The easiest way to do this is to mark a bucket with the amount of water needed, and use that as your measuring device for the rest. Fill each bucket with the amount of water specified for one bag of leveler.Levelquik ES recommends using their Levelquik Primer. Most SLUs will come with their own instructions. You may need to lay temporary barriers for the pour, especially if you are breaking a very large room into smaller areas to make the pour easier. Ensure that the area to be poured has good, reasonably tight borders all the way around.Prep Work At Least 24 Hours in Advance of the Pour Modify the squeegee by cutting out slots for spreading over the underlayment. A painter’s extension pole and a squeegee that mounts on the end.You run the risk of not getting the SLU mixed properly or burning out a drill. Do not use cordless drills or smaller mixing blades. Two heavy duty drills and two heavy-duty 18″ drywall mixing blades.The job will be easier with more buckets, and since we had 9, we used all of them in our recent pour. Once mixing is underway, you have a finite amount of time to finish before part of the floor starts to dry. The key to a successful pour over a large area is planning as much as possible before you start mixing the leveler. Plan out the Pour in Advance and Prep all Materials. For very large areas, we recommend breaking up the job into multiple pours over several days. With some practice, it can be done with 4, but no less. For 225 square feet, we recommend 5 people for those who haven’t done this job before. You’ll likely need to get this product from a distributor. Note that Home Depot carries Levelquik RS (rapid setting), which only gives you 5 minutes of free flow and 5 minutes of work time - definitely not long enough for a large pour. Levelquik ES boasts a 15 minute free flow time with an additional 15 minutes of “work” time. We used Custom Building Product’s Levelquik ES (extended setting) for the job. Purchase a Self Leveler with a longer drying time. Since self-leveler is expensive, you want to avoid pouring any more than necessary. This problem is exacerbated over larger areas which tend to have more variations in surface height. They are most effective when a minimum thickness is maintained across the whole plain of the surface (about 1/2″). Despite the products’ names, most self-levelers are only partially self-leveling.As you can see in the picture above, the studs on the back end of the basement are inaccessible during the pour. Larger areas make it more difficult to get to the center, or wall-bound sections of the pour after the pour is underway.This is by far the most difficult challenge to surmount. Most self-leveling underlayments are designed to dry quickly, especially the brands most commonly found in the big box home improvement stores.or more), here’s an overview of the project and some tips to help you tackle this relatively easy-2-DIY job. slate) in the area.įor those of you considering pouring self leveling underlayment over large areas (75 sq. When finished, we plan to install a ceramic or natural stone tile (e.g. ft., and the second largest pour of the four we’ve made. The total floorspace in the area is about 1000 sq. Once set, remove these and fill in with a little more fresh SL mixĪbove 2 items are what I use for mixing (or similar)ĭon't own a paddle mixer so mains drill on slow speed - not ideal and would kill the drill if used like this everyday but occasional use does the job.Last weekend we finished pouring the fourth and final quadrant of self leveling underlayment over the radiant heating wires in the basement gameroom. Loose tiles could lead to the SL cracking, even though its flexible, it has limitationsĪt doorway, need to build a dam to contain the SLĪ strip of scrap timber screwed or siliconed to floor will do the job and remove once setĬan use shims or timber strips at 3mm (or whatever depth), small blob of sili and glue to tiles at a few places to act as a guide to depth of pour. Important point is are the tiles all firmly fixed to floor at this stage ?Īny loose, cracked, 'rockers', need attention at this stage as the SL is only as good as what its stuck to If your aiming for 3mm, I would say this depth will be taken from tile face, not grout depth - so 3mm above tiles Then pour your SL to desired depth, taking into account tech details and min. Click to expand.2 coats diluted SBR over the lot to aid adhesion and seal the porous grout
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