All About Concrete Albury Wodonga
Concrete slab options and requirements for polished concrete
Concrete mix, slab and finish
The decisions that shape the result
A great polished concrete floor starts well before we arrive on site. The mix you specify, how the slab is placed, finished and cured, and the aggregate you choose all have a direct effect on what we can achieve when we grind and polish.
This page covers the things worth knowing before your slab goes down, and how to use those choices to get the floor you’re after.
The Concrete Mix
Why we recommend 32 MPa instead of standard 25 MPa
MPa stands for megapascals, a unit used to measure the compressive strength of concrete. In simple terms, it indicates how hard and strong the concrete is after curing — higher MPa means the concrete can withstand greater loads and delivers improved durability and performance.
Increasing a concrete mix to 32 MPa provides a better polish and better durability. During curing, concrete naturally contains calcium hydroxide in the paste. When we polish, a silicate densifier reacts with that calcium hydroxide and forms more of the hard binding material right where the wear happens. A richer, stronger paste in 32 MPa mixes supports that reaction and helps the floor hold its clarity and surface strength over time.
The practical upside of specifying 32 MPa is that it also provides performance headroom that can help minimise shrinkage related cracking when combined with correct placement and curing. Strength alone isn’t a silver bullet though — pour quality and curing are still critical.
It is important to only use approved admixtures. Some curing agents and retarders can interfere with the densifiers required for the mechanical polished concrete system. If additives are being considered, check with us before ordering so we can confirm compatibility.
Want the deep dive on reaction pathways or densifier choices? Customers, architects and builders are welcome to contact Dale for a technical chat about polishing chemistry and specification details.
Customising the Aesthetic at the Pour
One of the best things about polished concrete is that the design decisions start before the slab is even poured. A few considered choices early on can give you a floor that feels genuinely tailored to the build rather than just whatever came out of the truck.
Base colour
- Concrete doesn’t have to be grey. Mineral oxide pigments go through the full depth of the slab, giving you a consistent base colour that holds up even as the surface is ground back.
- Off-white and brighter cement bases naturally lighten the mix and make the aggregate pop once it’s exposed. Worth considering if you want a cleaner, more contemporary look.
- A lot of clients use oxides to echo other materials in the build, warm tones to match timber, cooler tones to complement stone or tile. It makes the floor feel like it belongs rather than just being a surface underfoot.
- Your concrete supplier will have sample brochures and mix displays. Have a look at these in person before you lock anything in, colours read very differently on a small card versus a full floor.
Aggregate and feature additives
- The aggregate in your mix, its size, colour and distribution, has a big influence on the finished look once we grind it back. Around here, most mixes draw from local quarries, which means Albury Wodonga floors have their own character that you won’t find anywhere else.
- If you want something more bespoke, elements like coloured glass can be seeded into the surface during placement. They sit right where the grinding will reveal them later, so nothing is wasted deeper in the slab.
The bottom line: the slab itself is a design element if you treat it that way. We’re happy to work through these options with you, your builder and your concrete supplier well before the pour so the slab is set up to deliver the result you’re after.
Red oxide, Wodonga Quarry mix with extra blue metal aggregate.
Black oxide, Tarrawingee aggregate mix.
A Quick Note on Exposure
How much we grind the surface changes the whole look of the finished floor. The three main options are zero, partial and full exposure, and a couple of millimetres is often all that separates them. Getting the slab right before we start gives us the best chance of landing exactly where you want to be.
- Zero Exposure (cream/burnished): We polish only the surface without any grinding. The finish is smooth and understated. The slab needs to be very flat with a good, even cream on top.
- Partial Exposure: A light grind of around 1-2mm starts to reveal the smaller stones and sands. There’ll be some variation across the floor, which is part of the look.
- Full Exposure: A deeper, more even grind of 3-5mm on new pours brings up a consistent layer of aggregate. Usually the best path for older slabs where uniformity is harder to control.
Zero, partial and full exposure options
Slab Installation & Curing
Why how it goes down matters
Vibration: The concrete needs to be properly vibrated to push out trapped air and make sure the mix fills evenly around the reinforcement. Skip this step or rush it and you get voids and weak spots in the paste that show up later as inconsistent exposure or surface defects when we grind.
Level and flat: Our grinder follows the surface of the slab. If there are high and low spots, the grinding depth changes across the floor, which changes how much aggregate is revealed in different areas. Even a few millimetres of variation can make an even exposure very hard to achieve.
Finishing: Machine trowel timing is especially critical for zero and low exposure floors. Too much finishing, not enough, or adding water to the surface late in the pour can all weaken the paste layer and limit what we can achieve with the polish.
Curing — why waiting is worth it
Letting the chemistry finish: Curing is the process of keeping moisture in the slab so the concrete can keep developing its strength. If it dries out too quickly, that process stops early and the near-surface ends up weaker and less able to polish well.
Slow and even drying: Controlled drying reduces shrinkage and surface dusting. Polished concrete is typically ready at the 28-day mark for the best results. Rushing this leads to poorer polish quality and a floor that won’t hold up as well over time.
Simply put: the flatter, denser and better cured the slab is, the better the finished floor will be. We include slab guidelines and process documents with every quote so your build team knows exactly what’s needed.
Get Inspired
Need some inspiration?
Our gallery is a great way to see what different mix and finish combinations actually look like on a finished floor. Browse real projects from around the region and find a look that works for your build.
View or visit our Projects
We’ve completed floors right across the Albury Wodonga region and beyond. Browse our project pages online or visit some of our floors in person to see the finish quality firsthand before you commit.
Ready to plan your concrete floor?
Tell us about your build and what you’re hoping to achieve. We’ll point you in the right direction and provide a quote along with slab and process documentation for your build team.