Five microcement finishes: which one?

We apply five finishes, and the question we get is almost always "which is the nicest?". That's the wrong question. All five look good in a showroom photograph. The right question is which will age well in your room, under your lighting, with your level of traffic.

What actually changes between them

Not the colour — all five are custom tinted. It's the surface texture and the degree of variation in the material. A very uniform finish reads calm and contemporary, but it shows every mark and every repair, because there's nothing to disguise them. A clouded or marbled finish has variation built in, and that variation visually absorbs the small imperfections of daily use. That's the central trade-off, and nobody explains it in a showroom.

Concrete — the most uniform

Mineral grey, almost without variation. It's the closest of the five to a poured and ground concrete slab. It suits an open-plan condo or a loft, where the continuous surface is exactly the point. But it's demanding: on a large floor, raking light reveals the slightest undulation in the substrate, and a future repair will never blend perfectly.

Microdeck — the most forgiving day to day

A very fine texture, slightly tighter than Concrete. It's the finish we recommend by default for a family bathroom or an entrance: uniform enough to read contemporary, textured enough not to betray every dried water drop. If you're undecided and the room gets used daily, this is the one.

Clouded and Marbled — the most tolerant

Both carry deliberate variation in the material: lighter and darker zones worked in with the trowel. Clouded is soft and diffuse; Marbled has more legible veining. That variation does two useful things. It gives depth in a room with no natural light, where a uniform finish can look flat. And it makes wear and repairs nearly invisible, because the eye already reads the surface as non-uniform.

Travertine — the warmest

An open, more mineral texture that suggests natural stone rather than concrete. It's the only one of the five that goes warm rather than cool, and it works well with wood and brass. It asks for slightly more maintenance: the open texture holds a little more, so we don't recommend it on a busy kitchen floor.

How we actually decide

• Busy room, family, pets: Microdeck, Clouded or Marbled. Not Concrete.
• Large open-plan floor with raking light from a glazed wall: Clouded or Marbled, which forgive substrate undulation.
• Small room with no window: Clouded or Marbled, for depth. A uniform finish often looks dull there.
• After a deliberate raw-concrete look, loft or condo: Concrete, knowing it's demanding.
• Warm palette, wood and brass: Travertine, except on a kitchen floor.

We apply a sample of your chosen finish, in your room, before starting the work. A finish has to be judged under your lighting, not on a screen or under showroom fluorescents — and changing your mind at the sample stage costs nothing.