Install Polished Concrete Flooring for Understated Elegance
Good looking, durable and low-maintenance; the understated elegance of polished concrete flooring continues to delight lovers of open-plan living and clean, bright surfaces. As an ideal partner to underfloor heating, it’s both luxurious and more sustainable than many other flooring finishes. If you’re thinking about installing it in your home, take a look at our 5 concrete flooring ideas, designed to inspire you.
DirectStone has been installing and hand-finishing residential concrete flooring for more than a decade. We love working with concrete because every floor is unique and, as a flooring material, it’s endlessly versatile. It can be shaped to fit any room, or any bespoke design – and the textures, colours and finishes provide endless potential to extend the aesthetic of your home.
The Benefits of Polished Concrete
Choose any of our 5 concrete flooring ideas and you’ll enjoy a stylistic innovation in your home, and a range of other benefits too:
- Durability. Concrete is an industrial material that’s made to last. Once installed it will last for decades, requiring minimal repairs or maintenance.
- Sustainability. Many of the polished concrete floors we install are retrofitted using existing concrete slabs, making the process sustainable and carbon neutral.
- Low Maintenance. The signature gloss of polished concrete looks ‘high maintenance’ but is, in fact, its opposite. All that’s required is regular sweeping and mopping.
- Perfect for Underfloor Heating. The density of concrete makes it an excellent conductor of heat, and a great partner for UFH.
- VOC Free. Many flooring materials contain Volatile Organic Compounds that can exacerbate allergies and cause a range of health issues. Polished concrete is VOC free.
5 Innovative Concrete Flooring Ideas
Polished concrete flooring looks stylish wherever it’s installed and, as our concrete flooring ideas show, it’s really easy to turn its seamless, architectural elegance into a style that complements both your interior design and way of life.
1. Natural Imperfection
The Japanese wabi sabi approach to interior design places emphasis upon our connection to the earth and the natural materials that emerge from it. It’s a design philosophy that celebrates the unique and the imperfect as an integral sign of authenticity.
Polished concrete is a celebration of the natural, organic materials. The polishing process brings out the colouration of the stone used to make the concrete and, where the aggregate is revealed, the unique patterning is a product of the natural world. Often retrofitted concrete flooring shows imperfections from pervious flooring finishes; where these cannot be removed, we recommend that clients enjoy them as part of the floor’s historical record.
2. Mix and Match Flooring
If you have a large open plan area, you may feel the need to break up the expanse of polished concrete. Why not contrast the concrete’s elegant minimalism with small ceramic floor tiles in a colour of your choice? Use geometric angles and shapes to feature different areas of activity, or transitional zones between one room and the next. Alternatively, you could contrast a matte concrete finish with a high gloss finish.
3. Add Colour to Your Concrete Flooring
DirectStone clients often ask for an enhancement of the natural colouration of their concrete flooring. We are able to add pigment to achieve this during the pour, or to colour an existing concrete slab. We offer a range of architectural hues which include Arctic, Ash, Light Natural and Flint. These retain the connection with the organic source of the material, whilst subtly reflecting the interior design aesthetic.
4. Sleek Perfection For Split Levels
Polished concrete flooring works particularly well across a split-level interior. The multiplicity of angles created by polished concrete steps accentuates the reflective quality of the material and adds interesting areas of depth and shade to your room. The seamlessness of concrete as a flooring feature calls into play the shape and dimensions of your space, creating a large and open area that offers multiple possibilities for living.
5. Create an Inside/Outside Room
One of the pleasures of summer is the way in which our houses open up to let the elements in. The use of polished concrete as a transitional flooring between indoors and outdoors offers an invitation to enjoy the lengthening days and spend more of your day in the garden. Concrete flooring works equally well indoors or out and is wonderfully easy to keep clean.
About DirectStone
We’re a family business that’s passionate about polished concrete flooring. That’s why the DirectStone team is made up of flooring specialists who bring their experience and skills to each of our residential concrete polished floors. We provide polished concrete for residential extensions, new builds, and properties of all ages.
DirectStone works throughout the UK mainly in London, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
Would you like to speak to talk through your concrete flooring ideas with one of our flooring specialists? Call us today on 01525 20863920
