'Slab home' ... Pulled up the linoleum and will be pulling up carpet in adjacent room to refloor with an engineered laminate. Filled the lovely crack I found and gonna fix some low spots with self leveling concrete. Anybody have some lessons learned / guidance with self leveling concrete? Seems rather straight forward... Figured it's worth an ask...
It is actually pretty amazing stuff. Shoot it in the crack and it settles itself down and fills in all of the gaps. We had our front porch mud jacked and I used the stuff to fill in the crack and it worked like a dream. Just be sure to go light at first and let it settle, then hit with another application if necessary.
Keep it pretty thinned out so it levels faster. Sometimes you need to feather the edges because it will create a bead/edge that is raised just slightly. It happens when it dries faster then when it's done leveling. Also you can have a problem with it bonding to the old concrete and will just crack off after dried. Best bet is to clean the floor best as possible with a shop vac. Then apply a concrete primer/bonding agent. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Have the trowel/float already for the edges. The spot the builder apparently 'fixed' didn't adhere well and cracked, as you said... Gonna try to clean that up, best I can, and hit it with the primer also. I filled the larger crack I found in the slab and tried to trowel it flat last night...
I found as Holt did. I mixed it a bit runny and it worked really well that way. I had a large area to do and the first batch I poured I tried to feather it out to where I wanted it to go. It dried to quickly and just ended up wavy. I mixed it a bit more runny and just let it flow where it wanted without manipulating it at all and that gave a much better result. Mine was a whole kitchen floor and I poured it fairly thick. I didn't have problems with the edges because it just came up against the wall. My house was originally owned by a do-it-yourself-er that didn't seem to own a square, level, or tape measure it would seem. I have to tell about his tile work. When I bought the place the kitchen had some rough looking kitchen carpet. I tore that up to find linoleum underneath that. So I tore up the linoleum too. Under that was a grouted tile job that was so bad it was comical. I believe you'd need to put a jeep into 4x4 to drive across it. So I poured leveling concrete over the entire thing to level it out rather than chiseling it all out and then installed Wilson Art tile. The tile had instructions about not installing straight onto green concrete, moisture from the uncured concrete could leach up into the tile and deteriorate it. I'm sure that will be the case with laminate too, you'll want to make sure the concrete has time to fully cure and may also want some kind of moisture barrier over the concrete.
for cracks and small dips it works well if you are well-prepped... for larger projects, it is not nearly as easy as it seems on the YousTubz. Ask me how I know. ...actually don't. I may start day drinking if I start thinking about it too much.
If you happen to get it on you, wash it off right away. Made the mistake one time thinking I've had concrete on me before no big deal. About 5 minutes later it felt like my arm was on fire.
Current plan, we're only here 2 or 3 more years. We want to pay off our land, get the youngest out of college and then start building on the land. The goal in the current place a few improvements... It needed new flooring in the main rooms... And here we are. Trim painted in Family room. Will paint trim in the kitchen tomorrow, check/top off a couple spots with more concrete tomorrow, empty the pantries, trim door jams and special treat, the wife informs me a vehicle is due inspection... 6 rolls of underlament and 26 boxes of flooring await.
If wasn't that bad...washed up after a couple hrs. My pain threshold was recalibrated after a kidney stone.
