Before you start finishing the floor, you need to level the surface. For this, a screed is usually arranged. The performance of the outer coating will depend on the quality of these works. If mistakes are made during this process, they will make it difficult to install laminate, linoleum or carpet, reducing the service life of materials. But don't be discouraged: screeding is easy, so if you want, you can level the floor yourself, refusing the services of specialists and thereby saving money.
Screed alignment
You can level the floor with your own hands if the level difference is more than 5 cm. In order to correctly determine this value, you need to find the zero level using the building water level. This tool will allow you to measure points on the wall with a ledge from the floor of 1.5 m. The marks are connected in one line. After that, the distance from the line to the floor must be measured inmultiple points. The smallest distance will become the maximum height.
Several points should be marked along the bottom of the wall, which should be connected in one line. She will play the role of the edge of the screed. The minimum thickness of the mortar to be laid is 3 cm, the maximum value reaches 7 cm. When leveling the floor screed, the next step is to prepare the surface by removing dust with a vacuum cleaner. The material is primed and treated with a waterproofing solution. The priming procedure must then be repeated again. This will ensure better adhesion.
Installation of beacons and pouring
At the next stage, you can deal with beacons, they are responsible for evenness. They are metal guides in the shape of the letter T. They are fixed to a concrete base with adjustable screws or placed on a thick mortar lined with slides. Instead of a solution, you can use "Rotband". This is gypsum plaster.
Beacons are aligned to the building level and stretched cord. The first guide must be removed from the corner by 20 cm. The remaining guides are placed parallel to the first. A distance is maintained between the elements, which is 40 cm less than the length of the rule.
If you are deciding how to level a concrete floor, then you can use a mixture of sand and cement as a material. The brand of the latter should be equal to M-300. Instead, you can use ready-made dry mixes that are specifically designed for the screed device.
Whenwhen mixing the mortar, it is necessary to use a construction mixer. If you didn’t have it in your arsenal, then a special nozzle that fits on a drill will do. The solution is kneaded to the consistency of a thick dough. It should not have lumps. The laid composition should spread over the surface, but not spread.
How to level the floor in the apartment? This is one of the most common renovation questions. The next stage of the technology will be the pouring of the solution between the two beacons. The mixture is prepared for the entire area of the room and used within 1.5 hours. A portion of the composition is leveled using the rule, moving it towards you. You need to start work from the far corner, gradually moving towards the exit from the room.
It is better to arrange a coupler with an assistant. One master at the same time levels the mixture, while the second stirs an additional portion of the solution. When pouring, builders recommend piercing the sand-cement mortar with metal rods, which eliminates the formation of air voids in the thickness of the mixture. After you managed to level the floors in the house, you should leave the building mixture until it dries, which will take several days, then you can move on the surface. Complete drying, however, will not occur until after 3 weeks.
In order to prevent the formation of cracks on the screed, it must be covered with plastic wrap. Instead, even wetting can be done twice a day. The quality of the work performed can be checked by several criteria. First, the color should be uniform throughout the entire area of the room. In-secondly, the screed, when checked by the rule, should not form a gap. In extreme cases, it should not be more than 2 mm. Thirdly, the horizontal deviation should not be more than 0.2%. In order to visualize this value, we can give an example: in a 4 m room, the deviation is 8 mm or less. If you tap on the screed with a wooden block, then the sound should be the same. On the finished surface, you can mount the finished floor covering.
Using leveling compounds
If the level difference is small and does not exceed 3 cm, you can use a leveling compound. It spreads over the surface on its own. This explains its name. Another type of mixture requires human intervention. The master with a spatula must spread the composition on the floor manually. The leveling compound for the floor can be laid on a subfloor of different materials:
- gypsum;
- wood;
- concrete.
Finish can be:
- linoleum;
- PVC;
- carpet;
- ceramic tiles;
- cork.
Self-leveling dry mixes can be made with a cement base. They contain modifying additives that increase the fluidity and plasticity of the solution. Some compositions contain reinforcing fibrous additives that reduce the risk of crack development. After drying, self-leveling floors form a dense and durable layer.
If you plan to exploit the surfacewithout decking, it can be dusty and absorb oil and moisture. On sale there are thin-layer self-leveling mixtures that are intended for finishing. You can use compositions for rough leveling, and which are designed for floors with significant irregularities. The layer thickness in this case can vary from 30 to 40 mm.
In this case, a polypropylene tape is laid along the perimeter of the room, which relieves the stress created by the self-leveling floor. These mixtures have reduced fluidity, so it will not be possible to obtain a perfectly flat surface with their help. A thin layer finish is usually applied on top.
Preparation before pouring self-levelling compound
When deciding how to level the floor, you must choose the material. If it is a self-leveling mixture, then the base must first be prepared. It should not have cracks and dents through which the composition can leak. If such defects are present, they are eliminated with a rough screed or putty. The substrate must be well cleaned of old coatings such as varnishes, paints and pieces of old finishes. The final preparation process will be the primer. This step is one of the most important. It helps to ensure even distribution of the mixture and better grip.
Filling composition
After cooking, the mixture is poured onto the surface. Despite the fact that it is current, it still needs help to distribute. To improve adhesion to the base substrate andto prevent defects, it is necessary to walk over the leveled screed with a spiked roller. After the mixture has dried, you can lay the finish coat. The polymerization stage takes up to 2 weeks.
Using GVL
If you decide how to level the floor, you can decide to use GVL. This alignment is dry and clean. The work involves laying sheet material on a layer of expanded clay, which has thermal insulation properties. Instead, you can use another bulk material with similar qualities. When choosing this technology, you will get the advantages in the form of speed of work and the absence of debris, but in terms of quality, such a screed is inferior to monolithic concrete.
Before leveling the floor, you must lay waterproofing material on the cleaned surface. As it can act as a polyethylene film. Its thickness is 50 microns. The strips are laid with an overlap, the width of which is 20 cm. It is important to make an overlap on the walls of 10 cm. An edge tape made of porous material is laid along the perimeter of the room. It is positioned so that it is between the expanded clay layer and the film.
Beacons are not provided for in this technology, but some use them. This facilitates the leveling of the expanded clay layer and movement on the surface. The beacons are metal profiles, laid base down. They are leveled and fixed, and the void in the profile is filled with expanded clay. If you are interested in the subtleties of the question of howlevel the floor, then in the next step you must fill in a layer of expanded clay and level it with the beacons.
After you can proceed with the installation of gypsum fiber worms. They have edges along which it is possible to ensure alignment and fastening with cone-shaped self-tapping screws. PVA glue must be applied to the edges, which will ensure reliable adhesion of the sheets to each other. The part of the sheets that will face the wall should be devoid of edges, which will make it possible to lay the material in two layers. It is not recommended to move the canvases along the expanded clay layer during the installation process, so you should try to put them right in place. At the final stage, it is necessary to prime the joints between the sheets. Excess edging tape and film are cut to the level of the screed.
Leveling wood floors
The easiest way to level a wooden floor is to use a sanding machine. Instead, you can use a planer. You must use personal protective equipment. At the first stage, upholstered furniture is covered with polyethylene. With the help of a doboynik, you need to drown the nail heads in the boards. Fasteners should be below the floor level by a few millimeters. If the scraper blade hits such an obstacle, the equipment will fail.
Once all safety measures are in place to protect the machine, work can begin. You need to start from the far corner of the room, gradually moving towards the door. Having reached the opposite wall, you must turn 180 ˚ and continue moving. If you want toto decide for yourself the question of how to level the wooden floor under the laminate, then you can use the described technology. At the next stage, after the top layer is removed, it will be necessary to putty the cracks. For this, acrylic putty is used. It is important to choose it by shade. After the mixture dries, the floor is cycled again. In the process, you will certainly find that one or more boards are damaged, and this cannot be hidden. They need to be removed and nailed to the floor with the back side.
Leveling a wooden floor with plywood
This method can be used to correct small defects and when the floor level is not horizontal. In the first case, plywood is stuffed onto the floor surface. It must be laid in two layers so that the joints of the sheets do not match. Many home craftsmen are wondering how to level the floor with plywood. If you are also one of them, then at the first stage you will need to mark up the walls.
Next, beacons from self-tapping screws are exposed. The distance between them should be 300 mm. They are screwed into the floor so that the hats form a horizontal surface. Bars can act as a lag. They are fixed to the floor with glue. Now you can start laying plywood. The canvases are cut into identical squares. Then they are located on the guides with some offset. Before the final installation, the plywood is cut to size and attached to the logs with self-tapping screws.
Leveling a wooden floor with plywood without lag
One ofA common question among owners of private houses is one that sounds like this: "How to level a wooden floor?" To do this, you can use plywood, which has a thickness of up to 10 mm. If the draft surface is seriously deformed, then the thickness of the sheets can be increased to 20 mm. It is necessary to install bosses around the perimeter of the floor to form a 2 cm indent from the walls. Sheets are stacked with a gap of 3 mm to absorb movement.
When laying several rows, it is necessary to imitate brickwork. It is necessary to fix the sheet material to the crests of the boardwalk at the established points with the maximum height. The attachment points are evenly distributed, while focusing on the bulges identified as a result of measurements. Before leveling the wooden floor with plywood, you must drill holes for fasteners. First you need to use a drill, the size of which is equal to the diameter of the self-tapping screw. Then the hole in the upper part expands along the diameter of the cap. So you can completely drown the fasteners in the plywood sheet.
Dowels are installed along the perimeter of the web with a 2 cm offset from the edge. If you purchased sheets with one-sided roughness for subsequent laying of the final coating, then the sanded side must be turned up. This will improve the adhesion of the coating to the leveling layer. If you want to level the wooden floors under the laminate, and the rough surface has significant height differences of up to 8 cm, then you need to lay mini-logs. They are rails that are mounted with woodenlinings. This allows you to form a single support system.
Leveling with putty
One of the solutions for leveling the floor is putty. It is a composition of sawdust and glue. Wood chips have a fine fraction, which allows you to eliminate minor irregularities and defects, increase protection against noise, moisture and pests. You can prepare such a composition yourself. If you are wondering how to level the floor under linoleum, then you can also purchase a ready-made mixture in the form of dry putty. It is diluted before application, and the density should be the same as that of sour cream. The solution is applied to the polished surface and distributed over the cracks. The thickness of the layer should not be more than 2 cm. In order to maintain one floor height, you should check the level.
