Before you start finishing the floor, you must level the surface. For this, a screed is usually arranged. The performance of the external coating will depend on the quality of the performance of these works. If during this process mistakes are made, they will complicate the laying of the laminate, linoleum or carpet, reducing the operational life of the materials. But do not be discouraged: it is not difficult to lay the screed, so if you wish, you can level the floor yourself, refusing the services of specialists and thereby save money.
Screed alignment
It is possible to level the floor with your own hands if the level difference is more than 5 cm. In order to correctly determine this value, you must find the zero level using the building water level. This tool allows you to measure points on the wall with a step from the floor of 1.5 m. The marks are connected in one line. After this, the distance from the line to the floor must be measured at several points. The smallest distance will become the maximum height.
On the bottom of the wall, it is necessary to note several points that 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 surface should be prepared in the next step by removing dust with a vacuum cleaner. The material is primed and treated with a waterproofing solution. The primer procedure must then be repeated again. This will guarantee better adhesion.
Beacon Installation and Filling
At the next stage, you can do lighthouses, they are responsible for evenness. They are metal guides in the shape of the letter T. They are fixed to the concrete base with adjustable screws or placed on a thick mortar laid out by slides. Instead of the solution, you can use the "Rotband." This is gypsum plaster.
Lighthouses are aligned according to the building level and the stretched cord. The first guide must be moved away from the corner by 20 cm. The remaining guides are placed parallel to the first. Between the elements, a distance is maintained that is less than the length of the rule by 40 cm.
If you are deciding how to level the concrete floor, you can use a mixture of sand and cement as the material. The mark of the latter should be equal to M-300. Instead, you can use ready-made dry mixes that are specifically designed for screed devices.
When mixing the mortar, it is necessary to use a construction mixer. If it was not in your arsenal, then a special nozzle that fits on the drill is suitable. The solution is kneaded to a thick dough. It should not have lumps. The laid composition should spread out on the surface, but not spread.
How to level the floor in the apartment? This is one of the common issues when repairing. The next step in the technology will be the filling of the solution between the two beacons. The mixture is prepared for the entire area of ββthe room and is used for 1.5 hours. A portion of the composition is leveled using the rule, moving it toward you. You need to start work from a far corner, gradually moving towards the exit from the room.
It is better to arrange a coupler with the assistant. At the same time, one master evens 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 must leave the building mixture until it dries, which will take several days, then you can move around the surface. Full drying, however, will occur only after 3 weeks.
In order to exclude the formation of cracks on the screed, it must be covered with a plastic film. Instead, you can evenly wet twice a day. The quality of the work performed can be checked on several grounds. First, the color should be uniform throughout the room. Secondly, the screed should not form a gap when checking the rule. 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-meter room, the deviation is 8 mm or less. If you tap the screed with a wooden block, then the sound should be the same. On the finished surface, you can mount the finished flooring.
Using leveling mixes
If the level difference is small and does not exceed 3 cm, you can use a leveling mixture. It spreads on the surface on its own. This explains its name. Another variety of the mixture requires human intervention. The master with a spatula must smear the composition on the floor manually. The leveling mixture for the floor can be laid on a rough coating of different materials:
Finishing can be:
- linoleum;
- PVC
- carpet;
- ceramic tile;
- bung.
Self-leveling dry mixes can be made on a cement basis. They contain modifying additives that increase the fluidity and plasticity of the solution. Reinforcing fibrous additives are present in some formulations that reduce the risk of cracking. After drying, the self-leveling floors form a dense and durable layer.
If you plan to operate the surface without flooring, it can dust and absorb oil and moisture. On sale there are thin-layer self-leveling mixtures that are designed for finishing. You can use compounds for rough leveling, 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 foam tape is laid along the perimeter of the room, which relieves the stress created by the bulk floor. These mixtures have reduced fluidity, therefore, using them to obtain a perfectly smooth surface will not work. A thin layer finish is usually placed on top.
Preparation before pouring a self-leveling mixture
When deciding how to level the floor, you must choose the material. If a self-leveling mixture appears, then the base must first be prepared. It should not have cracks or dents through which the composition may leak. If such defects are present, they are eliminated with a rough screed or putty. The base 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 stage is one of the most important. It helps to ensure uniform distribution of the mixture and better adhesion to the surface.
Fill composition
After cooking, the mixture is poured onto the surface. Despite the fact that she is current, she still needs to help distribute. To increase adhesion to the base base and prevent defects, it is necessary to walk along the aligned screed with a needle roller. After the mixture has dried, you can lay the topcoat. The polymerization step takes up to 2 weeks.
Use of GVL
If you are deciding 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 expanded clay layer, which has heat-insulating properties. Instead, you can use other bulk material with similar qualities. When choosing this technology, you will get advantages in the form of speed of work and the absence of garbage, but the quality of such a screed is inferior to monolithic concrete.
Before leveling the floor, you must lay waterproofing material on the cleaned surface. A plastic film can act as it. Its thickness is 50 microns. The strips are laid with an overlap, the width of which is 20 cm. It is important to lap onto the walls of 10 cm. An edging 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.
Lighthouses in this technology are not provided, but some use them. This facilitates the alignment of expanded clay layer and movement on the surface. The beacons are metal profiles laid down with the base. They are aligned and fixed, and the void in the profile is filled with expanded clay. If you are interested in the intricacies of the question of how to level the floor, then in the next step you should fill up a layer of expanded clay and align it with beacons.
After you can proceed with the installation of plaster fiber worms. They have edges along which it is possible to ensure alignment and fastening with conical self-tapping screws. It is necessary to apply PVA glue to the edges, which will ensure reliable adhesion of the paintings to each other. The part of the sheets that will face the wall should be devoid of an edge, which will provide the possibility of laying the material in two layers. Moving the canvas over the expanded clay layer during installation is not recommended, so you should try to lay them immediately in place. At the final stage, you need to primer the joints between the sheets. Excess edge tape and film are cut at the level of the screed.
Wood floor leveling
The easiest way to level the wooden floor is to use a looping machine. Instead, you can use a planer. You must wear personal protective equipment. At the first stage, upholstered furniture is covered with polyethylene. With the help of a damper, you need to drown the heads of nails in the boards. Fasteners should be a few millimeters below floor level. If the blade of the cycling machine stumbles upon such an obstacle, the equipment will fail.
As soon as all safety measures to protect the machine are taken, you can begin to work. You need to start from the far corner of the room, gradually moving towards the door. When you reach the opposite wall, you must turn 180 Λ and continue driving. If you want to decide for yourself the question of how to level a wooden floor under a laminate, then you can use the described technology. In the next step, after the top layer has been removed, it will be necessary to fill the cracks. For this, acrylic putty is used. It is important to choose it by shade. After the mixture has dried, the floor cycles again. In the process, you will certainly find that one or more boards are damaged, and you cannot hide it. They need to be removed and nailed to the floor with the back side.
Aligning the wood floor with plywood
This method can be used to correct small defects in the case when the floor level is deviated from the horizontal. In the first case, plywood is packed on the floor surface. It must be laid in two layers so that the joints of the sheets do not coincide. Many home masters wonder how to level the floor with plywood. If you, too, are among them, then at the first stage it will be necessary to carry out marking on the walls.
Next, beacons from self-tapping screws are exhibited. The distance between them should be 300 mm. They are screwed into the floor so that the caps form a horizontal surface. Bars can act as a lag. They are fixed to the floor with glue. Now you can start laying plywood. Canvases are cut into equal squares. Then they are located on the rails with some offset. Before final installation, plywood is cut to size and attached to the logs with self-tapping screws.
Leveling a wooden floor with plywood without logs
One of the common questions that owners of private houses have is the following: "How to level the wooden floor?" For this you can use plywood, which has a thickness of up to 10 mm. If the rough surface is seriously deformed, then the thickness of the sheets can be increased to 20 mm. On the perimeter of the floor, it is necessary to install bosses to form a 2-cm indent from the walls. The sheets are stacked with a gap of 3 mm to absorb the movements.
When laying several rows, it is necessary to imitate brickwork. To the crests of the boardwalk at fixed points with a maximum height, it is necessary to fix the sheet material. Attachment points are distributed evenly, while focusing on the bulges identified as a result of measurements. Before leveling the wooden floor with plywood, you must drill holes for the fasteners. First you need to use a drill whose size is equal to the diameter of the screw. Then the hole in the upper part expands along the diameter of the cap. So fasteners you can completely drown in a plywood sheet.
The dowels are installed around the perimeter of the canvas with a deviation of 2 cm from the edge. If you purchased sheets with one-sided roughness for subsequent finishing coating, then the sanded side must be turned up. This will improve the adhesion of the coating with a leveling layer. If you want to align the wooden floors under the laminate, and the rough surface has significant differences in heights of up to 8 cm, then you need to lay mini-logs. They are slats that are mounted with wooden lining. This allows you to form a single system of supports.
Putty leveling
One of the solutions for leveling the floor is putty. It is a composition of sawdust and glue. Wood shavings have a fine fraction, which allows you to eliminate small irregularities and defects, increase protection against noise, moisture and pests. You can make such a composition yourself. If you are interested in how to level the floor under linoleum, then you can purchase the finished mixture in the form of a dry putty. It is diluted before application, and the density should be like 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, it is necessary to check the level.