Leveling Concrete Floor

Hiya, I'm planning to put down wood flooring over a concrete substrate (1/2" thick boards so it's ok to glue down). I've just checked the flatness of my floor and as expected, it's not very flat. I've been told of a product called "LevelQuik" that supposedly will self-level the floor. Has anyone used this stuff? I read the data sheets on it and am just a little leery of ending up with a bigger mess than I'm starting with. As I read it, I basically mix this stuff up and pour it out on the floor and roughly spread it around and then....wait. It'll self level. Is this true? Is it that easy or should I plan on screeding it? I've also got a few hairline cracks so I assume I can put down their AntiFracture membrane first and then the LevelQuik? Thanks for any insight! Cheers, cc

Reply to
James "Cubby" Culbertson
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I just had Levelrock done on part of my floor, might be similar. Had to have a pro do it cause it's not available retail. If it's anything like what I had the stuff is effective but not forgiving.

Dunno about the cracks and the membrane, Levelrock I believe has to be put directly over the (primed) cement surface.

Reply to
roger61611

The self-leveling stuff works well, but there are a few caveats. The edges usually have to be trowelled out to a feather edge and the lumps flattened. It's not always easy to get that perfectly mixed creamy consistency when you're working on a tight time table. If you're planning on doing a fair bit of the floor, you have to move very quickly so that the separate pours will flow together and you won't have to feather as much of the edges.

I once used some fast-setting leveling compound and got a couple of old bags. The stuff never set up correctly. I had to remove it and repour. PIA. They didn't date the bags either, so there was no way to know if the stuff was still good or not. Tech rep said the bags were probably a year old or older.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Check your floor. My project was an old garage that was pitched to drain. I wound up pouring some sand mix about an inch thick on the low end 'cuz it's about a tenth of the price.

Run the powder through a mix. Any lumps in the bag will only give you grief.

I marked one pail at the specified water level and did all my mixing in that one pail. Have a long-handled squeegee or something similar to smooth the edges out.

Rent a BIG right angle drill whose max RPM is close to the recommended mixing speed. Don't try to mix it by hand, it'll only give you grief.

Any holes that water will run through will only give you grief.

It's more of a PITA than concrete, but the results are worth it, imo.

Reply to
Charles Krug

self-level the floor

That might be the HD stuff. I used it on a 12x15 ft room, and an adjoining laundry room. Overall was not bad at all, had to buy one of those long mixing attachments for the drill and mark the bucket at 6.5 qts on the first fill to speed up mixing of the subsequent bags. I had to prime the concrete first with their product, comes in a quart bottle, mix with same part water, roll on with a paint roller.

Expensive, yes. $30 for each bag, only covers 50 sq. ft. at 1/8" thick. If you have a spot that is an inch too deep, that's only about

6 sq. ft. of coverage.

Good luck.

Reply to
sleepdog

Thanks folks for the inputs. So I have a few high spots and obviously a few low spots. If I'm reading the inputs correctly, I should figure on covering the entire floor with this stuff vs. trying to bring the low spots up? Is that correct? Just how thick does this stuff tend to settle out at? I'm trying to minimize any change in the floor's height. Cheers, cc

Reply to
James "Cubby" Culbertson

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