Hi nancynik, While polished concrete is right on trend now, amongst other things, you should consider; 1. Your styling aesthetic - whether concrete suits how you plan to furnish and decorate. 2. Your future in the home - is it a long term home and if so will polished concrete suit your taste in the future? 3. The style of your new home and the rest of the finishes both inside and outside your home. 4. Where you live and your lifestyle. There's many more points that need to be considered prior to making a decision this big. You might consider getting advice for the entire finishes selections. The right person will ask the right questions to provide you with a cohesive scheme for your new home. Hope this helps. Enjoy your new home!

I think concrete makes a fantastic surface in wet areas, and looks even better in high traffic areas. The feel of a raw or honed concrete underfoot is amazing, and the unpretentious look in well designed spaces is earthy and contemporary. There are so many possibilities for colour, finish, inclusions and add ins, heated or non heated etc, that the beauty of concrete almost matches stone. For me, a huge concern is foundation movement, if on a slab, there is bound to be ground settlement and often hair line cracks can shift and become noticeable, patching is obvious and really just highlights a fault joint, basically destroying an entire floor, and leaving you with the option to tile or lay flooring over it anyway. An expensive excercise just to end up where you started. the veneer version can be laid on both pre finished slabs, fc surfaces and even timber, but the flexible movement and expansion that occurs often voids the warranty on its finish, I've investigated this option for myself, and basically th client takes the risk, and hopes for the best. As far as concerns regarding hardness goes, hardness =durability, so plates smashing will occur as it would on every other floor surface! There are large scale porcelain tiles that have a pre finished concrete look, really large as in 3000mm x 1500mm, minimising grout lines, and will be somewhat warmer underfoot. Cost is really high, so it needs to be something on your wish list, and where No compromise can be or will be made. love concrete..time worn and tested.

Hi mluh You've obviously done your research on these products, so it's most likely going to come down to personal preference. As you've mentioned, a natural stone is going to come with an amount of maintenance but the beauty of Travertine is within its variation. Once sealed with a good quality sealer (I recommend Guard Industry), the maintenance is really quite low and most spills are lost within those natural variations. 99% of spills can be cleaned up without too much trouble. Porcelain, on the other hand, can be quite difficult to clean once it's been marked. That said, the external porcelains have a great non-slip texture and are very hardy when used as paving/tiles. I'm personally not a fan of using them as pool coping, but many people love it. Again, both have their advantages and disadvantages so I would recommend using the product that you're happy looking at for the next 10-20 years. - Jordan

Yes I have by Precious Tiling. For my home, we first did the concrete flooring then laid the vinyl tiles. For a quality job, the substrate must be clean, flat, and very smooth. To fit tile around pipes or obstacles, cut a pattern from cardboard and then use a contour gauge or compass to transfer the pattern onto a tile.