Do you need to consider floor levelling ?

Well the answer is not all that complicated, it all depends on the Product and what you want the finished job to look like.

When looking at Hard floorcovering finishes, the flatter/smoother the sub-floor finish the longer it will service your needs and the appearance of your job will serve you well for many years to come.

Floor levelling under Carpet:

The sub-floor under carpet need not be as perfect as that required under a Hard floorcovering as in a Comcork, Vinyl or other hard finished products that are adhered to or take on the shape of your sub-floor.

Floor preparations:

As an example, lets say you are going to install a smooth finish vinyl floorcovering and you may think that you have a reasonably level looking concrete/sub-floor, the first thing you need to understand is, if have any windows or bright lights that casts light across that area, a slight imperfection will be far more visible once your product is installed, especially if you are going to seal a product like Marmoleum with an anti-slip wet-look finish or any smooth finished Vinyl for that matter.

Priming the sub-floors:

It is very important to use the correct primer when installing cement levelling compounds.

These are the three main sub-floor types;

1/ A very porous concrete/cement sub-floor, will need to apply two coats of Ardex-51 primer, the first coat should be a 1:3 mixture with water and applied with a fine bristle broom & allowing 3 hours to fully dry, followed with a 1:1 mixture & allowed to dry again, this will leave the a gloss atop the concrete. Priming & sealing this floor correctly will do 3 things: 1) Give you a water proof barrier, 2) Stop the moisture in your levelling compound being absorbed to rapidly causing air bubbling, 3) Gives the levelling compound a strong surface to bind to. NB: If bubbling accurse then you may have to re-coat over these mini craters and bubbles with a feather finish product. 2/ If the surface you want to level is sound, smooth & non porous (eg. Terrazzo or over old ceramic tiles), then you will need a Neoprene primer applied first, this will give the levelling compound a surface to bond to, you must not walk on the Neoprene surface until it has dried correctly (Prior to spreading the cement levelling compounds). 3/ If the surface you want to level is, Mastic asphalt, badly sanded old mastic asphalt floors or Wooden particle board, you will need to use Ardex-82 primer, depending on how stable the sub-floor is you may need to install an underlayment or mesh or fibreglass matting over the area and take particular attention to any flooring cracks or joins.

Repairing, Ramping and Levelling floors:

We have repaired, ramped and leveled floors from one metre holes in the ground to floating and constantly moving boats with Steel and Aluminium buckled decking (Aluminium/Steel levelling compounds required abnormal amounts of flexibility after the product has set).

The average levelling thickness would be from 3~5mm and tapered off to a feather edge finish. Another common use is to take out, hair line cracks in old sub-floors and the old glue/trowel marks left from 50 year old floorcoverings, this is only done when installing a Hard floorcoverings. NB: It is HIGHLY recommended to priming the surface BEFORE and AFTER the installation of ANY levelling compounds, as the Final prime will Slowdown/stop the glues/adhesives setting to fast, especially in hot weather, thus enabling the installer enough time to roll/bubble board out the fresh glue so as not to dry in ridges causing "Trowel marks".

Levelling Compounds:

Their are a multitude of repair and levelling products on the market today, not all of them live up to the claims or the expectations of the manufacturers or users, we have found this out from trail and error and know that "oils Ain't oils" ...Sometimes we don't get it right the first time !!!

Two products that stand out above the rest that, Level, Ramp or Repair floors are, VIBRO and MAPEI, their are other ones such as Durafloor, Hardman etc, but their markets are aimed at narrow and specific environments. ... Click here to, ADD your AUSTRALIAN company's Products. Vibro products are now manufactured in Sydney and are distributed by Floorcovering Trade outlets but more commonly by "Bunnings" and other leading hardware stores. Mapei on the other hand is not as easily found as they are manufactured in QLD and sold mainly to Floorcovering trade outlets.

Costing:

All said and done, how much will it cost you to correctly prepared/repair your sub-floor, well it may be as little as $1 per square metre up to as much as $57 per square metre for specially developed flexible epoxy levelling compounds to go over flexible Aluminium or steel substrate, it really just depends on the particular project you have. If you have any questions about, floor levelling, preparation, ramping or repairs, simply click on this link to get a free, NO obligation quotation , please ONLY use this special enquiry form. Using this form will save us both precious time as it asks most of the relevant questions relating to the type of sub-floor and flooring problems we have encountered in our 25+yrs in the industry. We have left enough space at the bottom of the form for any specific questions you may have.