Bitumen Floor Help Please.

[LeeJC]

Evening All

This ongoing project called a house has thrown up another curve ball. Whilst lifting the cracked tiles in the kitchen/bathroom area a large slab of bitumen came up with it, exposing the concrete subfloor. Now i am assuming this was the damp barrier, the thing is it's laid about 10-12mm thick and hasn't adhered to the concrete at all, i can slide a claw hammer under it and lift and watch the whole floor flex.

Now do i remove it all and replace it with bitumen again, and this time hope it keys properly or is there another substance which will level the floor and provide some damp proofing??

Cheers
Lee

 

[Symptoms]

Lee - is this bitumen smooth or is it like the road surface (tarmac with bits in it)? If it's tarmac it could be a job lot from a local road being laid years ago and plonked down on your floor to level it - it would also explain why it didn't stick to the concrete. If it is like this take it up.

If it's smooth (without bits in it) it is likely to be a product called synthaprufe, a liquid bitumen used as a adhesive and DPC. A good product if installed correctly but clearly failed in your house. Lift loose stuff then patch-in with new synthprufe, let it go off, then wash the whole lot with another layer of synthprufe.

 

[LeeJC]

Thanks for the response mate.

It's smooth surfaced so i'm assuming it's the latter, although whoever laid it didn't do the best job, it's been laid over concrete which i can understand but thought it would adhere to, and in the original kitchen area it's been laid over........................vinyl tiles

I'm going to cut it back to the threshold between kitchen/lounge and then look at replacing it with a new damp proofing system prior to tiling.

If anyone can think of a quicker/easier/cheaper/better way of doing this then it would be greatly appreciated.

Lee