Self Levelling a floor

[Chriswills]

I am in the process of doing up a property and the extension is now finished for the kitchen. It's 4m square. I want to level ff the floor before fitting the kitchen, what's the best way to do it with self levelling compound?

ive never done it before and would like a try

any tips please?

 

[nod]

Make sure the floor clear of anything loose

Seal it The day before with SBR mixed 3-1 

Make sure the self leveling compound contains fibers Some don’t 

Then mix sloppy and it will find its own level 

[Chriswills]

Got it sounds straightforward I hope. 

The floor is not too bad and I'm putting vinyl floor over it. Do I really need to level it to a high finish. Just a thought. 

[nod]

Always worth asking 
I regularly use Mapei 

[Makeitstop]

1 hour ago, Chriswills said:

Got it sounds straightforward I hope. 

The floor is not too bad and I'm putting vinyl floor over it. Do I really need to level it to a high finish. Just a thought. 

 

Are you using a glued tile or plank type vinyl?

 

If so, then yes it needs to be properly flat.

[Chriswills]

It will be glued foam backed vinyl flooring

[Iceverge]

I mixed mine too sloppy initially and it came out of solution. Maybe I was unlucky/did something wrong. Following the letter of the bagged instructions seemed to work out better for me. 

 

The floor needs to be properly clean first. Vacuuming it seems the best. 

 

While it is self levelling it isn't perfect. It's still possible to get slopes if applied in thin layers that don't flow properly <5mm . If you have a wavy floor that undulates by a few mm gradually the self levelling won't do much to help. If used to fill large holes >20mm it will shrink when it dries .

 

Maybe thicker layers would flow and level better ~15mm+. 

 

If you're covering a large area you'd best have help as it'll dry before you can mix and return with a second batch. 

 

A squeegee and spiked roller help levelling. 

 

If the surface isn't too bad over all I'd opt for some tile adhesive, a straight edge and a trowel. You'll get it very good with far lower material costs and less pressure if working alone. 

[Makeitstop]

On 11/12/2021 at 21:37, Chriswills said:

It will be glued foam backed vinyl flooring

 

Interesting. What is the product?

 

Dryback (glue down) vinyl with a foam backing is new to me.

[Chriswills]

I assumed it was glued anyway

[Chriswills]

All done, thanks for the help, 2 small sink holes but minor issues to be filled later.

 

[ElliotM]

Looks nice to me. Thanks for useful advices, ill need them too

[Olf]

Is it worth investing in spiked roller, or will any agitation (trowel?) be sufficient to keep the self levelling goo awake enough so it settles dead flat? The biggest room is 30sqm for the sake of argument, it needs to compensate for up to (down to?) 10mm depressions.

[Mr Punter]

Make sure you have enough compound and buckets.  Have one person mix and carry in the buckets of gear and another lay and smooth out.  Trying to do both yourself is a mare.

[Olf]

Yeah, I figured that!

Hence I'm thinking about employing shmbo to do the levelling, and from that perspective a roller on a stick is more manageable.

[Russell griffiths]

What you need to remember is that this compound is not water, it will not run off of high spots like water. 
so you need to identify high spots and mark them up with a big circle around them, they apply compound to the lowest spot first. 
if for arguments sake you pour on a high spot you will raise the high spot, maybe only by 2mm but it will rise, so you add 2mm to the high spot and then need to add more to a low spot to compensate. 
so start in low spots and build up to just having the minimum over the high. 
as long as your compound doesn’t have a minimum thickness. 

[markc]

One of those exercise/pressure points knobbly rollers mounted on a threaded rod makes an excellent levelling roller and they wash clean really easily

 

Edited March 14, 2022 by markc