Engineered wood flooring, bitumen and wonky kitchen floor...

I see there are a few wood flooring experts on here so I thought I would pick your brains before i start work.

I have some Atkinson & Kirby Diamond Range Multi Layer Walnut flooring (link) which I intend to lay in the kitchen and hall way. I intend to lay this over the concrete floor with an underlay something very similar to link

The floor is currently covered with brittle vinyl style (marley?) tiles. These pop up quite easily leaving the nasty black bitumen adhesive behind. The floor needs levelling as the corners dip down by up to about 10mm.

I have popped a couple of tiles off and had a go at removing the nasty stuff before I came in search of help:



On the left is an attempt with a chiesel, in the middle was some white spirit and on the right was nothing at all... Heres a close up of the stuff...



Whats the best way to treat this stuff? There seem to be a whole host of recommendations out there from screeding over after priming to its got to be removed with a pointy tool and a load of elbow grease. After the small area I had a go at I'm not fancying scraping 15m2 off manually!

So I suppose my questions are:
1. Does it look too thick to prime and then screed over?
2. If I have to remove it by shot blasting the floor what type of "grit" would I use in the blaster?
3. What type of levelling compound is best to use? I spoke to Sika and then recommended using their latex levelling after removing the bitumen i'm assuming this is bad advice after the negative comments about latex compounds on here.
4. Have I chosen the correct underlay?
5. Is Atkinson & Kirby a reasonable make?
6. When laying in a kitchen am I taking the correct method of putting the flooring down first over the whole area and then installing the units on top?
7. I have found a couple of versions of there installation instructions, one mentions gluing the top edge of the groove over its entire length and one mentions gluing 100mm lengths every 600mm? Any advice on which is the best / correct?

Sorry for all the questions I just want to do a decent job!

So far the advice from various tech depts has been:

Sika: Scrape up the bitumen then use single part Sika Latex Levelling compound no primer.

Ardex: Clean the bitumen, level straight over with Arditex NA 2 part Latex Levelling compound no primer.

I was quite suprised by the no priming statements judging by what I have read so far...

Everbuild: Prime bitumen with SBR then EVERBUILD 708 SELF LEVELLING FLOOR COMPOUND with latex additive over whilst still tacky.

F-BALL: Remove all bitumen prime with P131 and then level with stopgap300

I'm now leanign towards shot blasting the floor. Can this be done with a hand held attachement for an air compressor?

I'll be in a similar situation to you in the near future.... my 60's built bungalow has Marley tiles stuck down to all the floors throughout the whole property. Bear in mind if your place is of a similar build construction to mine, this is your damp proofing as well! So any levelling compound you lay will / may have to include a liquid damp proof layer as well.

Job pretty much done.

A day with a 4" grinder and one of these:

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/53986...auer-Double-Headed-Diamond-Grinding-Cup-100mm

Removed the black stuff and created more dust that I ever realised possible!

Then 3 bags of sealocrete sealoflor standard and I have a level floor just waiting a while to ensure the compound if fully dry so i can finish off!

i was away on holiday when you first posted so first time i have seen this!

You can use latex 'if' it is a good brand with good shear strength. However it will not flow very well and there are very few that are strong enough so i always advice not using it.


You should shot blast the floor first to remove the old adhesive.

Looking at the pics tho i would use F-ball 131 primer and then 200 acrylic compound over the top. Its not a recommened method but it will work.

Cheers mattysupra

I managed to grind the black nastyness off rather than shot blasting then I used a waterbased compound. Getting it smooth was easy but getting it flat and level took a little more time!

I'm nervous now about having the wood floor in the kitchen due to ware and water etc but I guess I will have to see how it goes.

Would you recommend going wall to wall with the floor under the cupboards or having it so it just slides under the plinth?

just under the plinth. If you was to damage the floor or turns out you dont like the flooring, you dont want to be removing your kitchen units to replace it.

mattysupra said:

i was away on holiday when you first posted so first time i have seen this!

You can use latex 'if' it is a good brand with good shear strength. However it will not flow very well and there are very few that are strong enough so i always advice not using it.


You should shot blast the floor first to remove the old adhesive.

Looking at the pics tho i would use F-ball 131 primer and then 200 acrylic compound over the top. Its not a recommened method but it will work.

Click to expand...

Sorry to high jack this but am new here i am in a similar position although floor is slightly uneven, but not too bad.

So if i understand correctly i could use F ball 131 primer then if required i could use a good SLC to get a good base to lay new floor on?