Satin gloss Geoshine™. Random exposure, quartzite and basalt with grey base.
An expansive Geoshine™ polished concrete floor is the dramatic centrepiece of a luxury new home in Melbourne’s Kew.
The house, designed and built by leading bespoke builders Constructing Spaces, showcases the beauty of contemporary open plan design, with an enviably glamourous dark grey and white kitchen (and ultra cool wine cellar) as the heart of the home.
An abundance of floor to ceiling windows allow light to stream through the living spaces, and frame alluring views of a lap pool within landscaped gardens. Cream curtains, huge rugs and the warm timber grain of the staircase bring a warmth to the cool aesthetics, while a dedicated library oozes comfort with a fireplace and ladder for easy perusal of the shelves.
Tying the living areas together is a stunning polished concrete floor created by Geocrete’s Paul Warner. Bursting with character, it’s a breathtaking floor with its colour and vibrancy.
The floor’s concrete mix, a grey base with basalt and quartzite supplied by Hanson Concrete, perfectly complements the home’s modern monochrome palate of whites, greys and blacks. The beauty of its raw materials truly shine thanks to a successful random exposure – a very fine grind that removes 1-2mm from the concrete surface and produces a striking ‘salt and pepper’ appearance.
Paul Warner explains that random exposure is the hardest of all exposures to achieve because its success depends on the quality of the slab to be polished.
“It is a very unforgiving grind that shows exactly how the concreter has placed and finished the floor. Disastrous results are very common; quite often you see a random exposure floor that looks like a zebra crossing thanks to poorly placed screed marks.” In his experience, 80% of floors that were planned to be random exposure are unsuccessful, and instead have to be fully exposed. “East End Slabs, the team behind the project’s pour and finish, did an excellent job on this difficult project.”
Paul said the owners chose a sleek satin finish for the polished concrete to suit the house’s finishings as well as their family lifestyle. “A satin sheen was a great choice for this family, which includes two dogs and seven kids ranging from toddler age to secondary school. Satin is a very forgiving finish and great for those with a busy lifestyle. In this home, it also worked well with the satin finish of the timber stairs as well as the matt marble benchtop and wall paint.”
Paul said he was thrilled with the finished product. “I absolutely love this floor because the clusters and scattering of the aggregate appear to burst out of the concrete matrix, which is what I think random exposure is all about. Each room has its own character thanks to the unique exposure of the floor’s raw materials.”
Robert Grlj, a director of Constructing Spaces, was also delighted with the floor, as well as Paul’s professionalism. “Geocrete were meticulous in their execution of the process and the result was excellent,” he said. Click here to read the full testimonial.
