Harrisdale is one of the newest suburbs we work in — most of it went up in the 2010s. The slabs are young and sound, which means the entire job lives or dies on how well the floor is opened up before anything goes on it.
Floor shown is a visualisation — stock reference photography, not a completed Ironstone Floors job.
Harrisdale sits on the eastern side of the coastal plain, out toward the Pinjarra Plain and the foot of the Darling Scarp — market-garden country until quite recently. That eastern position means the ground is more mixed than the coastal sand suburbs, with clays featuring in places. On slabs this young that's rarely visible yet, and your lot's classification comes from a soil test on that lot rather than the suburb — but it's the reason we look at cracking here rather than assuming there won't be any.
The dominant fact about a Harrisdale floor is its age. A slab poured in the last ten or fifteen years was built under the current Code with an under-slab vapour barrier as standard, and it's generally sound. We still moisture test — it takes minutes and a guarantee written on an assumption isn't worth much — but here the test usually confirms what we expect.
What a new slab does have is a dense, hard, steel-trowelled surface. It looks like the ideal thing to coat, and it's the opposite: a closed surface with no profile gives a coating almost nothing to key into. This is the single most misunderstood thing about coating a new floor, and it's why the cheap quote on a Harrisdale garage is usually the one that skips the grind. Anything rolled onto an untouched trowelled finish is sitting on top of the concrete, not bonded into it.
One more new-build reality: the mess left behind. Render splash, paint spots, plaster droppings and adhesive from the build are all still on a lot of these floors. It all grinds off, but it's part of the job rather than something to be swept aside first — and it's another reason a photo of the actual floor beats a description of it.
2010s onward — Harrisdale built out fast and most slabs are under fifteen years old.
A 6 × 6 m double around 36 m² under the main roof, sometimes with an extra bay or a workshop nib at the back.
A sound young slab with a hard closed trowelled surface that must be ground open, plus builder's render, paint and adhesive residue.
Same four stages on every job in Harrisdale, residential or commercial. No shortcuts, because we're the ones carrying the guarantee.
Diamond-ground back to bare, open concrete. Not acid-etched, not rolled over. Dust-extracted, so the garage stays clean.
Moisture tested before a drop goes down. Cracks and joints are cut out and filled so they don't telegraph through the finish.
Pigmented base coat, then decorative flake broadcast to refusal for full coverage, grip and depth. Your colour, chosen before we arrive.
Clear coat over the top, edges cut in sharp, site cleaned. You get the guarantee in writing before we leave.
One day on site. Car back on it the next morning. Gear moved and put back — you don't lift a thing. Written guarantee against lifting, and it transfers if you sell.
Harrisdale is straightforward — modern estate streets, proper driveways and room to work. Lot sizes are tighter than Canning Vale but the access is fine.
Where it gets tight is on the narrower zero-lot-line blocks: if your driveway is shared or your garage opens onto a laneway, send a photo of the approach as well as the floor. It changes what we bring, not whether we can do it.
Power is the standard check. One 10-amp outlet on a shared circuit won't run a planetary grinder and a vacuum together. Tell us at quote stage and we bring our own supply rather than tripping your board at 8am.
It does, and this is the most important thing on this page. A new slab has a hard, closed, steel-trowelled surface with effectively no profile for a coating to bond into. New concrete needs grinding just as much as old concrete — the reason is different, but the requirement is identical. A quote that skips it on a new floor is quoting you a coating that sits on top of the slab.
No. Leave it. It all comes off in the diamond grind along with the trowelled surface, and trying to scrape it first usually just adds gouges we then have to fill. Just make sure it's visible in the photo you send so we're pricing the actual floor.
Coating a slab isn't structural work, so in the normal course it isn't an issue. But we're a flooring contractor, not your builder — if you're inside your warranty period and you want certainty, ask them directly. We'd rather you made that call with the actual answer than take ours for it.
More general questions are answered on the main FAQ.
One photo and rough dimensions is all we need to give you a real number — no site visit required. Quotes weekdays 7am–7pm.
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