Self levelling compound has gone wrong

[rhysjc]

Hi all,

I overboarded my timber floor with 6mm ply last weekend, primed and poured some self leveller yesterday. What I’ve ended up with is worse than I had before, with a dip of probably 4mm in the middle of the room. This happens to be the point at which the 2 batches I mixed meet, though I would have expected more of a ridge than a dip! I followed the instructions in terms of prep and mixing, but my combi drill started playing up so I think potentially the second batch didn’t have quite the right consistency.

Anyway, I’m not sure what my options are to fix this. I assume I need to pour another coat of self leveller, but is it necessary to do it over the whole room, or can I just target the low areas? I’m using setcrete high performance, and I’m not sure if it’d be possible to feather out the edge of it. Something like ardex feather finish I think is out of the question, I’d be at it for ages building up 1mm layers

 

[Wayners]

Seal and shelf level the dip. Damp sponge and polish the edges to blend in. Consistently and a sealed surface is important so material runs (shelf levels)

 

[johnny2007]

I always measure the mix with a scale and add an extra bit of water.
Always worked.
What are you covering the floor with?

 

[rhysjc]

We’re putting down some click LVT. I’ve thought some more about what happened and I think the issue is we spent too long mixing so the compound was already starting to go off when I poured it. You get 20-30 mins working time and we probably spent 10 minutes mixing. I’ve bought a proper paddle mixer now (Erbauer, much cheaper than some other brands but good reviews and I won’t be using it much), so I’m going to go over with another coat this weekend

 

[dazlight]

Make sure you prime the floor 1st

 

[opps]

Carborundum stones can be used to flatten the edges, but you need a lot of elbow grease.

 

[rhysjc]

Thanks both. I did indeed prime the floor.

Had another go this weekend using the paddle mixer. Compound was mixed in about 2 minutes so that was that problem solved. Went down pretty well and I was fairly happy with the result. However now it's dried, I've got plenty of high and low spots and at a bit of a loss as to what I did wrong. Unfortunately having to accept defeat on this one and get a friend who's a floorer in to sort it.