How to level the floor under the laminate

Creating a cozy and comfortable environment for a residential or office space depends on the quality of the finishing materials used to create the interior.

The use of laminate flooring is becoming popular due to its durability, aesthetics and the variety of colors produced.

The service life of the panels depends largely on how the concrete base will be prepared for laying. Lamels laid on a flat flat surface without cracks and elevation drops are guaranteed to last 20-25 years, during which they retain their purpose. The need to update the coverage will not arise soon with the right preparatory work.

We will tell you how to prepare with your own hands the base for laminate flooring in the apartment.

What should be the base for the laminate

Panels are laid only on perfectly flat floors..

If the differences in surface heights exceed 2 mm per 2 square meters. m, then manufacturers do not recommend installing lamellas. This is due to the fact that when loaded, the finishing material will be subject to bending. And the locks, with the help of which the coating is easily and simply mounted, may not withstand the engagement between adjacent elements. First, small cracks may appear, then a slight creak, and during operation, the mount will collapse. As a result, the service life of the finishing material will be reduced.

In addition to making the floor even, it must also be solid. Lamella manufacturers recommend laying the coating on a concrete screed or after using special leveling mixtures based on cement.

Construction Norms (SNiPs) regulate the requirements for the base for laying hard coatings, which include laminate flooring.

• The floor must be strong and withstand a load of 15 MPa.
• The moisture content of the cement-sand screed can not exceed 5%, and the wood base - 15%.
• The surface should be clean without dust and residues of other building materials.
• The difference in height along the relief is allowed no more than 1%.

The presence of cracks or other defects on the base is unacceptable. If such deficiencies are found, they are eliminated using special adhesive mixtures and putties.

Leveling a wooden floor under a laminate

Regardless of the base material, it must comply with the installation requirements of a modern coating.

Materials and Tools

To prepare a wooden surface you will need:

• a set of carpentry tools;
• measuring devices;
• wood putty;
• Sander;
• primer, paint tools;
• jigsaw;
• screwdriver and screws.

If it is necessary to perform a flooring of sheet material, wood-based boards or plywood will be required.

New floor

If the floor on which you want to lay the laminate is new, you can do without screed. In this case using a long rule with a water level reveal unevenness of the relief of the base. And then elevated places are marked. Using a grinding or grinding machine, these defects are eliminated, and then chips are removed from the surface. Then check the work performed, and if necessary, eliminate the shortcomings.

IMPORTANT! During the operation of the looping machine, a large amount of dust occurs, so it is necessary to use personal protective equipment: a respirator or gauze bandage! Headphones can protect against motor noise.

The power tool used will remove the tubercles, and putty on wood is used to level the troughs. The layer of the applied mixture must comply with the manufacturer's recommendations.

Damaged floors

If a large number of destroyed or rotten boards is detected, the floor is dismantled along with the lags and a concrete or dry screed is made. If the complete removal of the wooden base is not possible, then it is repaired, leveled with putty and covered with cement-bonded particleboards (DSP) or plywood. At the same time, the price of the material used, which will affect the cost of the floor, is taken into account.

REFERENCE! When carrying out surface repairs, a budget putty made of sawdust and PVA glue is used.

The alignment of the base is carried out by beacons, which are made in the form of screws twisted into a wooden floor at the required height. And so that the self-tapping screws do not rise above the screwed-on sheets of plywood or DSP, they first make a hole in the attachment points, then countersink and only then fix it. Gaps of 2-3 mm are left between the sheet material (for plywood) so that temperature changes do not affect the relief of the floor plane.

After installing the plates check the horizontalness of their fastening, and if necessary, adjust. Sometimes an inadequate self-tapping screw becomes the cause of the roughness of the wooden base. After that chip and dust are removed. Before laying the coating, the surface is primed with a roller or a wide brush.

How to level concrete floor

The usual concrete coating for most city dwellers requires preliminary leveling if it is planned to lay the laminate. The screed device for a modern coating is done in two stages:

1. elimination of gross defects and irregularities with a cement-sand mortar;
2. final finishing leveling by means of self-leveling mixtures.

If the concrete slab in the room where the lamellae are planned to be laid is flat and does not have large elevation differences, they can be dispensed with only in the second way. Consider both stages of work in more detail.

Foundation preparation

Before installing a cement screed the surface of the base is cleaned of traces of paints and varnishes, grease stains and construction waste. For this, solvents, scrapers and other trench tools are used.

The excess concrete that forms the hillocks is removed with a chisel and hammer, and if necessary, with a perforator. Inflows of small height, which are hidden by a screed, leave.

After that, debris and dust are removed from the base and treated with a special primer for concrete. It will increase surface adhesion, which is very important when concreting.

Having determined the thickness of the screed, beacons are installed along the perimeter of the room. With a large width of the room and the absence of a rule that overlaps the distance between the slats, intermediate beacons are installed. To do this, use a square metal profile pipe or similar material. The installed slats are checked with a water level and fixed to the base with a concrete mortar.

Rough screed

After the lighthouses freeze prepare the mixture in the ratio of cement to sand 1: 3. Thoroughly mixed with water until a sour cream consistency is obtained and the floor is poured.

IMPORTANT! If the thickness of the screed is more than 4 cm, 1-2 parts of expanded clay (with respect to cement) are added to the solution to facilitate, warm and better bond the filled mixture!

They do not recommend making a screed less than 2 cm, because it will not fulfill its purpose!

• They begin to fill from a blank end wall. The solution is supplied in excess of the required amount, and, using the rule, stretch it along the beacons.
• When shells or cavities form on an already leveled surface, the solution is added and leveled again.
• After setting the screed, the beacons are removed and the cavities from the slats are filled.
• The flooded floor is left for 2-3 weeks until completely dry.

ATTENTION! To reduce the likelihood of cracking, the surface is covered with polyethylene! This slows down the drying process and the base remains intact.

Precise alignment

After the coarse screed has completely solidified, precise leveling is used using a self-leveling mixture, the so-called bulk floor.

• First of all, measure the error of the finished surface and its deviation from the horizontal level.
• Depending on the value obtained, a brand of self-leveling mixture is selected. This is usually a composition that corrects 1-2 mm or 3-10 mm.
• In accordance with the manufacturer's instructions, a solution is prepared using mixer nozzles on a drill.
• A large area is filled with plots, and the room is up to 10 square meters. m - at a time. All sections of the divided area of ​​the premises are made within one day for integrity and lack of differential when fully hardened.
• After pouring each of the sections, the surface is treated with a special needle roller to remove air from the mixture.

1-2 hours after pouring, you will feel that the floor is ready, but it is possible to continue work on such a coating no earlier than in 2 days. After sustaining the necessary pause, they begin to lay the lamellas.

Laminate flooring tips

• To obtain a concrete screed with a lower amplitude of height differences, rough pouring is overwritten with special long graters made of wood or polymeric materials already 3 hours after pouring. After a day, this operation is repeated. Such work will allow the use of a self-leveling solution of lesser error or to avoid its use at all.
• At installation in a coupler of pipelines of a heat-insulated floor it is undesirable to use expanded clay as an additional component, because it will interfere with heat transfer. Such a base is supplemented with a fine screening fraction, which increases the heat transfer of the cement-sand layer.
• Welding mesh is used to reduce the risk of cracking., which is placed in the middle of the layer of screed of small thickness. And with a layer of more than 5 cm - closer to the top.

Having studied the method of leveling the floor under the laminate, everyone can independently perform such work, if there is a tool and, of course, desire.