Levelling Kitchen Floor

[TheScullster]

Hi all

Looking at preparing the kitchen floor for tiling. There is an area approx 2.5 x 1.7m which is approx 6mm lower than the rest. The existing floor is well laid concrete, flat and has only had lino on since cast (by the look of things), so only some adhesive to remove in places. I have used Feb Floor for patching small areas in other rooms before, but what would be the best screed-type-product to: adhere to the existing concrete make up the area noted above by 6mm and be self levelling provide a good base for floor tiling?

TIA

Phil

[The Natural Philosopher]

Don't bother.

Use a fast setting low-slump cement and a variable thickness of it. 6mm is too small to worry about. I used ardex products, the fast set can be mixed very stiff and goes off in under half an hour.

cost is no worse than a levelling compound, and the results are better IMHO.

use a taut string and spirit level to get the first row level across the room, and the a spirit level to lay adjacent rows, and use more or less cement to get the whole thing true. Tamp tiles down level, and mop off surplus cement with a freshly wetted sponge.

[TheScullster]

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote

Preparation notes state that the variation is 3mm max over 2m.

Phil

[The Natural Philosopher]

really? i used it up to 22 mm bed depth no probs..

Anyway +-3mm is 6m..

[Bolted]

One of the F Ball Stopgaps - I've only used 300 but can't recall if that can do 6mm in one shot. If not it would in two, or they will have another which will do it one.

SG300 is a very very good self-leveller as long as you can mix pour spread and spikey roll fast enough (four hands better than two, but I managed ok on my own). Most so-called self-levellers are actually self-smoothing, not self-levelling and are frustrating and a bit crap which is probably where TNP is coming from.

I think Tim Watts will back me up on SG300 being an almost wonder product - there's a thread in the archive somewhere in which I recommended SG300 to him and banged on about process a bit more when it was a bit fresher in my mind.

[TheScullster]

"Bolted" wrote

Thanks Bolted

Yes I have used F Ball products before - should have thought of them. The SG300 is upto 15mm so would do the job I reckon.

Phil

[Tim Watts]

Yes Stopgap 300 will do this very easily. Check the F Ball website for the data sheets. Pretty sure 6mm was fine. Prime with P131 first and use a metal float to feather off the edges.

Mix to the wettest as permitted by the sheet (ratios are CRITICAL) and it will pretty much fall level once it has wetted the area.

Feather edges are where there'll be more trouble so checking over with a long straight edge would be advisable.

Cheers

Tim

[Michael Chare]

You could look for self levelling compounds. They are designed to be used in thin layers.