self levelling compound

creekside · Wed Jul 27, 2011 5:49 am

I'm about ready to pour self levelling compound down the whole length of my trailer on one side only for the width of maybe two to three feet from the wall out. I've watch youtubes and asked friends whether it really does level itself and I seem to get conflicting views. I get prompts on spreading it with a trowel (which to me is indicative of non spreading) to laughter as to why spread it when it is self levelling. I am thinking about as to whether it caterpillars or not (friction on the leading edge of the spread resisting laying down flat and standing round). May i have the skinny on this? Can I sand the "oops" parts after?

JD · Wed Jul 27, 2011 12:03 pm

I do not use self-leveling compound, but I have seen my flooring subs use it twice (not on a mobile home). I did talk with them about it. Both jobs I saw were full pours over entire floors. I could see where doing a partial floor could be difficult From what I could see, the hardest part is pouring the right amount of compound, all at one time.

They did use a floor squeegee type thing to spread the compound out and you could trowel the edge if it humps up from the pour. As the squeegee, the trowel and even their feet went through the wet compound, the stuff would self-level immediately. But there is a point where you need leave it alone. I would imagine that you could put a feather edge on the dried compound with regular flooring compound.

Flooring compound can be sanded to remove irregularities, but this should be done with full on dust containment procedures, personal protection and clean up. You don't want to breathe silica dust or spread it around the house where kids and other people can breathe it.

HouseMedic · Wed Jul 27, 2011 6:17 pm

For starters, What is making the floor tilt? Is there too much weight on that side? Are your outriggers underneath OK? As JD said you can feather the edge of the compound with 80 to 100 grit sanding block if it does not come out to good at the edge. How much do you have to come up to be level?

Ron

creekside · Thu Jul 28, 2011 5:35 am

Well Ron, I do not know what made it tilt....from having crawled under, I spotted many a hole big enough for raccoons and skunks and what not. Not having proper drainage either, I am sure holes and water collapsing them did not help the tilt. The trailer was sitter an inch up from the supports. The critters left when the water and food supply disappeared for several months. I filled the holes as best I could, fixed the supports, the directors are dealing with run off and the floor is maybe one half inch lower the whole side. It's a woulda coulda shoulda time which is not unusual.

creekside · Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:56 am

Does the self levelling compound wick up into my drywall as it is sitting 1/4" above the floor. do I need to protect the drywall somehow first?

HouseMedic · Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:34 am

By the way that you are describing the bottom of the home I would say that you should have a professional look into what is going on. If the home is not in contact with it's supports there may be some major problem that will not go away just by leveling the floor with the compound. As for the drywall, Most drywall jobs do not go all the way to the floor. That is where baseboard trim comes in. If you do still use the leveling compound it should not bother the drywall much because it usually dries pretty quick. But like I stated above. I think I would have someone check it out. both for piece of mind and safety.

Ron

flcruising · Thu Jul 28, 2011 2:29 pm

Sounds like you need a re-level before doing any floor topping.

mdnagel · Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:37 pm

Just to add some notes in case someone else is looking for such information (assuming that leveling compound is in fact determined to be the correct solution).

I didn't use self-leveling compound. And, yes, had to screed, a LOT!

What I learned from my experience (assuming home is level, that it's just a floor issue, like mine was):

1) Mask off along the bottom of walls, as this makes it easier to just slop around w/o fear of getting the compound all over the walls (I have some nice Rorschach pics on some walls

) I used the cardboard from the boxes that the laminate flooring came in.

2) Don't mix more than about 15 to 20 lbs; and have everything ready and staged before you mix!

3) Heavy grit sandpaper (40 grit?), on a belt sander, DOES work really well (vacuum attached to sander & wear a mask)- I didn't learn this until I was nearly done with the pours, thinking that no way would sandpaper work on concrete! Yeah, blisters on my hands from chiseling out high points of the material.

4) Hire someone else to do it!

(took a bit of recovery time- my knees were killing me)

Oh, and, if you have the time and money, replace particle board "sub" flooring. I shudder to think that this stuff still lives under my flooring, waiting to puke at the first sign of moisture...

JD · Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:43 am

Yeah, that concrete dust is not good for you. That is why I like to lay my subfloor flat and even at the edges and just use a small amount of regular floor compound on the edges, nails and imperfections. I trowel it down thin until I am scraping wood. Almost all of my "sanding" will be just scraping with a putty knife. Sort of shaving off the ridges from the trowel. You will see the wet concrete look lighten in color when just becoming dry. That is the time to hit it with the putty knife. It scrapes super easy. Wait 30 more minutes or more, and you will need to sand it, creating dust.