Concrete Kitchen Floor - Please Help! :)

[markhi123]

Hi,

Please help. Struggling massively with this one!!

We would like to install an exposed concrete floor in our kitchen:

Scenario

• We have removed existing tiles to uncover a layer of bitumen on top of an existing concrete floor and on the other side of the room, there is a step down onto tiles.
• Our intention is to overlay this whole room with a concrete (or concrete type) floor. Which we can polish/customise to our taste (probably white and mid polish finish).

Questions

• Can we lay a concrete floor directly onto this surface? Very willing to customise mix or add additives etc. if needs be - as we have mixer.
• We only have approx. 40mm to make up to finished floor level in hallway from the top of the bitumen.
• Alternatively, could we use a screed/ardex?
  
• Photos attached.

Any wise words would be massively appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ree]

Your pics show two rooms connected by a knock-thro.
The outer room has tile on the floor, the inner room has herring bone pattern hardwood blocks.
Back in the day the hardwood would have been laid into bitumen.
People spill blood to discover such a floor still in apparent great shape.

Are you saying that you removed tiles from the hardwood floor?

Is your intention to remove all floor coverings down to the concrete sub-floors in both rooms?

You then propose to bring both the floors up to level?

Through the inner room doorway there is a hallway that had tiles laid in bitumen?
Is this hallway floor a solid concrete floor or a suspended floor?
You want this hallway to be brought level with the other two rooms?

Residential screeds are typically composed of semi-dry sand & cement or SLC.
There are micro screeds and types of thin "concrete" screed that can be polished but i believe that its a specialist job to do that kind of work - i dont know, i've never done it nor seen it done.

 

[markhi123]

Thanks you for you response! So kind!

The hardwood blocks were removed years ago and tiles/chipboard were laid directly onto the bitumen. We have just removed the tiles/chipboard to uncover bitumen only.

The hallway is a suspended timber floor and will 40mm higher than the bitumen when our floor covering is applied in the hall. We do have some flexibility here (are open to different hall floor finish options). So yes, we want the kitchen and hall to be level.

Our intention is to try and avoid ripping up all of the concrete in the kitchen and were hoping we could lay some sort of self-leveling concrete-type material that could be polished. And yes...follow through to the rear bit of the knock-thru (perhaps insulate this area to make up the thickness).

thanks again.

 

[ree]

The hall finished floor surface level must be determined - it will be your datum - if you want the other FFL's to finish level with it so that you have one surface flowing thro three rooms.

The bitumen is irrelevant, any good primer will take care of the concrete surfaces eg. SBR will prime and tack.

There's no "self-levelling concrete" that i know of. But many self levelling compounds will easily give a 40mm depth or more. But they cant be polished.
Polished or etched surfaces usually need thick depths of concrete or speciality products.

Note: every time a floor is raised, even a few mm, then much else in the room has to be raised by the same amount.