
Recommended by Zenon Eleftheriou of Concrete Construction Systems, Paul Warner was contacted by Tony Taouk of Titanium Constructions in October 2025 to polish Bar Nero’s new floor. The timeline was already impossible: the slab was due to be poured the following week, with grinding required within a fortnight. Needing two to three months’ notice, Paul declined, so Tony engaged another contractor.
What followed was, in Tony’s words, a disaster. Over three and a half months, the contractor tried three different finishes, all unsuccessfully. A mechanical polish left unsatisfactory results, a grind and seal failed to conceal the problems, and the third attempt, an epoxy coating, was applied unevenly, leaving puddles on the ramp and visible application marks on the flat sections. Attempts to sand the surface created further marks.
With the job running months behind schedule and the hoped-for Christmas opening long gone, the contractor was dismissed. At the end of January, Tony called Paul for help.
The damage was substantial. The previous contractor had over-grinded parts of the floor and severely damaged the ramp and vertical steps. Paul faced the near-impossible task of reworking the entire 300-square-metre surface.
Correcting the damage meant grinding away up to 10mm of concrete in places, rather than the usual 3-5mm. The ramp presented an even greater challenge, with three changes of pitch and a 10mm hump left in the surface. Six cramped toilet cubicles, with walls already installed, demanded extensive hand polishing.
The concrete was also soft, requiring Paul to add significant amounts of Geocrete’s Alchemy Construction Chemicals densifiers to harden it. Where the Geoshine™ process calls for grouting three times and densifying six times, with two passes per grit, the first contractor did each only once. Black concrete is particularly unforgiving: imperfections and unfilled holes trap dust, leaving the surface looking grey rather than the deep, even black Morry had expected.
From anxiety to elation
Having accepted the work, Paul worked for three straight weeks, putting in 12-hour days, all while managing three slipped discs. But the technical and physical challenges were only part of the job. He also had to restore the client’s confidence after months of failed attempts.
Morry had invested heavily in the renovation and missed his hoped-for Christmas opening. For the first ten days, he watched the floor anxiously, unable to see the deep black finish Paul promised. It still looked flat and grey.
Then, around day ten, the transformation began to show. Morry’s anxiety gave way to a sparkle in his eye, colour in his cheeks and a return to his usual good humour.
Paul knows the frustration of being called in to fix another contractor’s mistakes. “You think you’ve seen everything, and then you see something like this,” he says.
Always up for a challenge, Paul takes pride in delivering results his clients can rely on. “It makes me so happy to be able to turn around a mess into something that my client is ecstatic with.”
A floor that earns its keep
Today, Bar Nero’s floor gives the heritage space its distinctive atmosphere, catching the low light and bringing depth to the moody palette.
Morry had initially wanted a matt finish, but Paul recommended satin for its durability and safer underfoot performance compared with high gloss. The satin finish gives the black concrete its lustre, catching the bar’s low lighting while standing up to the demands of a busy hospitality venue.
What began as a costly construction setback has become one of the defining features of the bar, proof that even a badly compromised floor can be transformed with the right expertise, persistence and attention to detail.
To explore more Geocrete projects, click here.
A client’s perspective
An amazing and spectacular finish. Before Paul came to the project, the mechanical concrete finish was attempted by another supposed concrete polisher. The finish was appalling … Paul came into the project and was able to fix the concrete step, the ramp area, and the entire concrete floor. The end result was a spectacular mechanical concrete polish. Thanks Paul for the brilliant job.
– Tony Taouk, Titanium Constructions
