Floor

[Samantha Booth]

In the back room which is the dining room we have a concrete floor as we do with all the downstairs rooms. The floor was sealed with PVA but its in a poor condition in places, a few small holes and a bit rough round the edges. Instead of skimming it which I wouldnt be cnfident doing, would it be OK to cover the entire floor with hardboard, the kind thats used as wardrobe backing, shiny one side and honeycombe the other. I was thinking of gripfilling it down to the concrete then putting lino on top.

I didnt want to just put lino on top of the concrete as you would wear away the lino in the dips etc.

can anyone advice me if this is OK. Its only £3.19 for a large sheet so would be cheap to do.

Thanks Sam

[George (dicegeorge)]

but if any damp gets in wont the hardboard disintegrate?

[Andy Hall]

One option is to use a latex floor leveling compound to fill the small holes and dings. You can do that very easily with a trowel/float etc.

If you want to go for sheet material, a ply of similar thickness to the hardboard would be a better and more solid bet.

[Joker7]

To restore balance to the world Samantha Booth wrote in g5drht$gv9$ [e-mail]

Laybond screedmaster smoothing compounds

Chris

[George]

Fine that Sammy,around the perimiter of the room lay down some plastic sheeting about a foot wide just in case there is any damp areas.

[The Medway Handyman]

Difficult to get the edges flush.

Have you thought about self leveling floor compound?

easy to use, not entirely self leveling. Mixes up to consistency of single cream & needs spreading out with a trowel, but 'does what it says on the tin'.

If there is no great difference in levels, just a rough pitted surface, a thin coat would be ideal.

[John Rumm]

Yup, another vote for that. Make up a long wood spreader if needs be - a bit shorter than the narrow room dimension. Mix the lot, chuck it down and drag it across the room with the wood. No need to fuss it too much, once roughly in place it will smooth itself out.

[George]

>

No need for making anything up,just chuck it down and use a sweep brush to push it down the room. The only problem with SLC is if it becomes too thin a layer in parts it cracks.

[John Rumm]

ok, but a new broom is probably more expensive than a bit of 2x1" ;-)

Latex ones are usually ok down to a couple of mm IME.

[mail]

Dear Sam I would avoid using any form of cellulosic (ex-wood based) material such as hardboard in this kind of location. It will be prone to rotting. Chris

[George]

Dear Sam I would avoid using any form of cellulosic (ex-wood based) material such as hardboard in this kind of location. It will be prone to rotting. Chris

How long do you think?