High Gloss Geoshine™ with Pentra Guard, Bluestone and Grey Granite with standard grey base.
Essendon DFO boasts 6000m2 of Geoshine™ polished concrete walkways
Geoshine™ renovation excites shoppers at DFO Essendon
Essendon shoppers are enjoying the stunning revitalisation of their DFO shopping centre, featuring more than a kilometre of Geoshine™ polished concrete floors.
As part of a multi-million dollar renovation, leading Melbourne polished concreting company Geocrete was contracted to transform the very dated, painted concrete floors into luxurious polished concrete.
Geocrete founder Paul Warner was the obvious man for the job, after his team’s record breaking work polishing all 15,000m2 of concrete for the Melbourne airport’s Tiger Airways terminal upgrade.
At the time, there were not many concrete polishing companies who were experienced enough to take on the task at the DFO, which was considerably more difficult than the Tiger Airways upgrade. According to Paul, it was a monumental job, thanks to the sheer amount of edge-work and manpower involved.
“Unlike the airport, the pathways at DFO stretch for more than one kilometre and are only five metres wide, meaning we had to complete nearly 2.5 kilometres of edge-work. It was one of the most challenging, exhausting, yet satisfying jobs I have ever completed,” Paul said.
While capitalism slept, Geocrete’s team of eight men laboured from 6pm to 6am for three months straight, to minimise the impact on the DFO’s trading. Adding to Paul’s challenge, the shops remained open during the renovation, and store-owners expected a dust-free environment.
“Concrete polishing is a very dusty, dirty job, but we minimised the mess by using wet grinding, performing regular maintenance on vacuum cleaners, and using automatic scrubbers at the end of each shift,” he said.
An interesting part of the job was discovering the concrete to be polished, which had been hidden for thirty years under an awful purple-brown epoxy paint. To the delight of both Paul and the centre’s management, the underlying concrete featured a lovely aggregate of bluestone and grey granite, which looked sensational polished to a sparkling high-gloss sheen.
The beauty and high exposure of the work earnt Paul plenty of kudos, and built on his reputation as one of Victoria’s most accomplished concrete polishers. “DFO customers are now enjoying a singular, memorable shopping experience. Polished concrete’s superior looks, durability, and performance make it the perfect choice for a large-scale retail renovation.”
