DPM + Primer + Adhesive?

[redwellies]

Dear all,

Some advice would be greatly appreciated.
We're trying to install a solid oak floor in our house... well, our carpenter is! We were sold Mapeproof ESM (http://www.mapei.it/Referenze/Multimedia/2912_mapeproof%20esm_uk.pdf) as a DPM and told that we needed 2 coats of that and then could put on the ultrabond p990 1k that we were sold.

The advice from the Mapeproof ESM says that we need to have an primer as well - either Mapeprim SP or Eco Prim T!

Two questions then

1) Do we need this primer as well? (would it all be a disaster if we didn't have it?)
2) Which of these two products do we need?

Am pretty annoyed, as there was never ANY mention of this requirement - we were always told that you painted on the this DPM (or so we were lead to believe) and then the adhesive! The company doesn't even advertise any primer on its website, which seems utterly bizare. We went and visited them and NOTHING of this nature was ever mentioned.

Any advice? I'm baffled!

 

[mattysupra]

follow the instructions! How come your floor fitter does not know what to do? Bit worrying!

Also i think you need to put down a levelling compound on top of the Dpm, thats what the primer is for! I dont use mapie stuff so dont know all there codes etc. Some adhesives can go straight onto epoxy but i dont know about the mapie stuff.

 

[redwellies]

It gets better!

Mapei say we need either Mapeprim SP or Eco Prim T

Flooring supplier (who sold us the adhesives etc) now says that we don't need either of those, but we do need a latex barrier to put between the DPM and the Adhesive. He's even willing to put it into an email so that I have it in writing.

So who do I go with? Manufacturer or supplier?

Why is life never simple?

 

[mattysupra]

no offence but you must be daft to pick what a supplier says over the manufactorier!

Anyway, you always need to prime a epoxy dpm before you lay a smoothing compound unless its been loaded with sharp grit. Normally its a two part primer or a neoprime ( i dont use mapie for certain reasons so i dont know what there codes/names are)

I would not use a latex but a acrylic or water based compound due to weak shear strentgh. However there are 1 or 2 latex's out there which have improved in the last year.

 

[redwellies]

So we've put on the painted DPM, do I need a leveler, then a primer, then an adhesive?

To be honest, I didn't realise it was that complicated. I thought that the supplier would sell me what I needed and that it would be fairly straight forward, but I seem to get different advice from everybody I ask!

The concrete floor is flat and smooth (its only 3 years old), so does this remove the need for a leveling compound and thus leave the need only for a primer? Why do we need a smoothing compund over an already smooth floor?

Many thanks (for you patience as much as your advice for this terribly confused teacher....now I know how my students feel!)

 

[mattysupra]

dpm, then PRIMER! Then smoothing compound! The dpm stops the moister from your concrete slab, the primer gives a key for the smoothing compound, the smoothing compound gives a base for your adhesive! And it is also very rare you will have a smooth and flat base left by the builder unless they have smoothed over it with a smoothing compound! However this would of needed to be removed before you applied your dpm. Check the level with a 1-2 meter rule. Should only be 1-2 mm run out over a meter.

I take it that the concrete had the moister content tested before you applied the dpm to check it was low enough for the product your using? 3 weeks sounds very boarder line!

 

[redwellies]

Right, I think I'm finally getting there!

The house is 3 years old, not 3 weeks (sorry if I made a typo, I've been marking too many essays). I've read the product literature for the adhesive and it doesn't state the need for either a primer or leveling compound, but I guess ringing the manufacturer is the way foward.

Thanks for the advice - I'll let you know it goes.

Onwards!

 

[mattysupra]

you might be able to use the glue direct on the dpm, but not many adhesives around that do this.