Concrete Art-FX

As company, we complete over 100 various concrete polishing and staining projects annually around the greater Toronto area and Southern Ontario, and I'm amazed how many home owners are opting to install radiant heated concrete  floors in their homes when buying or renovating a home. Typically radiant heated floors are installed, then the contractor pours 1.5" (minimum) to 3" of concrete over the heating installatiion.  For the main floor and the 2nd floor, in order to to pour conventional concrete  over the sub-floor and the floor radiant heating installation may require some reinforcement  in some cases to ensure  that the weight will not be an issue over long period of time. Contractors also will use gypcrete or daro-top products that work great to cover up the radiant heat installation, but these materials must be covered over with either hardwood or tile. If you would like a natural concrete floor finish, or concrete stained floor, do not use these weight savings products. They are not true concrete and a new layer of 1" self-level cement would have to be poured on top of gypcrete to do a decorative concrete floor which can get expensive.

Recently I received a call from an engineeer client of ours, that is building a custom home with radiant heated floors in Muskoka area and  hired us to polish the concrete floors.

As we struck up a discusson about the project, he indicated there he had poured a 6" concrete slab. I was surprised and had asked him why go through such an unnessasary expense of deeper digging and the cost of extra cement? Our engineer client, indicated that he has done research, and reviewed reports showing that pouring 6" of concrete over the radiant heat installatiion provides big energy savings.

I was a bit set back by his statement but, he went on to explain that although it took a little longer to heat up the 6 inches of concrete initially  than the typical 2" install, the benefit of having 6" concrete slab, is that you can shut off the radiant heating system over night without any noticeable heat loss occurance in a 24 hour period from the concrete slab. In fact based on the tests he had seen, there is only a 2 degree loss of heat afte a 5 day after the radiant heat had been shut off. Now that's amazing!  Imagine the energy saving of this system?

The trick is not to cover up tthe concrete with another flooring mateial such as laminate or hardwood, or tile, but rather incorporate a decorative concrete floor finish such as polished concrete, concrete staining, or 100% clear or colourful metallic epoxy finish floor.

As decorative concrete flooring company, we are fortunate to be part of growing movement t to reduce the human foot print on the environment by turning structual material such concrete, and transforming it into gorgeous sustainable flooring.