Hi I am in flooring The floor does not have to be water level you have a allowance of 3mm in 1mt or 6mm it 2mt or 9mm in 3mt get the picture The subfloor does have to be hard and smooth But you CAN NOT put the kitchen on the floating floor, the floating floor needs to be able to expand and contract with a min of 10 mm expansion or 1.5mm for every 1mt so a 10mt long room needs 15 mm expansion gap at ether end. Ask the kitchen supplier if he can leave the kick boards of a put them on are the floor is installed

hi yes batches are different from batch to batch, but the finishers, toner, and self levellers, grout, are all different and have differing impact of the finish. Two of my Grandsons work in the concrete polishing industry (have for years)and come across this problem every other day. They are so very used to fixing up concrete pourers blues. I do know of some extreme difficulties (some over forty years old under carpet that have had the same problem) that have given my boys a hard time. However, at the end of it, using the right gear, you can literally see your face in the reflection plus the reflected image via the window.

It would be such a shame to rip up your beautiful floors, to try and do polished concrete now would be such a hard and costly job, along with the mess and the uncertainty of getting a good job that you may not like on completion as suggested, why not embrace your floors, decorate with the industrial look that you love , maybe a brick or concrete look wall could look really stylish and cost a lot less in $’s and stress

My thoughts are basically a summary of everyone elses . Step 1 -- sort the seepage . If you lay a concrete slab , any seepage will run around the concrete , potentially coming up at the 'join' between concrete and timber ( it will be difficult or impossible to completely seal that ) ; or it will flow somewhere else , maybe damageing other areas , or undermining foundations . Concrete to me is industrial ( cold ) ; timber is natural ( warm ) , and your timber looks to have some age and even yellowing ( which I like ) , so you are mixing the styles . Basically , it works in a shop ( down the concrete to the counter , or meander around the timber areas to see what you want ) , but not so much in a house IMO . Tiles ( personally , I'd like a gloss off-white with lots of grey and charcoal veins , but then that would be expensive and potentially slippery ) would be preferable imo . A terracota would look good and suit the period , just not as classy as an off-white . Charcoal or even black won't work quite the same , and to go anything else risks making it a 'novelty' -- blue or green or butter or purple may 'age' quickly , in fact I think probably 40 years out of date already haha ) .