Smooth concrete floor

[Mole]

Just finalising details of my new workshop and speaking with builder who will do the slab.. I have asked for a smooth finish so that I can paint floor to seal well. Do I need to get him to power float it? I don't want him to just tamp it down with a bit of 4*2 and have ridges all along it. Size is around 10 x 5 m 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Tamping will always leave a rough finish so yes, if you want it to be smooth then powerfloating would be the answer.

[Deanspoors]

Definitely power float it. If you have the budget for it a polished concrete looks incredible, and lasts a lot longer than epoxy coatings. You could always get someone to come in at a later date to polish it up, but you need to make sure the people laying the floor use a minimum of C35 strength concrete though.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

I ummed and arred when building mine. I ended up just using a big manual float and I have a rippled finish. I wish I'd paid the extra now for the power floated finish.

[Andy (Sycho)]

If you want a perfectly polished floor then powerfloat is the way to go, but you can get a  reasonably good finish with a bull float. They do tend to leave small lines on each pass of the float but they do tend to ware off.

[kenton]

No question about it. 

Powerfloat,

leaves a lovely smooth hard finish. Make sure your builder uses readymix c40 and importantly thats its CEM1  ie 100% cement. otherwise you WILL get ash added as a cement substitute.

 

[Terryathome]

Bull float should be fine. Don't make it complicated.

 

[Mole]

Thanks for the detailed replies..will do some reading up.. I suppose as always comes down to budget!