Thread: a flooring query

Originally Posted by versetcat

Hi all,

3/4 of my laundry is timber flooring. It's sound, but on a slant. The remaining square metre is dodgy brick, which is 3-16 mm lower than the surrounding boards. I want to raise the level on this brick area, in line with the floorboards, so I can just paint the whole shebang. Since the existing floorboards are not plumb, using levelling compound makes no sense. I've been told that premixed concrete has stones in it which will be a problem for the 3mm lowpoint. Any suggestions?

Make a sand/cement mud using bricky's loam. Instead of 3:1, use perhaps 2:1 sand/cement (to ensure it's ssufficiently strong to resist the abrasion in a floor application)and add sufficient water to make a thick paste. There are also additives available to improve abrasion resistance. Slather it on and screed it off. It's only a sq. m or so after all.I should also mention that it would be a good idea to scratch the surface of the existing concrete fairly deeply in a few places and perhaps also attach a bit of light mesh, such as chicken-wire using rawl plugs and screws as well, just so it all hangs together properly.

Thanks Craig! Will be having a crack at this in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for your suggestion Craig but I finally decided against concreting on closer inspection of the task at hand. Instead, I removed one layer of the bricks and attached some new joist pieces directly over that area (securing them to existing joists with gangnails). I lifted the adjoining half-length floorboards, then layed new flooring to cover both sections uniformly. With the nails sunk and puttied, the whole area was painted with outdoor paving paint for durability, and it's come up a treat for about $50. Best regards.