Welcome to Geocrete – Victoria’s number one polished concrete flooring specialist.
As Geocrete’s founder, I am committed to producing world-class floors of enduring strength and beauty.
I’ve experienced so much in my life, and Geocrete is a culmination of my study of geology, training under an Italian concrete finishing master, and decades of working with the beautiful product of concrete.
1974: Proudly a fifth generation farmer, I was made in Nhill, a Victorian farming town in the Wimmera. We moved to Ballarat when I was six years old, where my parents hoped for more opportunities.
1992: I completed my Victorian Certificate of Education as head prefect and school captain, and was awarded the Youth of the Year by the Hon. Michael Ronaldson.
1993: I started my Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Geology at the University of Ballarat.
1994: Tragedy struck, which will forever change my life – unfortunately my beautiful Mum passed away.
1996: I started athletics, and that first season I obsessively trained and won the Victorian Open Men’s Javelin.
I also joined the Australian Army infantry but then changed direction and decided to travel to the middle of the Australian desert. What was originally intended as a three month stint in Alice Springs turned into ten life-changing years.
I began working for an Italian man named Silvio Piro, who was the best concreter in town and a master of Terrazzo. He was nearing retirement and Silv saw my enthusiasm, determination and passion and taught me all his concreting secrets. I will forever appreciate what he did for me, as his craftmanship is the best I’ve seen in all of Australia.
1998: I was constantly studying architectural and interior design magazines and was impressed by some photos of polished concrete floors. Polished concrete was very new at the time and just being introduced into Australia.
I made a lot of enquires and booked a crash course in polished concrete with a company called Arrunga Floors. I also purchased the required grinding equipment from the importer, Green Rhino.
2000: Silv’s retirement was the impetus I needed to start my own business, about 2-3 years earlier than what would be considered normal. Warner Concreters was born. Quickly I gained a strong reputation as a highly skilled concreter and successful business operator.
2001: I travelled to Adelaide and worked with Arrunga Floors. I foolishly believed that after working with them for three days I would be ready to polish the world. I was sadly mistaken! In hindsight, I think I was the worst concrete polisher, and in my self-appointed awards I won this title for three years running.
Fortunately, the majority of my income was coming from concrete finishing, as every polishing job felt like the steepest of learning curves. It was an extremely difficult time as there were very few people who I could call for help or advice.
2002: Maintaining a strong athletic and sporting routine in football, boxing and running, I entered in and won the Alice Springs marathon.
2003: All of my floors were “grind and seal” finishes, which was the standard in the industry at this time. I would complete the grinding and then hire a painter to apply the topical coating over the concrete.
HTC Superfloor™ was the first truly mechanically polished floors introduced to the world’s market. A group from HTC Sweden came to Sydney and conducted Australia’s first concrete polishing course. I was absolutely mesmerized by the finished product; its level of clarity and depth of the polish and the striking distinction of the high gloss finish.
2004: I left Alice Springs and worked in Darwin for 18 months doing concreting and a small handful of polished jobs that were somewhat disastrous. Not quite the image of polished concrete that the Swedes from HTC had delivered in Sydney!
I eventually moved to Melbourne working as a concrete finisher. Polished concrete was now very much in demand and one job led to another. Eventually the transition from concrete finishing to polishing evolved, and Geocrete Concrete Polishers was born, superseding Warner Concreters. The name was inspired by my geology studies and evokes the technical expertise required to polish concrete.
2005: I moved to Melbourne and completed a small number of floors that were mainly “grind and seals”. The concrete polishing industry was now developing into Australia’s leading floor choice.
2006: I undertook a Husqvarna Hiperfloor™ course, the first of two, to become certified in this new mechanically polished concrete system. It was an excellent course that catapulted all of my floors into Hiperfloors™.
2007: Furthering my knowledge, I became an applicator for the Ashford Formula and RetroPlate system, L&M Construction Chemicals’ Seal Hard, and Convergent Concrete Technologies’ Pentra-Sil®.
2008: Seeing how important surface treatments were to producing the most durable polished floors, I started networking with a number of chemical manufacturing suppliers. In close collaboration with their industrial chemists, I learnt how to manufacture my own concrete densifiers, grouts and penetrating sealers.
2009: By increasing the number of different types of densifiers used as well as the application steps, I began making very advanced developments. The end results were floors that were of a much higher standard in shine and uniformity, but more importantly, much stronger and longer lasting than any other polishing systems that I had used.
2010: Understanding that the industry required better-polishing systems and a platform through which architects or builders could specify my product, I trademarked my polishing system as Geoshine™.
My first major project to gain national interest was the Kenworth Truck Factory, where I converted the factory’s old epoxy floors to hardwearing polished concrete with lower maintenance costs. I manufactured all the chemicals for this job myself, and these have stood the test of time, proving that a Geoshine™ floor is an excellent choice for industrial settings. I have since completed another four stages of their factory floor, polishing 6000m2 to date.
2014: I showed off the Geoshine™ polishing system on national TV, creating a gorgeous polished floor on Australia’s most popular renovation series, The Block, for “fans versus favs” with Brad and Dale.
2015: I completed the Tiger Airways Terminal upgrade at the Melbourne airport, which to date is Australia’s largest area of polished concrete, at 15,000m2.
2016: My project in Brighton was awarded Channel 7’s top ten themed Australian homes.
2017: The Ballarat Construction Management headquarters, with my ground breaking use of polished concrete, received international accolades at the Architizer A+ Awards in New York.
Meanwhile, I was busy conducting all night shift hours to complete 5000m2 of polished concrete walkways at the Essendon DFO shopping centre.
In 2017 I registered my sister company Alchemy Construction Chemicals™, which produces all of the in-house surface treatments for Geoshine™ floors. I also acquired large national contracts to three major resellers of concrete polishing chemicals and abrasives, as well as to New Zealand’s largest supplier.
2018: Business continued to expand, but I also focused on developing a healthy balance between my personal, business and community life, and my interests such as my beautiful animals, reading, gardening and obsessive ultra-marathon racing.
TODAY
I’m very proud of what Geocrete has achieved so far. I love my job so much, and I love seeing my polished floors come to life with their refinement and mirror-like finishes. I’m extremely patient and some would say OCD or obsessive. But there’s no other choice when you are coming from a place of passion and deep love.
When a client engages Geocrete they are engaging me as the owner operator, with my commitment to producing a floor of world class quality. I don’t send a team of employees as in a company-based business.
With my depth of industry experience, my clients hire much more than a concrete polisher. Right from the design stage I provide expert advice that ensures they get the best possible floor, helping plan concrete mix designs and choose suppliers and concrete finishes for pouring, and sharing my in-depth knowledge of good placement practices and curing of concrete slabs plus best construction practices.
Being one of the most experienced in the industry also means that I can troubleshoot any problem, ensuring the project looks like there never was a problem to begin with. This is what marks someone at the pinnacle of their craft.
I am committed to making Geocrete the most passionate and determined polished concreting company in Australia, providing my clients with the highest quality floor of any company in the world. I’d love to hear from you!
Paul Warner
