Bricks, Masonry, Asphalt and Concrete - Leveling concrete floor
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michaeljp86
03-09-07, 04:01 PM
I have a concrete floor in a house and its far from flat, does anyone have a good idea on how to smooth it out without putting 4" of concrete ontop of it?
thezster
03-09-07, 05:08 PM
Depends on how bad it is out of level and how much. I had a 4X4 section of my basement that was a good inch out of level... A bag of self leveling floor patch worked wonders... and the new tile on top of it looks perfect.
michaeljp86
03-09-07, 08:55 PM
Its about a 12'x12' room, and its bad. The bozo who pored the floor obveosly didnt know what he was doing. If it was slanting one way it wouldnt be to bad but theres dips and lumb and hills, pick a spot and 12" over its 2in higher or 1in lower.
Pecos
03-10-07, 06:08 AM
If it's only a 12 x 12 area, what does the rest of the floor look like? Or is this a completely seperate pour from any other?
If it's as bad as you say, don't even consider pouring a self-levelling overlay like Ardex or Mapei on it. The material costs would be astronomical. You say you don't want to put 4 inches on top. What are your reasons as to why not?
A thinner layer (about 2 inches) is usually do-able, but if your floor has 1 or 2 inch humps in it, there would not be enough coverage over those humps.
Grinding the humps down would not only be a tremendous P.I.T.A., but would create an incredible amount of dust. Then your floor would also have grinder swirl marks and aggregate showing everywhere. You'd probably never get it very flat going that route anyway.
The only other viable solution is to get a jackhammer, take the slab out, and have it redone professionally. A 12 x 12 shouldn't be all that expensive, especially if you did the demo work yourself. If you haven't worked much with concrete in the past, any attempt at a DIY concrete slab pour could come out worse than the original.
If it's as bad as you say, don't even consider pouring a self-levelling overlay like Ardex or Mapei on it. The material costs would be astronomical. You say you don't want to put 4 inches on top. What are your reasons as to why not?
A thinner layer (about 2 inches) is usually do-able, but if your floor has 1 or 2 inch humps in it, there would not be enough coverage over those humps.
Grinding the humps down would not only be a tremendous P.I.T.A., but would create an incredible amount of dust. Then your floor would also have grinder swirl marks and aggregate showing everywhere. You'd probably never get it very flat going that route anyway.
The only other viable solution is to get a jackhammer, take the slab out, and have it redone professionally. A 12 x 12 shouldn't be all that expensive, especially if you did the demo work yourself. If you haven't worked much with concrete in the past, any attempt at a DIY concrete slab pour could come out worse than the original.
Pecos
03-10-07, 06:43 AM
On that last post, I was assuming that this is in your basement. If not, then I can certainly see why you wouldn't want to add significantly to the floor height.
Here's a question that needs to be answered to give you decent advice: What do you plan to do with the floor after it is leveled? Carpet, tile, stain, etc.?
If it's on the main level of your home, I would suggest a rented concrete planer to take off the humps and to somewhat level the floor,then go over it all with the self-leveling overlay (Ardex or Mapei). However, I can tell you that this would certainly cost a lot more than simply tearing it out and re-pouring. Is this relatively new construction? If so, what does the builder say about it?
Here's a question that needs to be answered to give you decent advice: What do you plan to do with the floor after it is leveled? Carpet, tile, stain, etc.?
If it's on the main level of your home, I would suggest a rented concrete planer to take off the humps and to somewhat level the floor,then go over it all with the self-leveling overlay (Ardex or Mapei). However, I can tell you that this would certainly cost a lot more than simply tearing it out and re-pouring. Is this relatively new construction? If so, what does the builder say about it?
michaeljp86
03-10-07, 11:03 AM
Pecos, you hit it right on the head, the cost of floor leveler would be around $400. Its in a house and is the kitchen floor so I cant raise it up alot or youll have to step up or down. Im think pulling it up may be easy, I think whoever did this didnt have a clue what he was doing do there may only be 2" of concrete there. My dad got this house cheep at a auction to make it into a rental house. I think it was about 30yrs ago someone turned it from a garage into a house. He said a rental house needs a concrete floor and concrete walls. I never wanted cement floor or walls because you cant work on anything, I guess I was right.