Topping and sealer quantities for a decorative concrete floor, with borders as their own band.
Painting, tiling and finishes. 5 questions answered below, each with the arithmetic behind it and the limits of what the tool decides. Open the Decorative Concrete Flooring tool.
Decorative concrete flooring is a topping, not a slab, and the distinction decides the whole estimate. The topping is a thin, highly specified layer over a substrate that has already been built and cured, and it is measured separately because it is a different material applied for a different reason. The takeoff measures the topping by area and thickness, counts the border or pattern work by length, and adds the sealing and the preparation the finish requires. The structural slab is not included, since it has its own design and its own takeoff. Where the substrate condition is unknown, the tool asks rather than assuming a prepared surface, because a topping over a bad substrate fails at the bond and takes the finish with it.
A hundred and twenty square metres of topping at ten millimetres is one point two cubic metres of material, which is a bagged product at its stated yield rather than a site mix. A border of forty metres at three hundred wide is a further twelve square metres of a contrasting mix. Sealer at two coats over the whole area, at its stated coverage, is the third line. The slab underneath is not in this estimate at all, which is why the two must be measured separately rather than one derived from the other.
The topping by area and thickness, the pigment or aggregate it carries, the border and pattern work by length, the sealer by area and coat, and the preparation products you specify. It does not measure the slab beneath, which has its own takeoff. Keeping them apart matters because a decorative topping is a separate trade, a separate order and a separate failure mode.
Because a topping is a thin layer of a specified material over a substrate, and a slab is a structural element of a different mix with a different design. Their quantities barely relate: ten millimetres of topping over a hundred square metres is one cubic metre, while the slab under it might be fifteen. Measuring one from the other is how a decorative floor estimate ends up either wildly over or missing the finish entirely.
By length, with its width, and as its own material line. A border is usually a contrasting mix, sometimes a different aggregate, and it needs its own quantity rather than being absorbed into the main area. Saw cut patterns are lengths as well, and each metre of cut is a metre of joint that has to be filled and finished.
The substrate is not included, and the preparation of it is only included where you enter it. A topping needs a sound, clean, correctly prepared substrate, and the preparation is a real cost that varies enormously with what is there. The tool asks for the preparation you specify rather than assuming a clean new slab, because the assumption is what turns a quote into a loss. A substrate that has been down for years will need grinding, filling or a primer, and each of those has a coverage and a cost that belongs in the order.
Yes, as a percentage you set. Decorative work produces waste for a reason ordinary flooring does not: colour consistency comes from the same batch, and a border that does not meet cleanly is a return visit. The percentage is a line rather than a hidden loading, so its size can be seen and agreed before the job starts.