I have a old concrete basement floor that is very rough and thinking of installing asphalt floor tiles (the kind in supermarkets). Can I install something over the top of the concrete floor (like wonder board or exterior plywood to make the surface smooth??? I don't think patching the existing concrete floor is a good idea (it's pretty old and somewhat crumbly). If I can go over the top, what can I use to fasten it to the concrete?
Thanks Ed
If you clean up the surface well, including removing the crumbling concrete, then there is no reason why you couldn't "patch" the surface. You could then install whatever on top.
Carolyn
board>or exterior plywood to make the surface smooth??? I don't think
fasten it to
You can use Ardex (or any other cementatious based) self leveling patch. Just make sure the floor is clean.
Willie
I am not an expert in this area. I had just leveled the basement floor in my house.
You may want to make sure the floor is level before you make a decision as of what to do with the floor. My basement was also rough and not level. I made a mistake in thinking that the floor was relatively level without checking it first. Turned out there are many peaks and valleys in the basement floor. There were something like
1.5" difference between the high spots and the low spots. There are probably different ways to fix the floor depending on whether the floor is relatively level or not.Jay Chan
How did you level your floor? My basement floor is also about 1.5" out of level between high and low spots? Did you use leveling compound on the entire floor, or did you build a sub-floor using 2x4s with shims and plywood? I was planning on building the subfloor, not using self-leveling stuff. The 1.5" seemed way too much to use that self-leveling compound.
If your basement has enough head room, you may find that building up the subfloor using 2x4 with shims and plywood to make the floor level is a good idea. However, my basement room is really "vertically-challenged". Therefore, I cannot use the 2x4 idea. Instead, I pour concrete to build up the subfloor, and pour leveling compound to smoothen the surface.
And yes, you are right to say that 1.5" of leveling compound would be too much. That would not only cost too much, but also the leveling compound would run all over the place before we could build it up to the desired thickness. I built up the floor up to 1/8" or 1/4" below the desired thickness, and poured leveling compound to reach the final thickness. By the way, there was a lot of squeezing involved when I put down the concrete and the leveling compound; that took a lot of preparation and effort. Therefore, you are probably better off using the 2x4 idea if your basement have the head room.
Again, I must point out that I am not an expert in this area. I am just telling you what I did that may or may not be the best way. You will have to decide yourself.
Hope this helps.
Jay Chan
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