Just had my main floor stained and polished. It was less than half the cost of the carpet installed upstairs. I would venture to say polished concrete is going to be much less than wood.

I think bringing in the tools and equipment would be a hassle (and a larger upcharge) for just a small bathroom. Get quotes for each option from 2 or more contractors.

On a side note, did you install radiant heat in your floor?

It depends on the subfloor - is this in a slab or wooden subfloor?

True polished concrete is over $6/sq foot. Epoxied / stained, sealed is probably 1/2 that. If you are on a slab, you will likely only be able to do an engineered HW as traditional T&G solid flooring is not recommended on a slab

Costs are determined locally- best to ask contractor for considerations. BUT:

If you're planning on polished concrete anywhere, make certain that this is clear to the people who are pouring the slab-before they do it. In my experience, there are different laying/troweling techniques used if concrete is going to show, vs be covered with other flooring.

to answer some of the questions above, this would be on slab. There will be a passive-house grade level of insulation under the slab so i'm not having radiant heat put in.

If that is the case you can definitely do concrete in the bathroom, as much of your cost and prep is done already and it’s more a top/leveling cost with sealing and staining. Even engineered hardwood wouldn't function as well in the bathroom, where your have to be much more cautious of moisture. The costs are probably similar per square foot for such a small space.

Concrete is cool-looking but it is also a "lifestyle" floor. It ranges in price from $5 - $25/sf. The lower end of the scale leaves you open to a floor that will stain and etch and will require more maintenance that you thought possible.

Concrete is not bullet proof. The lower level finishes ($5 -$9/sf) are rarely sealed. Thereby leaving you with exposed concrete. And concrete STAINS. And pits. And etches. And does weird and wonderful things that are cool only if you like that sort of thing.

There are some pretty laid back homeowners who LOVE their cost-effective concrete...because they cover up 70% with massive area rugs. So they couldn't care less about stains. If it stains (pepsi, ketchup, mustard, etc) or etches (water, lemonaide, wine, etc) they simply shrug it off and throw down an area rug. And it cracks...lovely spidery cracks that will continue to grow and develop for so long as you both shall live.

Remember: concrete (at the lower end) is MORE difficult to live with then marble. It stains and etches faster than that softest of soft stones that everyone loves to hate.

Please ask yourself if you could LOVE a marble floor and all the problems with it, then you can love and live with a concrete floor. And you have to be OK with the acoustic issues and the hard to stand on for long periods of time.

Check to see what your chosen finish will mean for MAINTENANCE. I've seen concrete require more maintenance than those worrisome marble/travertine stones.

@SJ McCarthy - Wow, what concrete have you installed? Our experience is the opposite. A decent mix and sealing is as easy to maintain as slate or travertine, and definitely less prone to problems than limestone or marble.

Do you have some links to what you report about durability and possibly what admixture was used, what kind of aggregate, and how it was sealed?

Concrete, left alone, wants to crack and move around. It's inherently a structural material and not a finish material. Do you understand the difference?

For exposed concrete floors, a great deal more site preparation is needed, such as soil preparation and proper compaction; reinforcing bars are advised instead of WWF; saw cutting is also advisable to limit cracking if it should occur. Then there is coloring (surface, integral, or both), and how the top of slab is finished.

And since you have a slab on grade, you need to keep water away from the foundations and edges of the slab so that differential movement doesn't happen.

Well done concrete slabs are very attractive, IMO, but you need to do your homework on what it really takes, and ensure that your subcontractor has a successful track record with this sort of work.

Hi Dsnine... You've just pointed out the obvious in your post: "A decent mix and sealing..." that everything (I mean EVERYTHING) hangs on the materials and finish. Not all concrete is sealed. And not all sealants are equal. Low-grade polyurethane scratches horribly when compared to the most expensive epoxy (which is darn near bullet proof as well as darn near out of most people's financial reach).

Concrete flooring is a mind boggling concept. It is HIGHLY dependent on the materials, the techniques, the professional, the knowledge and the budget. Without the OP giving us some more than just "polished" concrete flooring, it is far too hard to explain all the variables that go into a "great" concrete floor.

The "budget friendly" floors are often the one's with the higher maintenance (polishing every 6 months, then stripping every 3 years and starting again) and the lower "satisfaction" ratings....

Given that we have actually attended the World of Concrete convention, I’d say I’m quite comfortable with the material. What you’re describing is pretty much a failure of the material in design or install, not typical. Even your average garage floor, which is the cheapest of the cheap in install and quality, doesn’t have the durability and etching issues you’re describing.

The costs you’re describing are also WAY out of line for anything I have seen, even with fiber reinforced and stained, with multiple sealing passes. Especially on a slab, you’d be hard pressed to hit $12 a square foot all done and done unless you’re being seriously ripped off, especially on top of an existing slab - that makes everything easier :)

Over timber framing the costs go up and the mitigation needed to create a good base becomes more complex, but still not significantly beyond a tile product. And the possibilities for design are vast (props to WoC again, I didn’t know half those techniques and products existed!).

I agree it’s not a budget finish in some circumstances, but having a good mix design for residential finish application is NOT difficult to obtain, especially if you’re working with a good contractor and not just directly with the batch plant (easier but only if you know what you’re doing, like with any fabrication mill).

I wouldn’t be scared off OP - if it is a look you want go for it. If you’re ‘meh’ about it, a cheap tile will be easier to manage, especially in a small space. But you can do a very nice job, even DIY, if you have a slab already and like the material. What can I say, I’m an optimist and concrete is fantastic stuff.

Some things to keep in mind with concrete floors:

1. Many people love the look of polished etc.- from pictures they've seen. Understand: Concrete photographs incredibly well, and that can be deceiving. Anybody considering this as a permanent flooring needs to look at actual floors.

2. If done right- from the pouring of the slab on- these can be beautiful and fairly low maintenance floors. This includes proper troweling, polish to your specs. The first pass at my concrete floor? Was a MESS. Not the beautiful, quiet floor I'd imagined. GC and concrete polisher worked with me for better direction- ah, all good now!

3. As Kathi Steele notes- YES. Concrete can be hard on the joints. I have professional quality mats in my cooking space as well as a huge area rug in my office- the better to protect my bones.

4. Sure- it stains. A very porous material. I keep spills wiped up and use a pH neutral pro level cleaner on it. Spots gone.

5. Bottom line- concrete cracks. It's a fact, and the highest quality professionals will tell you that straight out. They'll explain the need for densify-ers, in the polish, and why you need to strengthen it as it hardens. It takes what-20-25 years for concrete to completely dry/stabilize. If you can't deal with cracks, don't do it. They will peek out, no matter what you pay.

I'm good with our floors for now. If I get tired of them, easy to place another material over them.

Etching is a chemical process that cheap polishing techniques of standard concrete will not eliminate. Nor will polishing standard concrete make it stain resistant. All that does it smooth it and semi gloss it.

“Sealing it” can mean any number of things from using something like a cheap film forming s alert that will peel within a year, to a wax finish that doesn’t do diddly and that people loathe with the first spilled drink, to a high performance chemical resistant forklift grade epoxy. Or just a plain $90 a gallon impregnating stone sealer that will help with the staining but does nothing for etching.

Drinking the koolaid at some rah rah trade show designed to pull in new customers doesn’t negate the real world where those methods and costs do not work on construction grade concrete. The costs discussed are not real world long term repeat business and make a profit at all.

Start adding all of the witches brew needed to make densified fiber reinforced specialty concrete for the amount needed to pour a build? And start counting in the labor of a specialist vs your average rock booted floater? Hah! It’s why concrete counters are twice the price of marble counters.

Go pour a Coke on Home Depot’s floor. See if you like that. Then realize that they pay a pretty penny to keep that coated every two years. And still get stains and etched.

Sophie, the only thing I take issue with in your post is "witches brew" for densified reinforcement. Done right, it makes a world of difference, and it isn't particularly expensive.

So we priced this out in our high cost market. At first we thought we'd do concrete in the halls, baths, and laundry room. Wood everywhere else. To make it seamless was cost prohibitive (a 50K adder on a 2200 sf house). We then thought to do all wood and tile in the baths and laundry and that was a 25k adder. So polished concrete it is!

Kaycee03- You go! Love stained concrete. We had it around our pool area in the late 80's when it was a 'newer' thing. It was not expensive, held up well and was a breeze to hose off dirt and mud that the dogs tracked on it. You can soften areas where you stand with larger kitchen mats- that is about the only place a person stands for any lenght of time. Put large area rugs to define rooms if you choose and smaller washable rugs in front of bathroom sinks and in the laundryroom. Simpler, cleaner. You won't get mad if the new puppy has an 'accident' or the kids spill KoolAid on the floor. Or you spill red wine....