How to level a concrete floor screed for laminate flooring. How to level a laminate floor

A popular material for flooring is laminate. It is easy to assemble and can be installed without the involvement of specialists, which will save your budget. A wide range of color range will satisfy the most refined taste and wishes of the customer. The length of service life directly depends on literacy. Laminated boards bend under the weight of the load and the weight of people; if there are uneven surfaces underneath, moisture can penetrate into the cracks, which will lead to rapid wear of the coating. Therefore, one of the main requirements when laying flooring- it is smooth and flat surface floor, without cracks, pits, roughness, bulges, bends and kinks.

Need for leveling

The concrete floor under the laminate must be perfectly flat for the following reasons:

The presence of bulges and depressions on concrete surface may result in failure of the locking connections. If concrete floors are not leveled, this will lead to gaps at the joints and cracking of the laminate boards.
The concrete base has a high level of humidity, which is unacceptable for laminate flooring. Excess moisture enters from the screed through cracks in. To prevent this, you should prepare the concrete base immediately before laying the boards.
Laying laminate flooring is not possible on a skewed floor or concrete surface with potholes, unevenness and cracks. This will worsen the quality of installation and entail considerable consumption of building material. Laminate flooring laid on a deformed base will have a short service life.
Leveling a concrete floor can be carried out regardless of the quality of the base and the materials used for its construction using CBPB, plywood or self-leveling compounds.

Leveling the base with leveling compound

Before you begin leveling the concrete surface, it should be cleaned of dust and remnants of the previous coating, dirt and construction debris should be removed. Possible cracks and potholes are sealed with cement mortar and the prepared surface is treated with a primer, which will improve adhesion between the materials. Primers reduce the absorption of concrete mortar, which prevents cracking.

The use of leveling compound will allow you to level the floor quickly and easily. The mass is a dry mixture that should be diluted with water. Required proportions indicated on the back of the package. To give the mixture a homogeneous structure, you need to mix it with special nozzles for building mixtures. You need so much water that the consistency resembles thick sour cream, then laying will be done in a layer of small thickness. When working with floors that have a slope, you should use a thick mixture. This leveling compound will allow you to level the floor perfectly evenly. You need to stir the mixture until all the lumps disappear.

Self-leveling mixture

A self-leveling mixture for laminate flooring can be purchased at a hardware store; to prepare it, you need to dilute the finished dry mixture with water. The proportions are indicated on the back of the package. To make a self-leveling mass, you need to pour water into a clean bowl and gradually pour the dry mixture into it. The ingredients should be thoroughly mixed using a drill or a mixer attachment. Depending on the thickness of the screed, make the required consistency by pouring required quantity water. Stir the mixture until all lumps disappear and the color is uniform.

When the self-leveling mixture is ready, begin laying it. Start pouring the mixture with high level grounds. The mixture begins to spread on its own over the surface. To speed up spreading, use a wide spatula to spread the solution over the base. Next, level the mixture using a needle roller. When pouring a self-leveling mixture, you should ensure a monolithic coating of each poured portion. When pouring a new part, you need to use a spatula to connect it with the previous poured portion. The joints of the poured mixtures are carefully rolled out. The pouring process requires speed, otherwise the poured mixture will begin to dry out.

The self-leveling mortar sets quickly, but it will take several days to reach its maximum strength.

Monolithic screed

A monolithic screed under the laminate is used for large differences in height of the concrete base. Before starting construction work, the surface should be cleared of dust, dirt and construction debris. The monolithic screed begins with the installation of beacons and determining the level of the floor being constructed. The step between installed beacons should be 60-90 centimeters. The beacons are fastened using a solution of cement and sand. Beacons can be installed using long self-tapping screws, for this purpose on concrete covering make holes and drive dowels into them. Next, they begin pouring the concrete solution. To prepare concrete you will need:

three parts cement;
one part sand;
half part water.

As a filling, you can use ready-made dry mixtures, which are diluted with water in the required volume. All proportions are indicated on the packaging. The poured solution should be leveled with a rule and after hardening, the beacons should be removed. Beacons are removed after 24 hours. The resulting cracks are sealed with a new solution. After the solution has set, the surface should be rubbed and covered. plastic film. A layer of polyethylene will protect the poured surface from cracking, and sprinkling the laid concrete with water will help to avoid deformations. The concrete floor will reach its maximum strength characteristics after a month.

Many consumers are interested in how to level the floor under the laminate so that it meets the requirements of the manufacturers flooring material. The base to be leveled varies, so there is no clear answer. Next, you will learn how best to prepare various surfaces for subsequent laminate flooring.

What are the main requirements for the mounting surface?

Laminate is a piece of plates that are assembled into a continuous floor surface thanks to locking connections. The material is final, that is, it is not subject to further finishing. The peculiarity of the plates is their rigidity - they cannot take the shape of the base. If the base surface is not smooth enough, the structure of the material is subject to increased stress, which leads to premature wear and mechanical damage laminate during operation.

Irregularities in the base also affect the quality of the connection of the locks. The seams between the plates laid on uneven areas of the floor will diverge, and if there is significant curvature, the connecting devices will break. Hence the main requirement for the mounting surface - evenness . The permissible curvature of the floor base should not exceed 2 mm per linear meter in all areas of the room.

The laminate is laid on the substrate in a floating manner. This means that the floor covering is not rigidly fixed to the base, while there remains a deformation gap from the walls along the perimeter of the assembled layer. This circumstance explains another requirement for the base - horizontality. On inclined surface the coating will gradually “slide” to the lower wall and rest against the barrier, which will lead to the impossibility of thermal deformation of the plates and their gradual destruction.

In addition, the mounting surface must be strong and dry (the laminate delaminates and becomes unusable when high humidity). These foundation requirements dictate the choice possible ways preparation work surface for installation of this flooring material. Typically, rough bases for leveling under laminate are:

old concrete (cement-sand screeds);
floor slabs (in apartments and some private houses);
wooden flooring along the joists.

Screeds and floor slabs are of a similar nature, so the methods for their preparation are often identical. Let's consider what technologies are applicable to level them.

Screed from “wet” cement-sand mixtures - how to create?

Self-prepared cement-sand material or a solution of ready-packed mixtures (levelers) can be used as a material for leveling surfaces. Their method of application is approximately the same. It is more financially profitable to prepare the solution yourself, but it is inconvenient to do this in apartments of multi-storey buildings, where it is preferable to use packaged mixtures. Levelers are easier to lift to floors and mix the working solution (use a regular construction mixer or an appropriate drill attachment).

These materials are used for the manufacture of screeds with a curvature of the base relative to the horizontal from 1 to 8 cm. In order for the product to be manufactured to meet the requirements, before pouring the solution, guides (beacons) located in the same horizontal plane are installed, and after partial setting of the mixture, grinding is carried out, leveling out minor irregularities . The technology for installing screeds from these materials involves the following steps.

1. Preparation of the base surface, including cleaning of debris and dust, removal of exfoliated material.
2. Waterproofing the base, which consists of covering the base surface with dense polyethylene film or roll waterproofing materials.
3. Aligning the guides at the level of the intended surface of the floor base.
4. Filling the solution between the beacons and leveling it according to the level of the installed guides.
5. Removing the beacons (one day after pouring), filling the resulting depressions and grinding the entire surface.

It is intended to be used on a dry basis, so you need to wait until the “wet” screed dries. It is not necessary to wait 26-28 days for the cement to fully mature (crystallize), since the load on the prepared base is not critical.

Leveling with semi-dry solutions - what are the advantages?

Nowadays, semi-dry mixtures are increasingly used for screeding. Their difference from classical solutions is in the low percentage of solvent and the use of plasticizers that reduce the surface tension of water, which makes it easier to mix the components of the semi-dry solution and their better wetting.

The prepared mixture has a crumbly consistency and does not release free moisture. Thanks to this feature of the solution, there is no need for waterproofing measures. The second advantage is the almost unlimited thickness of the screed, which makes it possible to reduce the plane of the floors of all rooms to one horizontal level with significant initial differences in the levels of the floor slabs (typical for apartments in multi-storey buildings old building). The third positive feature is the ease of creating a flat surface that meets the requirements for laminate flooring.

How to level a laminate floor using semi-dry mixtures? The technology is simple and includes the following sequence of actions.

1. Preparing the base (the same as described for a regular screed).
2. Installation of beacons.
3. Preparation of the mixture (usually a special mixer is used, but a regular concrete mixer can also be used).
4. Layer-by-layer backfilling and compaction of semi-dry mortar so that the material ends up slightly higher than the guides.
5. Next, as a rule, remove the excess layer of the mixture that rises above the guides, and smooth the surface.

Semi-dry screed is much stronger than classic screed, does not shrink, and dries faster. Already on the 3-4th day with room temperature and above it is possible to lay the finishing floor covering. When leveling floors with sand-cement screeds of any type, it is necessary to install a damper tape around the perimeter of the walls, which would compensate for linear deformations of the base of the floor when the temperature changes.

Self-leveling materials - if there is curvature

If the floor slabs or previously made concrete screed have a slight curvature in horizontal projection(up to 3 cm), it is more advisable to use special leveling mixtures, which, during the process of pouring them, independently form a flat horizontal surface. These are so-called self-leveling solutions, although this material is often called self-leveling floors.

Dry ready-made mixtures are sold packaged in paper bags of 20 and 25 kilograms and involve preparing the working material by dissolving in water and mixing construction mixer. The solution, prepared according to the manufacturer’s recommendations (indicated on the packaging), is poured onto the concrete base, spread with a notched trowel, and then rolled with a needle roller. The last operation is necessary to remove air bubbles that reduce the strength of the material.

The use of self-leveling materials, despite their comparative high cost, is justified when leveling slight curvature of the base surface. After pouring, the solution quickly sets (1-2 hours) and dries (a day or two), which significantly reduces forced technological interruptions in repair work.

Dry methods for preparing the base - 2 options

These include flooring of various slabs according to established lags and dry screed according to technology Knauf. Both methods ensure the creation of a base surface that meets the requirements for subsequent laying of the laminate without the need to take a break to dry the material used. The first method involves installing wooden blocks with a certain pitch, depending on the nature and thickness of the material laid on top. The following are used as leveling boards: OSB, plywood, chipboard.

They prefer to use it under laminate OSB boards, meeting the requirements for surface quality in all respects, more affordable in terms of material costs and the most convenient to use. After installation, this material does not require additional processing, is resistant to microorganisms (rotting, mold) and durable. If it is necessary to insulate the floor between the joists, lay thermal insulation material. There will be no difficulties with laying pipe communications (sewage, water supply, heating).

A dry screed is a surface consisting of gypsum fiber boards fastened together, laid on a leveled bedding made of fine expanded clay. This solves two problems at once: creating a durable surface and insulating it (soundproofing). Installation is done as follows:

1. Removable metal guides are installed in accordance with the horizontal level.
2. In the intervals between the exposed plates, fill in expanded clay, lightly compact it and level the bedding according to the level of the beacons.
3. We take out the guides and fill in the resulting voids in accordance with the total area.
4. We lay special gypsum fiber boards equipped with interlocking joints on the formed bedding.
5. We connect the finished fragments to each other using locks.
6. Having covered the entire intended area with slabs, we additionally fix the seams with self-tapping screws.

As a result, a durable, smooth and insulated surface is quickly formed, suitable for laying laminate or other flooring. The disadvantage of dry screed is its lack of moisture resistance and comparative high cost.

Preparing a wooden floor for laying laminate flooring

The floor surface formed by boards installed along joists is not always suitable for laying laminate flooring even after preparation. In order not to waste effort and money on useless activities, you must immediately find out the condition of the starting wooden surface. To do this, take a spirit level () and a rule 2 m or more long. If significant curvature (depressions, convexities) or a large deviation from the horizontal plane is detected, it is better to abandon the idea of leveling the board surface as unpromising.

When the surface is generally flat, horizontal, and the boards are strong and not rotten (single problematic floorboards can be replaced), such wooden floor suitable for preparing it for subsequent laying of laminate flooring. How to level a wooden floor under a laminate so that it meets the requirements? There are two ways:

grinding (scraping) of the surface to achieve compliance with the required parameters;
leveling the floor by laying hard slabs of the same plywood or OSB over the surface.

The first method is very labor-intensive, but can be much cheaper if you carry out the scraping yourself, using a handy tool (hand scraper, plane). There is an option to rent a sanding machine. In this case, the floor will be leveled perfectly; the process will not take much time and effort, but you will have to pay for equipment rental. Leveling with boards is done quickly (cutting, laying, fixing to boards with self-tapping screws), but with the cost of purchasing them. After laying OSB or plywood, the surface is not ideal, but with allowances for the use of a thicker substrate, it is generally suitable.

If the plank floor is lost appearance and there is a desire to replace it with laminate, it is not at all necessary to undertake large-scale repairs. Dismantling the old coating is justified only in case of serious wear and tear and major damage, for example, many rotten or cracked boards. If the floor is still strong, it can well serve as a rough foundation; you just need to eliminate minor defects and properly prepare the surface. And now more about how to level a wooden floor under laminate and why to do it.

The laminate itself is relatively rigid and can withstand short-term loads without visible deformation, of course, within reasonable limits. But under the weight of a person or large furniture, the panels will definitely sag, and the longer the impact, the stronger the deformation. If pressed sharply, the laminate may even break if there is emptiness underneath.

If the unevenness is very small, the panels are unlikely to break, but they will not hold firmly either. First, the coating will begin to spring under your feet, then the locks will become loose, gaps will appear between the slats and an unpleasant creaking will appear. All this leads to rapid wear of the laminate, and very soon it will also have to be replaced. It is easy to avoid such problems - you just need to properly level the old floor.

Creaking of panels is the least of the problems that can happen when laying laminate flooring on an uneven floor.

We identify problem areas

First of all, you need to make sure the structure is strong. To do this, you should walk across the entire area, stepping on each floorboard.

The absence of deflections and strong creaks indicates the good condition of the floor, but if such defects are found, you need to try to find their cause. Perhaps the boards have simply dried out or the nails have become loose, which can be determined visually. Heavily damaged floorboards, that is, rotten, with wide longitudinal cracks gnawed by mice must be replaced with new boards.

Prices for Kronospan laminate

laminate Kronospan

Next, carefully dismantle the baseboards and one or two boards to assess the condition of the joists. It often happens that the flooring is in good condition, but the joists have already begun to rot or cracked, sagging under load. If such damage is detected, as well as a damp smell from the underground space, the flooring will definitely have to be removed and the damaged elements replaced. But if everything is in order, the boards can be put in place.

If necessary, the floor is stretched with self-tapping screws, strengthening problem areas, protruding nails are driven in, and rusted ones are replaced. The heads of the hardware must be deepened into the boards by 1-2 mm.

Now you need to determine the degree of unevenness of the floor, since the complexity of the work depends on this. In different places of the room, a level is placed on the floor and the height of the clearance is measured. At the same time, they check whether the floor has a slope, which will also have to be eliminated.

Alignment methods

So, having determined the degree of unevenness of the plank floor, you can easily choose the optimal method for leveling the surface. The greater the differences, the more time and effort it will take, but the result is worth it.

Floor condition	Method for eliminating irregularities
	It is enough to cover such small defects with a polymer or cork backing. The main condition is that the thickness of the substrate must correspond to the greatest difference. This material perfectly compensates for uneven floors and at the same time increases the sound and heat insulating properties of the laminate.
	It is best to repair the damage with wood putty or a homemade repair compound made from sawdust and PVA glue, and sand it after drying. Protruding areas can also be easily removed with sandpaper
	The best option is to scrape the floor. In order for the result to be of high quality, such processing is carried out after stretching the flooring, and not before it. In addition, the heads of the fasteners must be recessed into the boards by 3-4 mm, since the sanding machine removes the top layer of wood. The work requires some effort, but the result is a flat and smooth base.
	Here the best option The floor will be covered with sheets of plywood, chipboard, OSB or DSP using pads or narrow joists. These materials will provide a perfectly flat plane and completely cover all defects in the subfloor.
	This floor can be leveled using wet screed. The main condition is the device reliable waterproofing subfloor to avoid rotting of wooden elements. The method is labor-intensive, but allows you to perfectly equalize large differences and create solid foundation under laminate To reduce the load on the joists, it is better to prepare the solution with light fillers, for example, fiberglass

If there is significant deformation of the floorboards, severe wear and drying of the wood, these methods will not be effective. If such a floor is covered with plywood, this will not stop the destructive processes, and one day the base under the sheathing may fail.

Material requirements

When choosing materials, you must take into account the operating conditions of the floor and the type of room. For residential buildings and apartments should be selected environmentally clean materials with appropriate markings. This applies not only to the floor covering itself, but also repair trains, impregnations, as well as boards used for leveling - OSB, plywood, chipboard. You should not think that laminate will protect against harmful fumes: no matter how tightly the lamellas are laid, toxic substances will definitely find a way out, especially when the temperature in the room rises.

When choosing chipboard, OSB or plywood, be sure to pay attention to the emission class - in residential premises it is allowed to use materials of class E1, with lowest content formaldehyde. The higher the class, the more toxic resins there are in the slabs. Now you can find OSB with emission class E0 - in these boards the formaldehyde resin is replaced with a synthetic binder that is safe for health.

As for the thickness of the slabs, it all depends on the degree of load on the floor and the strength of the flooring itself. If the floor boards are thick and strong, and the load intensity is low, plywood or OSB 12-15 mm thick is suitable. For a walk-through room, it is better to take slabs 18 mm thick, and if the flooring is done directly on the logs, then it is recommended to use slabs 15-18 mm thick and lay them in two layers with bandaged joints.

Sealants, putties and leveling mixtures must be designed specifically for wooden surfaces. They have sufficient elasticity and do not crack when thermal expansion boards, which means the floor under the laminate will last longer. The same applies to protective impregnations: you need to use only those compounds that are suitable for treating wood indoors. When purchasing such products, carefully study the information on the packaging so as not to make a mistake.

How to level the floor with your own hands

Consider two options for leveling plank floors - using plywood and DSP. Both methods allow you to achieve an ideal plane, but at the same time they differ in the complexity of implementation and the duration of the work.

Leveling with plywood

This method makes it possible to eliminate large differences in the floor - up to several centimeters - without much effort. True, it is not suitable for rooms with heavy traffic and heavy loads on the floor, but for a bedroom, living room, or office, it is a completely acceptable option.

What you will need for work:

level;
screwdriver;
self-tapping screws 5x60 mm;
sheets of plywood 8 and 10 mm thick;
scraps of plywood, drywall, wooden planks for substrates;
jigsaw;
a circular saw;
tape measure and marker.

Step 1. First you need to determine the zero level and put markings on the walls. Most convenient to use laser level, but if you don’t have one, a water level will do. Along the markings on the walls you need to put dots every 25 cm - these will be beacons for laying the substrates.

Step 2. Blanks are cut from scraps of wood, plywood and other available materials. square shape for substrates. It is advisable to make them the same in size, but the thickness should be different, since the height differences at different points on the floor are also different. The more irregularities, the more blanks will be needed.

Advice. Instead of large quantity strong substrates can be used wooden slats of various thicknesses, which are filled in increments of 30-40 cm over the entire area of the subfloor. They act as lags for plywood and can effectively eliminate slopes of up to several centimeters.

Step 3. The floor is cleared of debris and dust and markings are made on the floor according to the beacons on the wall: stretch the cord between the marks on opposite walls and draw straight lines on the floor.

Step 4. The underlays are screwed along the lines to the floor in increments of 20-25 cm. First, the underlay is applied to the floor, checked against the zero level, then screwed in the center with a self-tapping screw. Having completed the row, a level is placed on top of the substrate and the plane is checked again.

Advice. In order not to check each element, you can screw the outermost substrates in a row and lay them on them metallic profile. After this, you just need to put the part against the profile to find out whether it is suitable in thickness or not.

Step 5. Having secured the substrates over the entire area, they begin to install the sheathing. The first sheet is laid from the corner of the far wall, leaving a gap of 10-15 mm around the perimeter. Check the horizontal position again by applying a level to the plywood in several places.

Step 6. Another sheet is laid nearby with a gap of a few millimeters at the joint, and the edges are adjusted. Be sure to check that there is no difference along the seam between the sheets.

Step 7 Screw the plywood to the floor. To ensure reliable fastening, the plywood must be screwed through the backings, but since they are located below and are not visible, it is necessary to mark the surface of the sheathing. The guideline for this is the rows of substrates not yet covered with plywood. Screws are screwed in along the marked lines at a distance of 25 cm from each other.

Step 8 The remaining sheets are cut and adjusted. Since in in this case The plywood is mounted in two layers; it is not necessary to move the joints in the rows - they will be covered with the top layer of material.

Step 9 The slabs of the second layer are laid so that the direction of the fibers is perpendicular to the fibers of the lower layer, and the intersections of the seams are completely overlapped. In addition, the plywood should be positioned so that the side cuts are strictly above the substrates. For accuracy of fixation, it is advisable to make the same markings as on the bottom layer. At the joints between the sheets, you can insert thin pieces of fiberboard to maintain uniform gaps.

Advice. Before screwing in the self-tapping screw, you need to drill holes in the plywood with a thin drill. This will allow the sheets to be securely pulled to the floor without damaging the fibers.

Step 10 Having completed the installation of the second layer, check the plane again with a level. You also need to make sure that all the screws are sufficiently recessed into the sheathing, otherwise the sharp protrusions will damage the laminate over time. Now all that remains is to clean the surface from dust and construction debris.

As a rule, such a floor does not require additional treatment. You can immediately lay a thin underlay and begin installing the floor covering. But some craftsmen recommend sealing the joints and recesses from the screw heads with putty.

DSP alignment

This is a more expensive and time-consuming method, although quite common. It is used in case of small differences or slope of the floor plane.

Step 1. Remove the baseboards and clear the floor of debris. Now you need to determine the location of the lag. They can usually be seen by the nail heads in the floor, arranged in rows across the decking, but if the nails are hidden under a thick layer of paint, you will have to do something differently. To do this, just remove one of the boards under the wall - the edges of the joists will be visible. If the flooring is parquet, you need to remove several of the outer boards, insert a screwdriver into the hole and run along the gap.

Step 2. They mark it on the floor surface where the joists go and stretch the boards with self-tapping screws. Self-tapping screws are screwed in every 10 cm to tighten the coating more tightly.

Step 3. In places of greatest differences, screw backings made from planks, scraps of plywood or Fibreboard suitable thickness.

Step 5. Having laid the first sheet, screw it around the perimeter in increments of 15 cm and in the center. Wood screws are used for fixation. The remaining sheets are mounted in the same way, laying them staggered.

Step 6. After installation of DSP the surface is thoroughly dusted, primed and, after waiting for the soil to dry, covered with a thin layer of leveling mixture. The mixture is rolled out using a needle roller. This layer will eliminate minor defects, such as indentations from screw heads and possible differences at the joints.

Step 7 The dried floor is primed again, and after a few hours they begin to lay the substrate under the laminate and the laminate itself.

Video - How to level a wooden floor under laminate

An impeccably leveled subfloor plane is the main condition for many years of impeccable service and aesthetic appeal of the laminate laid on top of it. Those who want to know how to level a laminate floor can receive several equally correct, technically sound answers. It all depends on the type of base and the preferred floor layout. Choice optimal technology in turn, is focused on the size of the budget, the limits of time consumption and labor costs.

Leveling is a mandatory preliminary stage of the full process of laying laminate flooring. If there are even minor defects on the base surface, the locks will become loose due to unevenly distributed load, annoying squeaking will become a concern, and over time the panel may crack. In order to prevent consequences, make the screed concrete or wooden base, on which laminate flooring is most often laid.

Methods for leveling a concrete base

A concrete subfloor is often a dismal testament to poor quality construction work. cement screed or slabs, the flat surface of which is the ceiling of the room below. Fundamentally, the choice of technology for leveling a cement base is focused on the condition of the base surface, which determines the amount of labor costs and the amount of financial costs.

If the leveling was done professionally, but managed to last a couple of decades, the destruction of the upper cement layer of the intensively loaded floor plane still occurred.

Grinding as the simplest leveling method

Minor differences in surface level can be eliminated by grinding. To process a large room, you can order the services of workers from a repair organization who perform this type alignment using specific grinding machines. You can simply rent equipment from the same organization. It is enough to bring a screed that is not too damaged in a small nursery or in a home office to the required performance by sanding it with sandpaper.

The polished surface is first coated with a primer that forms strong crystalline compounds in top layer bases. However, often grinding work finish by pouring the self-leveling mixture.

Pouring self-leveling mixture

A not too cheap, but quite efficient method is used to level a cement floor with relief differences of up to 0.5 cm.

If multi-stage pouring of a self-leveling screed is not planned, it is not necessary to mark the level and set beacons. But to indicate the height of the screed, it is recommended to determine the highest point of the floor using a laser device or level gauge and make marks on the walls up to which the mixture will need to be poured.
Before pouring, the base surface is primed and a layer of waterproofing is applied to it.
The self-leveling mixture, prepared in strict accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, is poured into a small strip and leveled with a spatula.

Note. It is better to prepare the mixture in small portions, since 15 minutes after preparation it loses its plasticity and begins to harden. Batch preparation and sequential processing of areas will eliminate the possibility of wasted material consumption.

After applying the screed to the entire surface of the base floor, you should take a technological break, giving it time to completely cure. It is 3 or more days. Polymerization of the mixture must take place without drafts or temperature fluctuations; heating devices and forced ventilation devices must not be turned on.

Traditional screed made of sand and cement

A cement-sand mixture for leveling is used if significant differences are detected. To do this, use factory-made dry compounds or a homemade mixture of 1 part cement, 3 equal parts sand and water, the amount of which allows you to obtain a consistency similar to thick sour cream.

Level marks are placed on the walls, determined by laser device or a simple level gauge.
Lighthouse guide rails are installed on a clean, dry floor.
The screed is placed between the guides, then the solution is leveled using a rule or a special transverse lath.
After a couple of hours, the surface is additionally rubbed with a wooden trowel.
A day later, the lighthouse slats are dismantled and the remaining holes are sealed with a solution similar to the screed, flush with the leveled surface.

The cement-sand leveling layer will gain maximum strength only 28 days after completion of the work. During this period, the screed must be moistened twice a day, protected from drafts and covered with polyethylene. However, long labor-intensive process relatively inexpensive.

Main trump cards cement-sand screed- porosity of the structure, which provides excellent sound and heat insulation, minimal shrinkage due to a limited amount of water and the availability of manufacturing materials. And how to make such a screed with your own hands and technologically correctly, we will tell you in the material:.

Laminate can be laid on a screed if its humidity is not higher than the limit of 5%. If the humidity does not meet these conditions, lay a layer of waterproofing and lay a cork backing.

Dry screed with gypsum fiber board, plasterboard sheets, chipboard, plywood

To level a cement floor using the dry screed method, logs are installed, that is, they construct a structure from timber to which they are attached. gypsum fiber sheets, plywood, particle boards and similar material:

Markers of the planned floor level are set.
A waterproofing layer is laid on the rough surface.
A floor system is being constructed on joists; the rules for its installation are described in the corresponding article.
The logs, pre-aligned horizontally by placing wood chips and trimming off the excess, are attached to base floor dowels or anchors.
One or several layers of material selected for the installation of a dry screed are laid on top of the logs. The sheets and panels are fastened with self-tapping screws.

Note. Factory-ready systems with control devices will help simplify and speed up the construction of floors on joists.

The technology is applicable if the height of the ceilings allows it to be reduced by 10 cm or more. The advantage of the technology is the ability to lay laminate flooring immediately after completion of the work.

Leveling a wood floor

A wooden floor with noticeable defects and gaps must be disassembled, damaged elements replaced, loose boards firmly nailed, driving the fastener heads deeply into the material. After which you can:

build a dry screed along the joists by analogy with the method described above, using a vapor barrier material instead of a waterproofing layer;
lay plywood, gypsum plasterboard, plasterboard sheets directly on the wooden floor;
sand the wooden floor.

How to level a floor with plywood is described on our website:. Step-by-step instruction performance of work.

Information about floor leveling methods will help you decide on the priority screed technology. The owner himself is free to decide what is more profitable for him: reducing costs, minimizing labor costs or increasing the pace of repairs. Knowing the advantages of each leveling method guarantees a competent choice of the most appropriate option.

How to level a concrete floor screed for laminate flooring. How to level a laminate floor - an overview of the best methods