Hi all. I would appreciate any advice on making good an UPSTAIRS concrete floor in preparation for the new carpet being laid next week.
I have lifted the old carpet on the first floor landing to find that there was a layer of levelling screed over the concrete – which crumbled away as soon as it was touched. Clearing this away revealed a couple of cracks all the way through the concrete and a variation in level of up to 30mm in one corner. Treading heavily on the concrete around the cracks causes a small amount of movement. Presumably this is what caused the previous screed to fail?
The house is a traditional 4 bed semi built c1900 and we are aware of some historical movement that we are satisfied was remedied about 20 years ago, so the fact that the concrete has cracked is not really a surprise.
I’ve had a bit of a read in this forum and I think I should be able to use a flexible screed (f-ball 700 flex) and stopgap P131 neoprene primer to get a decent surface ready for the carpet. Two of the rooms joining the landing have wooden floorboards, so hopefully I can use the same screed to get a level join into these.
My main concern is that the cracks and movement in the concrete will cause the new screed to fail in the same way pretty quickly. Would I be better off digging out all the concrete from the landing floor and replacing? And checking that the joists below are in decent condition? It’s probably not much more than 4 m2, but still a fair bit of work to get done in a week.
Any advice gladly received. Let me know if any further details would be useful
Thanks
Chris.
I have lifted the old carpet on the first floor landing to find that there was a layer of levelling screed over the concrete – which crumbled away as soon as it was touched. Clearing this away revealed a couple of cracks all the way through the concrete and a variation in level of up to 30mm in one corner. Treading heavily on the concrete around the cracks causes a small amount of movement. Presumably this is what caused the previous screed to fail?
The house is a traditional 4 bed semi built c1900 and we are aware of some historical movement that we are satisfied was remedied about 20 years ago, so the fact that the concrete has cracked is not really a surprise.
I’ve had a bit of a read in this forum and I think I should be able to use a flexible screed (f-ball 700 flex) and stopgap P131 neoprene primer to get a decent surface ready for the carpet. Two of the rooms joining the landing have wooden floorboards, so hopefully I can use the same screed to get a level join into these.
My main concern is that the cracks and movement in the concrete will cause the new screed to fail in the same way pretty quickly. Would I be better off digging out all the concrete from the landing floor and replacing? And checking that the joists below are in decent condition? It’s probably not much more than 4 m2, but still a fair bit of work to get done in a week.
Any advice gladly received. Let me know if any further details would be useful
Thanks
Chris.
