Houses settle and some were never level, to begin with. Well, in a perfect world the answer would be “both flat and level!” But we know that we don’t live in a perfect world. Now here’s the question: Do you want your floor to be both flat and level or is it OK if it’s simply flat and maybe out-of-level? It seems to me that most of the self-leveling underlayments that can be applied over wood subfloors are of the rapid setting variety. On the other hand, the slower setting SLU’s can take more than a day before they’re ready to tile. The rapid setting self-levelers can put you under a bit more pressure as your doing the pour but the advantage is that they are ready to tile over in a matter of just a couple of hours, in some cases. While others can set up much more slowly. Some set up quickly and give you, maybe, 20 minutes of working time. Yet another way of categorizing self-leveling underlayments. Custom Building Products LevelQuick Advance.Henry’s 542 Liquid Backerboard (Ardex owns Henry’s).These products are not readily found in retail stores and would have to be ordered in.
This list does not include all products in this category but these are the ones that I am aware of at the time of this writing. Self-Leveling Underlayment for Wood Subfloorsīelow is a list of self-leveling products that can be poured over wood subfloors. Plus, they can be poured as thin as 1/4 inch and, depending on the product, even thinner. Anywhere, from 1/4-1/2 inch and more.īut now they have self-leveling underlayments that can be poured over a wood subfloor without any additional lath reinforcement. Additionally, there were minimum thickness requirements.
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When it was done, you would need to install a metal or plastic lath product over the floor for reinforcement first. Up until recently, wood subfloors, either plywood or OSB, were not common to pour self-leveling over. Tec 567 Contractor Grade Self-Leveling Underlayment.I consider them to be widely available because they can be purchased through many of the retail hardware store chains. Having a concrete subfloor opens up the most self-leveling underlayment choices and that means more affordability, as well.īelow is a list of widely available self-leveling underlayment products that can be used over concrete. So, just having those two pieces of information will narrow down the choices quite a bit. The second thing to determine is what flooring, if any, will you be installing on top of the leveling compound? For this post, we will obviously assume tile. If it’s wood, it should be either plywood or OSB if you are planning on pouring an SLU over it.
Typically, it will either be concrete or wood. Substrate is a technical word which is referring to the surface that is being built over. Preparing this plywood substrate for a self-leveling pour Substrateįirst things first, what is the substrate that you want to flatten? Note: rather than spell out “self-leveling underlayment” all the time I will use the industry-accepted initials of SLU at times throughout this post. So, let’s get into why you would pick one over another. Additionally, some are rapid-setting, some need metal lath reinforcement, etc.Ĭonsequently, each product has its own purpose. Some self-leveling underlayments are cementitious while others are gypsum-based. So, how complicated can it be? Why not just mix the product and go?įor starters, simply selecting the product that you want requires some consideration.įor example, I looked at the sites of Mapei, Ardex, Schonox, Uzin, and Custom Building Products and counted no less than 9 different self-leveling underlayment products on each site. Planning for a self-leveling underlayment pour I don’t consider myself an expert at self-leveling but I have learned a lot.Īnd it all starts with knowing what you are getting yourself into. With this post, I’m going to share what I know. Additionally, being able to use these over wood subfloors is going to increase their usage. Where a 12×12 (30cm x 30cm) used to be big now it’s quite common to deal with wood-look tile that is 48 inches long (120cm) and installed in a random offset pattern.Īs a result, bigger tiles require flatter floors. Self-leveling underlayment has a bright future After your self-leveling underlayment pour.Tools for mixing self-leveling underlayment.Preparing to pour self-leveling underlayment.Setting your height for an out-of-level floor.Setting the heights of your leveling pins.Mapping out your floor prior to self-leveling.Toilets, vents, and other holes and gaps.
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