self levelling concrete

manus30

hello there,
I am in the process of finishing off my workshop. the concrete floor i put down is not completely flat, so i was wondering is it possible to put down self levelling concrete ( is there such a thing? ), bearing in mind i want to put down a painted floor later. any advice appreciated, thanks in advance.

git_ireland

A friend of mine did something similar in his garden workshop.
He rang a crowd called Ardex where you can tell them what you need and they will recommend a product.

Ardex

slavetothegrind

It's self levelling screed your after.
You buy from builders merchants in bags and mix with water then apply to floor.
It is very liquid when applied and so finds it's own level ( with help from a brush to distribute)

An easy enough DIY job.

manus30

slavetothegrind wrote: »

It's self levelling screed your after.
You buy from builders merchants in bags and mix with water then apply to floor.
It is very liquid when applied and so finds it's own level ( with help from a brush to distribute)

An easy enough DIY job.

spot on, good man.

git_ireland

slavetothegrind wrote: »

It's self levelling screed your after.
You buy from builders merchants in bags and mix with water then apply to floor.
It is very liquid when applied and so finds it's own level ( with help from a brush to distribute)

An easy enough DIY job.

Self Levelling compound is not ideal. If you want to paint over this a long shot would be using an epoxy paint which is costly!!!
You need a acrylic or contract water based compound in order to be able to paint over it.
If you have heavy traffic in the workshop a leveller will just come undone over a period of time.

manus30

i have heard so many ways of doing this i am totally confused now.
basically at the moment i have a concrete floor with slight ripples in it from patting down the concrete when it was first laid and its not perfectly level.
all i want is a floor thats fairly level, and to finish it off with paint so to keep dust down and look good.
can someone tell me in laymans speak the best way to achieve this?
thanks for advice so far.

selfbuildlost

use self leveling compound and you'll be grand provided you dont have a heavy footfall otherwise you'll need to use either concrete and lay a new floor over the old or water down cement with a hire ratio of cement.

Personally I'd use the first one, it's simple to use should be strong enough depending on what you are using the workshop for

slavetothegrind

Fair enough Git_ireland, it can be a bit soft if heavily abused

If you want a flat concrete floor you can hire concrete sanding machines.
They will, with effort, render your ripples smooth and leave you with a tough floor readily painted.