Look nice but they are very hard underfoot and you may see cracks as the floor moves.

yeah that's what I've been told actually. Do you have first hand experience?

A good friend of mine has a polished concrete room and she hates it. The surface scratches and it is very cold and hard to walk on. I actually went for a painted epoxy floor on my concrete slab in the house we are building.

thanks for the feedback. Might pull away from the idea

I stay in a holiday apartment that has them. They look great. They have worn well over the four years I've been staying there. It's a great look but I do find it hard under foot. They don't seem any more slippery than tiles and seem easy care.

I do like the way you can have them right through out including the bathroom.

I'm a wood floors fan so I enjoy them for the short period I'm there but happy to come to wood.

Check out the cost. Not sure that the cost of getting the right concrete blend, then polishing and finishing is much less than a good quality engineered timber floor??

There is no difference in hardness underfoot between tiles, direct stick timber or concrete. Only a floating floor or on battens will give you this and only due to energy transfer. Polished concrete hyper floor is $115 m2 plus the extra $5 for 32 mpa. Engineered boards of anything worth putting in your house start at around $95, $45 for laying and + insulation (sound or moisture), then you have to seal them if they aren't already but if they are they're low quality.

I have to disagree John Henson. I have an engineered floor in our holiday house. It is glued down, and half of the house is slab and half is over yellow tongue.

There is no comparison to tiles and feels the same throughout the house, and I cannot tell the difference to timber over battens (which we have in our main house).

An engineered floor like ours does no need sealing. This is one of the reasons we chose it, as it is fully finished.

Cost 12 moths ago, about $120 to $130 per m laid.

My humble, that's a great price for good boards. How many times are you able to sand them back and reseal when they get scratched? I always recommend a 5mm top layer of timber so you can get the same number of sands as a tongue and groove floor.

To answer your original question- it is a matter of taste and where you plan to use it.

We will be having polished concrete in our main entertaining area- kitchen/dining. We then have stacker doors opening out to a small patio (same concrete, different grind) then courtyard. I chose concrete over timber for maintenance and durability. We love entertaining and have a big family. I really don't care to fuss over scratched timber boards due to 30 people tramping in and out of the house, along with the scratches my dining chairs have made to past timber floors. There will be expansion joints to reduce cracking, but I'm not fussed about that too much as I think it adds to the character. I'm not looking for a terrazzo finish.

It is a north-facing room that will get full morning sun through the stacker doors- so we are hoping (fingers crossed) to get the thermal mass benefit of concrete also. If not, we are running cable through it so we can heat it later if needed.

Thanks Mel,
that's probably the answer I wanted to hear. Sounds similar to our house. I would probably run it from the entry through to the living/kitchen areas. We too will have stacker doors so the concrete will flow through. I guess I'm more worried about colours and the amount of stones through it as I don't want it to look too busy or dark. Great idea about the wiring for underfloor heating.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. Much appreciated

We got our engineered timber floors from Harmony Timber floors on the Gold Coast about 12 months ago for $120/m laid and glued down. Yes, the top layer is at least 5mm and is real hardwood, attached to a thick base of ply.

The hardwood layer goes down to almost the T&G.

We are using Metromix (Able Concrete) in Sydney, not sure where you are. We've chosen a really lovely light coloured concrete and lighter aggregate (Bondi Pacific with snow oxide)

We're in Perth. I'll have to check out some colours and hopefully see them in 'real life'.
Thanks for taking the time to comment

Selecting a polished concrete floor finish is a decision that goes far beyond the look and feel of the surface. It is part of a holistic process and part of a system that delivers a sustainable outcome. the floor finish should not be seen in isolation but in combination with window, wall and ceiling design. Properly considered it should deliver a cool internal space in summer and a warm space in winter when the sun is shining. The property that a polished concrete floor encapsulates is that of thermal mass. A tiled finish over concrete will deliver the same outcome. Other finishes will be less efficient in this regard. It is better to make decisions based on performance if you want your building to reduce energy costs. Aesthetically, polished concrete offers enormous variety in colour and texture dependent upon the choice of cement, aggregates and degree of grinding (level of polish)

Laura it looks great. We are after more of a terrazzo finish like the photo but less busy. I'm a bit nervous but we are now in the process of looking at colours etc. I'll keep you posted. So glad you are happy with yours.