MicroCement

Concrete without the concrete

MicroCement gives you the look and feel of concrete at a fraction of the cost and the weight of the real thing. It is a cement and quartz based coating, laid on in thin coats and sealed, and at two to three millimetres it adds almost nothing to the thickness of a wall or the height of a floor.

It goes over what is already there

This is the part that decides most jobs. MicroCement bonds to existing surfaces — tiles, screed, plasterboard, worktops — so nothing has to come out first. A tiled bathroom does not need stripping back to the wall; the tiles stay where they are and the MicroCement goes over them. That removes most of the dirt and disruption a conventional refit brings with it.

Where it works hardest

Because it seals to one continuous surface there are no grout lines, which is why it suits wet rooms, shower areas and bathroom floors — there is nothing to discolour and nothing to rake out and redo. It has gone onto floors, worktops, splashbacks, staircases and shelving, and across the bar at JAK's Bar & Steakhouse in Douglas.

Outside as well

It is not only an interior material. The garden spheres and water features shown below are MicroCement, which holds up outdoors and lets something that looks like a solid concrete object stay light enough to lift.

Looking after it

A damp cloth, and wax when the surface wants bringing back.