Hi fellow DIYers, I have a couple of questions and wanted to get some comments on what you folks think about the approach I am taking on leveling out my floors in preparation for putting a floating engineered hardwood floor throughout.Background:Bought a house that had an ugly wall in between kitchen and dining/living room. The kitchen had vinyl, the dining room right next to it had tile (a very thick one) and the living room had carpet.We're in the process of removing the wall. We already removed the vinyl layer in the kitchen and living room carpet (exposing smooth concrete), and removed the tile in the dining room. Removing the dining room tile left a 1/2" depression in the dining room that has residues of the thinset/mortar used in the tile. The goal fill up and level the floor within the kitchen and the living room concrete floors.Suggested approach:I'm working with my uncle who has done big commercial projects in Mexico but does not have a lot of residential experience in the US. He initially recommended pouring a concrete layer in 3ft segments along the length of the dining room and leveling each side to the existing concrete floors and at the end grinding it down to level it.I decided against his suggestion for several reasons:- It would take too long (1-2 weeks according to him).- The average depth of the depression I have is 1/2". I think this is WAY too thin for concrete to be able to hold on without breaking (although, the existing rough base could give it some mechanical adherence).- I would need to wait 6-8 weeks after installing it for it to cure before being able to lay down my floor. I'm kind of in a hurry.So, I began researching other types of approaches I could use. First, I looked into self leveling concrete. It looked like a good idea until I ran calculations on the price. I have almost 200 sq ft to fill in at 1/2" on average. It would have been a very considerable cost in the material, almost $1,800 (plus, I have a slight incline in the whole room width, around 1/2" over 18 ft which would not help the self-leveling material).Here's the approach I decided to move forward with (and would love to hear your opinions/comments/concerns/questions):First, I would use deck mud to dry-pack and lift the whole dining room area. I'm planning on using Quikrete Sand-topping mix and using an acrylic fortifier since I have a relatively thin area that I need to cover. I know this is typically used for shower beds but I found several applications on YouTube where people use it to dry-pack and level a whole room before laying tile. I understand that the deck mud will be less strong than concrete (and crumbly from the inside) but it is not intended to be a walking surface anyway. It's rated at 3000psi in 7 days and 5000psi within 28 days. The curing time is much less than regular concrete too.After the sub-floor bed of deckmud, I'm thinking of putting a very thin layer of self-leveling concrete to fill in any errors and to finish evening out the surfaces where the existing concrete will join to the new deckmud. I'm also hoping this will also add a sort of protective layer over the deckmud.After the self-leveling, I would lay down a vapor barrier with a 2-3mm on the whole area (kitchen/dining/living room) padding and then I would install the floating floors.So, what do you folks think about my approach. My uncle is not convinced. Thanks. via /r/DIY http://ift.tt/2klVpff
