WRITER | MEGAN WESTERS
We’ve all seen concrete flooring in basements, garages, and other industrial areas within and surrounding the home. But in the past decade or so, people have started to realize the versatility of this heavy-duty material, using it for countertops, patios, and, one of the newest trends, interior flooring.
Owner of Five Star Concrete, Michael Klein says that not only do concrete floors look really nice, they are also extremely durable. “The overall lifespan of concrete flooring is a lot longer than materials like carpet or tile might be,” explains Klein, estimating that concrete floors last three times as long as carpet and two times as long as tile might in a home, depending on foot traffic and use.
It seems obvious that concrete flooring is durable, but, for many, a common deterrent is that it’s cold on your feet. “Lots of people ask that, but it’s not any colder than tile would be,” Klein notes. He explained that when pouring concrete flooring, the last thing he does is install a sealer or a top coat to ensure that it lasts a long time. The sealer also tends to act as an insulator or, at the very least, a warmer layer between the concrete and your toes.
Aside from how it feels to your feet, the image most conjure up when they hear “concrete” is a basic garage floor. The way concrete flooring looks when installed for interiors is very different from what we think of as a classic basement floor. “Seamless floors look pretty nice, and that’s what you can get with concrete flooring,” added Klein.
Most interior floors are dressed up by staining the concrete after it has been poured, giving texture by stamping it in a variety of patterns, or — Klein’s preferred method — mixing in a powder made from minerals, oxides, and pigments that color the concrete before pouring it.
So what are the drawbacks to having concrete flooring in your home? Almost nothing. Almost.
The sealer used at the end of the installation process lasts from three to eight years, depending on the brand and the amount of use the floor gets, so every three to eight years, concrete floors need to be resealed.
Price-wise, concrete flooring is comparable to what tile would cost. There are circumstances that make the price go up or down, but Klein says to expect poured concrete to run anywhere from $4 to $12 per square foot.
The nice thing is, it can go just about everywhere in the home. “You can have it anywhere, even in the upper level of a house.” Klein has installed concrete floors in just about every room a house might have. He said that it’s most popular in kitchens, foyers, and laundry rooms but can be installed almost anywhere a client might want it.
So, next time you’re considering flooring options, you might want to think about concrete.
