Quick-Step vinyl planks - perfectly level floor?

[pulck]

Sorry to say, but whether or not you like it, the best way to level this now is to use an SLC, and if needs be sand that afterwards. The best way to find an appropriate underlay is always to talk to the manufacturer of your flooring. They will tell you which products are suitable and compatible.

It is always better to do a job right, and put the floor in properly, in the first place, though

If you think it will really be worth it, I will get a professional to level it with SLC.

I'm just making sure I don't throw good money after bad... I'm guessing it will be quite expensive to level, given it's chipboard and in the loft, so sealing will have to be very thorough.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I'm guessing it will be quite expensive to level, given it's chipboard and in the loft, so sealing will have to be very thorough.

The labour cost is the biggest part if it.

A 20kg bag of a latex-based levelling compound, such as Sikafloor 125, will cost you £15 to £25 and cover about 4 square metres to a depth of 3mm. From that you should be able to work out how much you need for your floor (maybe 3 bags?).

To mix it you need a Gorilla tub, a heavy drill and a mixing paddle. To spread it you use a flooring trowel, although at a pinch a plasterers trowel will do. The mix should have the consistency of thickish custard and can be poured straight out of tbe tub onto the floor a bit at a time and then spread. Your new floor shouldn't have gaps or holes in it, other than possibly some gapping between the floor and the bottom of the skirting and those can be filled with expanding foam or silicone.

Sorry, but I don't see your problem other than you don't want to DIY

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Roger Bizby at Skill Builder posted a video about the different compounds on YouTube. There are many other videos on the subject over there, but this one is British, so he isn't talking in terms of stuff which can't be found in the UK

Note that if you are concerned about holes they can always be filled with expanding foam and trimmed back once the foam has set. If you need to stop at a door opening a temporary threshold can be created by nailing or screwing a length of 2 x 1 planed softwood, trimmed to size, across the opening. Once the levelling compound has set this can be removed

 

[pulck]

The labour cost is the biggest part if it.

A 20kg bag of a latex-based levelling compound, such as Sikafloor 125, will cost you £15 to £25 and cover about 4 square metres to a depth of 3mm. From that you should be able to work out how much you need for your floor (maybe 3 bags?).

To mix it you need a Gorilla tub, a heavy drill and a mixing paddle. To spread it you use a flooring trowel, although at a pinch a plasterers trowel will do. The mix should have the consistency of thickish custard and can be poured straight out of tbe tub onto the floor a bit at a time and then spread. Your new floor shouldn't have gaps or holes in it, other than possibly some gapping between the floor and the bottom of the skirting and those can be filled with expanding foam or silicone.

Sorry, but I don't see your problem other than you don't want to DIY

My hesitation is simply out of fear. I'm not an experienced DIYer and my nightmare would be the SLC leaking through to the ceiling below. That's why I was rather optimistically hoping a thicker underlay would do the job.

So on balance I think I'll get some professional quotes. Thanks for all the info, though. It really does help to know what's involved. If I had known this stuff before the loft was converted, I could have been more prescriptive with the builders about the standard of the floor.

 

[cjcoffin]

I may speak to them, but I favour sorting it out by myself if it's possible and straightforward, otherwise I'll be waiting weeks.

By paper underlay, I'm guessing you mean this sort of thing? Or maybe this which is thicker?

Neither, it was called "paper felt" and AFAIR was sold as an underlay for foam backed carpet. Is good for stopping the dust rising between gappy floorboards too.

The screwfix product you quote looks as if it might do the job as it claims to fix steps of up to 3mm but I have no personal experience of it. And you would need to cover the entire area. You might then get away without the Quickstep underlay but you have already bought that!

For small areas any hard cardboard will do, cereal packets are good as they are dense, quite thick and do not compress in use. (For these reasons they also make good packing to adjust hinges.)

Since you are going to cover it up you do not need a cosmetic finish so alternatively I would sand off the steps with a sanding disc using a swirling movement, if there is a lot to do then hire a proper edging sander (not a drum sander), more controllable but still very quick.

Personally I would not use SLC, they are messy and do not give good results in inexpert hands. (Even pros have got the mix wrong and I have had to call them back in to overcoat a whole floor which had not set properly. It seems to be a weak area in the trade, have also had to get an appallingly rough garage floor over-screeded, small utility room was too uneven to tile directly, and one kitchen floor came out 1/4 in too high leaving steps in both doorways.)

 

[pulck]

Personally I would not use SLC, they are messy and do not give good results in inexpert hands. (Even pros have got the mix wrong and I have had to call them back in to overcoat a whole floor which had not set properly. It seems to be a weak area in the trade, have also had to get an appallingly rough garage floor over-screeded, small utility room was too uneven to tile directly, and one kitchen floor came out 1/4 in too high leaving steps in both doorways.)

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions.

It's interesting - SLC seems to divide people.... I've just spoken to 2 different professional fitters. I'd sent them photos of the uneven chipboard panels and asked how much to level them.

One suggested levelling the whole room with SLC (£7 per m2). The other said, no need for SLC. He could level the floor by raising the lower panels by putting something underneath them between the joists.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I bet neither of them recommended sanding the floor off. Sure fire way to cause the chipboard to start disintegrating, especially if any thing like the leg of a heavy bed or wardrobe stood on it (because the core of flooring chipboard is often qyite a bit softer and weaker than the two surface skins - I have had to sort out this particular "DIY fix: in the past where a hole was punched through the unsupported edge of a board, hence my earlier warning)

On the subject of SLC - I've done a large amount of interior fit outs (shops, hotels, restaurants, bars, offices etc) over the years and seen a lot of levelling compound laid, but only ever seen it go wrong perhaps three or four times in 20 odd years - each time it wss down to the floorers using out of date (and presumably badly stored) product. The commercial guys invariably use BAL, F Ball or Mapei materials - more expensive, but more consistent materials and excellent technical support

I get the fear factor - first time I did it I was somewhat apprehensive despite seeing it done hundreds of times by other