Hi,
I’m trying to convert an attached garage to a bedroom we live in NY. There is a heated basement underneath the concrete slab.
I’m thinking of installing engineered hardwood flooring. The concrete slab is 1.5 inch sloped down. I know my choice is to use self leveling compound to bring it to level. The ceiling height is only 95.5 inches not taking into consideration the ceiling Ill install so my high is limited.
Few questions:
1. If i dont level the floor would it be still comfortable to walk on?
2. any other choice to level the floor? Per my calculations it would Self leveling 20/30 50lbs bags.
Any advise?
Thanks,
Ben
Replies
You can walk around there now, How does it feel? That self leveling stuff is pretty expensive by the time you buy that much of it. It might be cheaper to pay a tile guy to "mud bed" it. That is using a very stiff (barely hydrated) sand mix concrete and using long screeds to make it level. It is a fairly simple process but it takes a while to get good at it. Clean the existing floor, I would acid wash it and paint on "link". You will end up with a great surface for your flooring. Just be sure to wait until all of the moisture comes out of the mud bed and you still may want a vapor barrier. Generally they do this for tile, where residual moisture is less of a problem.
I had a similar situation in a large bathroom in an old house. The floor dropped 1.5" across 10 feet. I decided to level it half way, that 3/4" drop wasn't very perceptible, where 1.5" definitely was.
I didn't want to pay $$$ for self leveling compound, so here's what I did: I put a 3/4 strip of wood across the low end. I came back 18" and did a 5/8". 18" more for a 1/2", and so on. These strips gave me "screed guides". I filled these with concrete sand mix (added latex fortifier) and screeded them flat. I put backer board on top of this, then tile - but you could also glue engineered floor to it as well. The cost is about 20% of self-leveling compound, and I think the same amount of work.