Can anyonone suggest a product that would create a very smooth surface on a screeded concrete floor? I need the floor to end up smooth enough to take self-adhesive vinyl tiles.
I thought about floor paint, but I doubt if that would create a surface smooth enough for the tiles to stick to reliably. I imagine a 2-part resin of some kind would be better, as it could (I guess) be poured on thickly enough to produce a truly smooth surface. Can anyone recommend anything? I guess ordinary polyester resin would work well, wouldn't it? Anyone know where this can be bought in a 5 ltr tin at a good price?
The room in question is very small: about 5ft x 5ft. The screeded floor is absolutely dry with no damp at all.
I would have thought the easiest solution would be to use rubber based vinyl glue (Evostik alike) irrespective of the tiles being self adhesive. From experience, that stuff does not come off screed (I've tried!) and it's sufficiently gap filling for minor irregularities.
If the floor is flat through, a floor paint (not bitumen based) would create a surface the self adhesive glue should hold on to nicely.
Re: 2 pack - well, there are 2 pack floor paints and DPMs (I've used the latter - Stopgap F75 IIRC) and it is very smooth, applies with a roller and holds on to the substrate pretty tightly - but not cheap and probably overkill.
Can we confirm this floor is dry (ie known good DPM)?
How smooth is the screed finish (eg any gaps under a 1-2 foot straightedge?).
Yes that is the best method, BUT it is essential to use a brand described as 'latex'. Not sure what 'latex' means in this context but it is far easier, more economical & gives a better finish with less skill than vanilla levelling compounds.
BTW levelling compounds are better described as 'self smoothing' compounds. Used as described on the packet you should be able to obtain a finish smooth enough for tiles but it will undulate slightly over 2 or 3 feet - not enough normally to interfere with laying vinyl tiles.
To get a really *smooth* finish you need to set straight guide edges around the edge of the floor over which you can run a screeder or levelling edge. Even then differences may occur due to differential setting of different thicknesses of leveller over your floor. If badly affected by this you can use 2 coats of leveller.
An alternative to setting in a straight edge is to plug the floor & screw in 10g or 4.5mm c/sunk screws at intervals along the edge. Set the tops of these level to each other with a builders line & a spirit level. Then use the tops as reference points to level off the compound.
To get a truly *level* finish proceed as for a smooth finish but great attention is required to making sure the screed adges are horizontal.
OTOH you can avoid the problems of levelling a floor for vinyl tiles by using ceramic tiles, disadvantage of those is that they raise the floor level by 8 to 10mm, but often produce a much more satisfactory finish.
stuart noble wrote in news:Xf4Lo.19564$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe27.ams:
Hi, Thanks to all for the replies. That last suggestion sounds particularly interesting. What kind of filler did the pro mean? I wonder if something like exterior pollyfilla would do...
Ordinary interior filler should be fine given there's no likelihood of damp. Bonds well, even in very fine layers IME. The only question is whether the adhesive would pull off the filler if you tried to re-position the tile during laying, but that would apply whatever you used
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