How to Level a Concrete Floor | This Old House
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2024
- This Old House general contractor Tom Silva shows how to resurface an uneven concrete slab. (See below for a shopping list and tools.)
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Shopping List for Leveling a Concrete Floor:
2x4s [amzn.to/2PSmBOu], for use as leveling rails
shims [amzn.to/300o4qG]
construction adhesive [amzn.to/2vNl0Ar]
masonry nails [amzn.to/2vPDPms]
leveling compound [amzn.to/2VTTgbU]
Tools for Leveling a Concrete Floor:
4- or 6-foot level [amzn.to/2HaSoaU], used to level the rails
circular saw [amzn.to/2DZYk4j]
caulk gun [amzn.to/2Wxkna1]
scribing tool [amzn.to/2JrdJOC], used to mark cut lines onto the rails
hammer-drill [amzn.to/30bKaXc] with masonry bit [amzn.to/2JeeZ8H]
hammer [amzn.to/2Hbg6Ui]
drill/driver [amzn.to/302tbH0] and mixing paddle [amzn.to/2LtYmYj]
6-inch-wide board, used as a screed [amzn.to/2HbJ6eJ]
flat trowel [amzn.to/309SoPO], for smoothing leveling compound
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How to Level a Concrete Floor | This Old House
/ thisoldhouse
Legend says the guy is still leveling his floor today
OMG, tears are coming out of my eyes...I can’t stop laughing...I can imagine them literally still working on it...😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂...you’re the worst!
That’s hilarious
Legend has it this is the most overused, copy pasted UA-cam comment meme of all time, and it was never funny to begin with.
@@Gravy_Master yet you used it. and youre never going to be funny. d+ for effort
@@BurntToastFTW What are we squawking about now, Luke? Is there something specific I can assist you with today?
Self leveling compound is too expensive to use as much as they did. I did mine before putting laminate down. I simply poured enough on the floor to reach the highest spot in each room. I then smoothed it over/pushed it around a little with a 10 foot straight edge. If you mix it thin enough so that it runs pretty well it will fill in everywhere on it's own for the most part - there is a nice balance between having it thin enough to run without being too thin/watery. It's good to have several buckets already with water and have everything set up including jugs of water (or a water hose, water source, etc.), bags already opened and waiting, etc. so you can mix quickly to keep pouring each bucket in a room. It's ok to have it dry in one room even while some has run into another area such as an adjacent room... you can pour wet mix right in along next to an area of mix that has already dried. By the way, a floor does not need to be perfectly level to install laminate or wood floors! It just has to be relatively flat (around an 1/8 of an inch or a little more deviance over a 10 ft. area is fine. The guys in the video were only really concerned about the tops of the 2 by 4's being level because they were filling in between them. Tile is much more forgiving when it comes to a flat floor because you can adjust the amount of thinset under each tile to keep the tiles at the same height. Don't skip making sure a floor is relatively flat if you're installing laminate or wood planks - they will buckle, and come loose/out of place if the floor has too many peaks/valleys. It will happen months after the installation and it will be ruined and need to be completely redone, you can't just repair it.
simpler to adjust your shoe insoles to always be level on the floor.
Lmfao
BRILLIANT!
Yes, and just to be safe, I install floor drains in my shoes.
i love how he just leaves the stove there and lets the self leveller float under the legs! awsome! im a floooring installer and i have never levelled a floor this way and i don't imagine i could convince allot of my customers to spend that much money.
They put rails all along the perimeter of the cabinets it never goes past them, not underneath the cabinets or stove.
I was thinking the same thing. Using that much leveling compound at $40 per bag makes no sense at all.
Tom Silva does awesome work. Should have his own show.
I love how they always get everything right on the first try
I love when Tom Silva says "Let's see how it fits." Dude, you know it's perfect!!
Gayyy
This guy is brilliant.... thanks for sharing your knowledge...
Tom: "Why did you need that floor drain?"
Homeowner: "What floor drain? Hey, look outside, it's a woolly mammoth!"
😂
I’ve learned so much from Tom Thank goodness .
Used this method last deployment to great effect after a concrete pour gone bad and 2x2 tiles to be laid.
I'd consider myself a novice, but this method works even though it's tedious.
Though, lots of bashing to be done since he didn't pull out the damn cabinets or anything lol...
Do you leave the wood there?
Looks easy, guess I'll tackle it on my lunch break 😂
So what else did you do during the 2nd half of your lunch break?
4:16 The mix was a hair too dry so he spits in it for perfection.
metallitech you have me dying right now😂
metallitech lol! that was better than the fart.
Laughing so hard I nearly passed out
I work in flooring so this comment cracked me up 😂😂😂😂
The fart and the spit.. hahaha
I've leveled and also sloped (to a drain) many floors as a tiler.
My method is to make 3 or 4 inch wide guide rails out of dry pack mortar - like speed bumps - using a laser (set an inch higher than the final surface), trowels and a tape measure. Then the next day I fill in with mortar using a metal straight screed.
It's great because you can map out drainage patterns with concentric circles of slightly diminishing heights down to the drain.
Also, I always first paint a bonding agent or even use felt paper on the surface I'm topping (depending what it's made of) and when I fill in between my guides I can put wire mesh if needed ... or cut expansion or control joints ....
This video was kind of weird tbh
The only times I ever used scribed wood rails as guides I had screwed them down, oiled them - and removed them and filled them in with some concrete later. Who the heck wants 2X4s in their substrate?
Thank you kind sir I was thinking it’s weird to leave the 2x4s in place too. Ok so if I understand what you wrote: the dry pack mortar is serving as the 2x4s in the above video with the bonus you don’t have to remove it? How do you get the top of the dry pack Mortar flat and level? I know you said you use a laser and trowel?
@@briantheprion Yea, you're basically just building a 3 inch wide concrete speed bump by hand. I set a laser higher than the height i want the highest peak of the speed bump .. then i just hold my tape measure and make sure the laser hits my tape at the right place ...
The real key is that these screed guides aren't sloped. I make them perpendicular to the slope.
So for example ... if I want a floor to slope a quarter inch per foot .... I would make the highest screed bump at one inch from a laser line .. then 4 feet in a second screed bump at 2 inches from the same laser line- then 4 feet after that a third screed bump at 3 inches from the same laser line ... (you do the math to make it come out however you design your drainage.
connecting all the graduated height screed bumps with a metal straight edge to fill in the gaps in is how the perfect slope happens.
Sorry if I'm writing this confusing, am in a rush. lol
But hey, whatever works
TC BRO!
why not put a perimeter baton all the way round the kitchen, then mass pour the self levelling compound and dapple the surface to find the level? using a laser guide would save a lot of time too!!!
The guy was scraping harden cement at the end haha
Omg.. this comment killed me laughing 😂😂😂
Whenever Tom is in a video I know the comments will be a collective roast.
Silva is the best!!
that fart sounded like it had the consistency of batter😅😅
so the cabinets are set to low now. Dishwasher wont fit.. . and the drain would be cover anyways.
The kitchen counter must be level and the cabinets are a standard height, so presumably the installers just made the kick/base board of the cabinets taller as they went out into the room. Levelling the floor will make the height under all the cabinets the same.
PERFECT LEVEL MORTY!!!
Soy un contratista y mirando tus videos todos los dias aprendo algo nuevo de usted tomy
What do you do about the rails at the end?
I think he farted at 4:12 when he lifts the bucket... Lol
+Shane Chipman This guy knows how to watch a video.
Nice and easy pfff
+Shane Chipman :D:D
+Shane Chipman He did indeed:D:D
Ha, it sounded wet. Hope he checked his underwear after the video shoot.
What a nightmare.
Not only that but is expensive (30 to 40 dollars a bag) and sometimes doesn't bond to the floor
crazy wheel Yeah, on any other home reno show I've seen , they put down a bonding agent first, then the self leveling concrete.
Charles Damery have never seen that show, is it good?
crazy wheel HGTV in both Canada and the United States has plenty of reno shows. Just about any one of them will show you what to do.
Charles Damery
if you dont grind the dirt of the floor and put primer then its 80% chance that the self leveling concrete will popp lose
Now the tie case of the cabinets will be like 1-1/2” instead of standard 4”
Never have I ever ... Been blessed with a dead straight floor
My home was built in the 40's. Small house basement ceiling is 7ft maybe. How do I level that floor?
Are the rails left in place as part of the finished floor?
My question is under the house for the kitchen is wouldn't have it been better to use a Jack & Jack it up my question or was it going to cost too much to fix the under part of the house question
Can a laser not be used with thicker morter and just build up to the laser level?
Does the wood used for the level guides need to be exterior grade wood if this is to be a ground level floor?
You make it look so easy!
Where is part 2? Do you pull up the boards after and fill in the space? Do you have to start at the highest part of the floor? Need more info!!!
It's a pooch screw, they don't want to talk about that fuck up.
I have 0 experience leveling floors so and had tried the self leveling compound but the it did not do that great of a job.
Had a second room that needed the floor leveled and tried this method. Big mistake.
First issue I had was finding straight 2x4's. You will need a table saw and electric plain to straighten out the boards.
The next issue I ran into was that if you floor has several rises and drops it is very hard to cut the contours into the 2x4. If your floor slops on a constant angle it is easy to cut the contours.
Third issue I ran into was nailing and gluing the wood down is time consuming. In my case the nails kept popping out and I ended up having to screw the rails down.
This method is very time and labor intensive.
Finally, someone who knows what they are about.
Wow... I'm gonna have to do this at the cabin some day.
Did he cover the water drain with concrete?
One could level a sloped garage or basement floor to finish a room for living space, and still leave the concrete surface grading and drain(s) in case of future water accumulation. Just measure and cut tapered and feathered treated 2x sleepers anchored to the concrete floor on 12 to 16 centers , then topped with a plastic moisture barrier and 3/4 inch plywood subfloor. For improved noise control and support, minimally expanding foam here and there enough to add support and solidness of the subfloor yet allow "breathing" and ventilation between the concrete and the moisture barrier. One would then have the option of installing just about any flooring material desired.
This presupposes that your sloped floor is flat and the 2x4s can be placed down nicely and not wobble and such.
Everybody is commenting about the floor drain. Does your kitchen have a floor drain? Mine neither. My guess is this was a remodel and maybe the area was an old garage or something. The existing concrete had a pretty severe slope. The drain was taped off to prevent floor leveling compound from entering.
this is the best way of leveling a floor. Guarantee to be level at the end. forget about the material it is not costly however seen ppl doing this same leveling and still come out with hi and low .
had to come back, after viewing 6 months ago for a good laugh at the 4:12 fart scene.
It was possibly a quick shart.
So much for the floor drain...........
hahaha
They capped it.
Who has ever seen a floor drain in a kitchen anyway.
hold on let me take care of the floor drain .... pffft!
@@kevinm1728 Nobody puts in a drain without a reason.
this was very very helpful as Ii am working on leveling a old kitchen floor. thanks for the awesome video tips.
This is awesome...never saw it before
whats even more nuts than the slow expensice method shown here is the crazy comments....man...its good to be have skills...thank you lord
Master Craftsman. Brilliant.
Wow Sir, you solved my problem. Thank you.
If you're going to frame it and screed it level then how is it self-leveling? Isn't that how you do it with regular concrete?
Do it your 'self leveling compound'
Always do a few more rails before finishing off the job!
Do you remove the wood or is it now apart of the floor?
+CC64 they would do, then pour more self leveller into the gaps.
apparently you missed the glue and the nails. These screeds were there to stay. Textbook hack job.
Order in Chaos they always say wood on concrete is a no-no because it sucks out moisture from the concrete.
@@sloth6765 You would have to prime the wood first, doesnt look like they did it here.
It should be removed and filled.
thank you you have help me to solve my problem
I'm surprised they didn't remove the cabinets and appliances for this big of a job.
The owner paid a cheap cut job. When I remodeled my kitchen, I totally removed everything included old cabinets, oven, and dish washer, not refrigerator.
But what about the floor you covered over with leveling compound? Does that mean you've eliminated the floor drain?
Yep.
If you're leveling it for LVP flooring, don't bother getting carried away with it being level. The key is to make it FLAT so you don't have any bounce under your flooring. I put 1,500lbs in 635 sqft of basement and the thickest area was 3/4". No, it wasn't perfectly level but, it was flat! No bounce with 5ft long LVP flooring. Add extra water than called for if pouring over concrete floor. The concrete floor will suck the moisture right out of the leveler. Plus, it spreads much better and you'll have a smoother surface without having to trowel anything.
Every step was genius
Where can I see this full episode? The link doesnt work
HELP!!!!! We are remodeling a commercial building and wanted to level the uneven concrete, but just realized that the front is 3” higher than the back (about 100’ deep). I assume it was for drainage. Should I just worry about flat, not level?
can you go as high as 3-3/1 inchs with self leveling cement ?
At 30 bucks a bag for floor leveler I wish there were a cheaper option for such a large area.
Also, wouldn’t you use treated wood?
very clear explanation , thanks fro you techniques teaching !
old house is the best to learn very simple he is not only proffesional to do the work but the delevery the idea ,,,,,,really l learn from him very fast just watch go do it few mints
thanks sooooooooooooooooooooo very much
flow trap covering 101!
Don't know but I have never used untreated wood on concrete. That leveling compound will probably cause the untreated wood to decay , the good news is when it rots out you only have small valley's to fill with leveling compound.
4:47😂😂😂He looks Motivated!
When I tell a customer that an area that large cost 2 grand to level, they tend to think they can live with it...:)
Yeah, because they'll just hire me since I"ll do it for $999 lol.
***** :)...That's actually how I do operate for the last 3 decades but...I would rather be the 2K guy...They always seem to have nicer trucks and more money than me..
.
Haha
There can be an advantage to that. the kids toys roll into one spot making them easier to pick up.
Yeah, or they say....
"How would you go about doing it?"
"What's the best method for this situation?"
"Can I keep that list of materials you've made?"
"Thanks for the free estimate, i'll call ya"
I just totally went broke with floor leveling compound
you should use some compound that is mixed with sand like Mapei Topcem.
How does a floor become that unlevel in the first place?
Either the floor was built wrong in the first place or the ground under it compacted more than anticipated or there's a sink hole.
Seems like is was a garage or something at one time, it has a big drain. The slope of the floor was intentional for the drain.
Thanks, very useful
If you look at video closely it appears they have covered drain holes with tape. They may have determined the drain was no longer necessary.
Daryl Wiley lmmm. O. Mom l m l lol. Mm. Ok mm. M.
or that it is no longer part of an active system...
I want to level my basement concrete floor to put in a subfloor. I plan on using this method. BUT i will used sand and concrete (much cheaper), i will remove the wood shims then fill after the concrete has dried, i also will use metal lathe for added strength. My basement currently has dips between 1/8 to 1 1/2 inches. Any suggestion on my process would be appreciated.
Did you use this method for your leveling? I want to do the same as you but I haven't found good answers. My lowest dip is 3 inches.
Same here lol
@ no, i decided to keep the slant since it slopes to the drain in my basement. for my needs it would have been too much work for such a small improvement. so in my case the slop is there for a reason and i kept it.
We had a sunken concrete slab at our doorway, 3/4" on one side and 1/4" on the other. I sealed off the gap to the exterior wall footing with spray foam and caulked the seams around where I was going to pour. Put down a primer, mixed up the self leveling compound and poured. Aside from a few swipes of a trowel, it did all the work for us and flowed to to the low spots. This method in the video looks like overkill.
Literally “self” leveling
ONE QUESTION WHAT IS THE MATERIAL THEY USED THIN SET?
Love this channel. Thanks.
GlorybetoGOD7 i
I love the videos but i personally would just put a nice hardwood floor down and call it a day haha
Floors don’t have to be level just, consistent. To level a floor you would have to go to highest point, then level from there. That could raise the floor by 2 or more inches in some cases, creating problems at doors and thresholds.
Good point! Imagine the can of worms if you got half way through, and then realized your floor will be higher than your threshold....
Could he have filled in the super low spots with scrap wood? seems like a lot of volume could have been taken up by inexpensive materials.
Im glad you all made comments on how lame this idea was so i didnt have to.
Tom Silva is awesome!
If your going to screed , just use sand and cement .. A whole lot cheaper ..
Exactly..
How do you determine whether to do this, or raise the slab?
raise the slab? what?
Thank you for the video! How do I know that 2x4 lumbers is perfectly straight? I built my fence with 2"x3"x8' lumbers and I could only find 10% of them are straight, but not perfectly straight.
Addressed in the video...he cut them.
How about self leveling concrete ?
Super meseriasi bravo baieti
Can this old house tell me to replace garage floor with under shed
What's under the concrete, plywood or sand?
that's a serious amount of work just to level a floor!!
Let me loose on that with f300 and me rake roller
for large unlevel floors, use a liquid gypsum...goes in real runny..using a pump...no need to protect the walls, cuz its gypsum! ready to lay tile within 4 hours, max 16 hours...could do this whole area before Tom cut his second board
If that kitchen floor is unlevel than probably all the floors are unlevel along with the ceilings!
Better check all those too! Hopefully the house doesn't settle more with age! Also, that scribe divider tip is so bent that all measurmements you are making are off 1/8 inch.
This is a nightmare project.
That's why he just walked away and was like lesson over good luck
Tim great video! Do you recommend same system with rails when levelling bowed walls? One of my walls is bowed wall and I want to level it. There are not any structural issues in the wall just does not look nice. I was thinking using the same method just instead of self-levelling screed to use normal concreate. Beginning of the wall is ok but middle of wall is moved 2 cm outwards and it looks like a bow. Was thinking to use similar method as you shown on here. I would appreciate your comments and welcome any suggestions how to do it!
Sorry no one replied to you. Sad world.
My god, how thick is that floor now
Making a floor flat is more important than making it level. If the back of your kitchen is an inch higher than the rest of your existing flooring and I try to level it. I'll have to compensate for it at the meeting point. Which means you'll end up with a transition that is an inch higher.
How long would it take him to level 5,000 sf
I'm assuming you remove the wood when all finsihed?
Why was the oven light on?
Good news is the floor is level, bad news is the floor is 6 inches higher lol.
Working with that stuff sucks big time.
It does not self level and dries fast, you have to work it to where you want it.
My recommendation is to mix it as thin as the manufacture allows, wear cleats or spikes shoes and plan out what your going to do well.
How can I raise the floor to my garage?
It is made of concrete. I want pour concrete on top of it so I can knock down the wall and make the kitchen larger.
Remove the existing concrete and dig down 12inches, and create a solid base of 6inch stone dust, 3inch pea gravel, 3 inch sand. Compact every 0.5inch. Then pour your new slab. You want a stable base for your new slab for it to be level.
Seems like they should’ve removed the cabinets and did the whole area?