I learned a lesson the hardway using floor leveler in my basement. Needless to say, the floor leveler didn’t take as even a path as I anticipated and I probably made the situation worse when I was trying to feather the edge and moved some around. Now I have a floor with a few humps in it that need further leveling out in a couple corners.
The flloor will be in a bathroom and hallway that provides access to the outside. The difference between the highs and lows is about 3/8″. Since I’m working solo on this project, I don’t want to go the floor level route again and was thinking of using
fairly dry 5:1 portland cement mixture. I figure this will be easier to do alone and provides more working time. My concern is with the thinkness of the portland cement. This will be going from 3/8″ to 0 over just a couple feet. Since there is no form around this, as there normally is when doing shower pans, I’m concerned I’ll end up with a weak mix that will just crack away. Thoughts? Suggestions welcome
Thanks in advance!
Andrew
Replies
Hey Sailr: Quikcrete makes a product that will do what you want. The product can be feathered out to about a 1/16". I used to use anchoring cement, same product used for setting anchor bolts. Look around. Portland cement and sand may not do the job. Best of Luck to you. Regards, Dale
Some tips on SLC:
1. It is expensive and you need a lot of it.
2. It is liquid, do not mix it thick.
3. Mix all you need in 5 minutes. Unless you are working on 100 square feet or less, SLC is not for you. It sets up in about 5 minutes.
4. Do not feather it or do much of anything to it, except pour it out and push it around for about 60 seconds.
Now on to your situation. For tile, I would still recommend SLC and some friends with buckets. My second choice would be a masonry tile patch, like custom's QuickFix or Mapei's Planipatch. It also sets up quickly, but if you have a set of aluminum straight edges, it will work fine.
Cement will have too much water in it, and will shrink and crack, especially when it is thin. I wouldn't use it at all.
If you had a bit more depth, mud would have been perfect. Long set up time, like hours; easy to work with alone; and you can use aluminum conduit for screeds, with a straight edge to strike it off.
Boris
"Sir, I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow" -- WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1927