We poured a gypcrete sub-floor and experienced some difficulty with the consistency of the product. Most of the pour went well with the product self leveling as expected but in some sections the gypcrete was too thick and it cured creating an uneven floor. We plan to put engineered hardwood over it and need it to be flat. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to grind/sand it flat?
Edited 10/1/2007 6:35 pm ET by Mark Henry
Replies
Just curious, as I have about 600SF of gyp needed shortly: did you mix and pour this yourself or did you have a sub do it?
We did it our selves - no contractor in my area. I would recommend getting a contractor if you plan to put finished flooring over it. There is a learning curve and the consequences of an uneven floor means quite a bit of extra work after the pour.<!----><!----><!---->
I have some vague memories of pouring a big commercial kitchen floor with that stuff and having to sand it level. I believe that we rented a floor polisher and used some of the rougher cleaning discs to knock down the high spots.
I know that's not much of an answer but it's been many years and I wasn't directly involved in the re-leveling.
Of course you could try a belt sander/floor sander but that would be harder to control. I would tend to dig in quickly.
That's gonna be a helluva mess, I'm sorry to say. When you get beneath the surface, the texture changes fast and is rougher and awfully dusty. Getting the floor even, without creating new hills and valleys will be terribly difficult. I'd at least look into the viability of pouring a 1" leveling layer of gypcrete over the current floor rather than grinding it down. I do not know if that would work--contact the manufacturer--but I'm certain that leveling an uneven gypcrete floor will be a big mess.
Alternatively, look at a product like Maxxon's Level-Right FS-10, which can fill "duck ponds" up to 3/8" thick. http://www.maxxon.ca/product_detail.asp?ID=6
Bottom line, call the manuf.
I had to grind down a few high spots on my own floor prior to nailing the wood finished floor. (I used 2x4 sleepers with the gyp in-between them.) This was a very messy/dusty operation. I used my flooring guy's old edge sander and very course discs. Even with a vac pick-up it wasn't any fun.
I would think that a flooring guy who is very good with a floor sander could do some leveling work that would suffice. But the problem would be finding such an individual who is willing to subject his very expensive floor sander to that kind of punishment.
I'd opt for some self leveling concrete with moderate grinding of the higest points.