How to prepare a wooden floor for laminate. How to prepare your floor for laminate flooring

Prices for repair services today can hardly be called affordable, so many try to do at least part of the work with their own hands. Especially since modern materials are easy to install. Many people choose laminate flooring for their flooring. The coating looks attractive, and the material is easy to install. Let's figure out how to prepare the floor for the laminate.

In the process of doing repairs with your own hands, it is very important to choose high-quality materials. But even the highest quality laminate will not last long if you do not carefully prepare the base before laying it.

If you ignore this stage of repair, then the floor covering will fail faster. We will figure out how to carry out the preparatory work that precedes the laying of the laminate with your own hands.

Where to begin?

Before you start laying the laminate with your own hands, you need to carry out a series of preparatory work, namely:

free the room from all things;
to dismantle floor coverings;
clean the floor
inspect for defects;
choose the alignment method and do the work.

Advice! It is necessary to choose a leveling method taking into account the floor material (concrete or wood), as well as taking into account its condition.

Alignment methods

The most commonly used ground leveling methods are:

The use of self-leveling compounds. This option is possible if the base of the floor is even and the height differences do not exceed 2-3 mm per linear meter;
Making a new tie. This option is used when leveling concrete floors.
Laying wooden flooring from plywood sheets. This method is suitable for leveling wooden surfaces.

Concrete floor preparation

Most modern apartments the floor is concrete, therefore, most often, for leveling it is necessary to perform a new concrete screed.

Advice! Nowadays, screeding is carried out using ready-made building mixtures. This will greatly facilitate the process, since to prepare the solution you just need to mix the mixture with water.

What will be required?

To level the floor, you need to prepare:

mixture for rough leveling (the amount depends on the area of \u200b\u200bthe room in which the repair is being made);
mixture for finishing alignment (self-leveling);
pendulum rails;
drill with a nozzle for mixing the mixture;
rule - a tool for alignment;
roller with a needle-shaped surface to remove air trapped in the screed.

Work sequence

You need to start work with a thorough cleaning, you need to remove all debris and remove dust. Next, you can start the alignment process:

First of all, you need to outline the level of the new floor. This operation will require building level. The new level line must be applied to all four walls of the room;
next you need to install the pendulum rails. This is a very important stage, since the quality of the screed will depend on the correctness of its implementation;

Advice! As pendulum rails, you can use drywall profiles, you need to place the rails in increments of about a meter. Install the rails on the solution.

now you can start preparing a solution from a dry mixture. You need to cook exactly following the instructions, you need to mix with a drill with a special nozzle;
the finished solution is placed between the pendulum slats, leveling the rule;
then you need to give time for the solidification of the solution.

Self-leveling compounds

The rough screed device does not allow you to get enough smooth surface. Therefore, it will be necessary to perform a final leveling using a special self-leveling compound.

Advice! If the concrete floor is sufficiently even and strong, then the step of making a rough screed can be skipped. In this case, a bulk mixture is immediately applied to the surface.

The work is done like this:

prepare the solution according to the instructions on the package;
the mixture begins to be applied to the prepared floor: it is necessary to pour the solution from the wall opposite the door;
the solution is simply poured out of the container, and then, using a special wide spatula on long handle level the mixture;

Advice! Work must be done in special shoes with spiked soles. These soles can be purchased at a hardware store and attached to any work boots. In such shoes, you can walk on a flooded surface without harming it.

then you need to use a needle roller, they need to roll the surface, achieving mirror smoothness;
you need to work fast enough and not take breaks in the process, otherwise the mixture may begin to solidify unevenly;
the screed is ready, it remains to give it time to dry.

Wood floor preparation

A wooden floor is prepared for laying a laminate in a different way. The most common preparation option is leveling using 12mm plywood. The work should be done like this:

a thorough cleaning is carried out;
each floorboard is carefully examined, if destroyed places are identified, it will be necessary to replace the boards in this place. Loosened Polovtsy fix:
experts recommend “killing” an old but still strong wooden floor, that is, removing the boards, and then laying them, turning them over to the reverse side, fixing them well;
sheets of plywood must be cut into slabs of such a size that it is convenient to work with them;
the plates are laid in rows, a small gap (5 mm) must be left between the sheets to compensate for changes in the linear dimensions of the plates with changes in humidity. The plates in the rows are laid "in a run" so that the joints between the sheets in the rows do not coincide;

if significant irregularities are revealed on the wooden floors, then the plywood will need to be laid in two rows. So it will be possible to achieve better alignment, but it will be more expensive. In addition, when laying plywood in two layers, the floor level will rise to a more significant height.

DSP application

Cement particle boards can also be used for surface preparation. But first they prepare the base, laying the boards strictly according to the level. To level the coating of the boards, plywood linings are used. Plates are placed on top of the leveled surface, cutting them to the size of the room. Fasten the plates with screws.

Substrate laying

After the floor is leveled, you can proceed to the last stage of preparation - laying the substrate. But first you need to choose its type. Today they use:

Polymer substrates based on polyethylene foam. This substrate may have an additional foil layer. It has an affordable cost, easy to fit, does not rot.
Cork. Natural, durable, but rather expensive version of the substrate.
Bituminous cork flooring. The base of the substrate is kraft cardboard impregnated with bitumen and covered with cork crumbs.
Coniferous. An expensive, but high-quality version of the substrate, made on the basis of coniferous tree shavings.

In order for a laminate floor to last long enough, it is necessary not only to choose quality material but also carefully prepare the foundation. You can do the work of leveling and preparing the floor with your own hands. But first you need to study the instructions for the work.

Finally, the agony of choosing a floor covering is left behind - you have purchased a (we sincerely hope that high-quality) laminate. But, before you start laying, pay attention to the quality of the rough surface - after all, the service life and appearance coatings. Laminate is a whimsical material and it's not a secret. Moreover, his "whimsicalness", contrary to popular belief, is not so much in the quality of exploitation and capriciousness in terms of care, but in exactingness to the foundation. All kinds of tubercles, cracks in wooden box, cracks in the screed, if they are not eliminated in a timely manner, will soon lead to damage to the coating and, as a result, to new time and material costs. That is why the preparation of the floor for the laminate should become an integral, carefully carried out stage in the arrangement of the floor structure.

Why is a flat surface important?

Differences in the draft surface are serious "provocateurs" of the failure of their locks of the laminate - the most sore point of this floor product. Due to the bumps and pits present under the coating, the forces from your movements will be transferred to the junctions of the plates, thereby significantly “overloading” them. The result is the occurrence of cracks and swelling in problem areas. Rotten boards and cracked screeds "threaten" the laminate with constant contact with moisture coming from below. What this is fraught with, it is not difficult to guess.

The strength of the floor, made on the basis of a self-leveling mixture, significantly exceeds the strength of even a concrete screed. How to choose the composition of the mixture and carry out the work is described in the material:.

Leveling a concrete floor under a laminate

Are you dealing with a "humped" concrete base? You can't do without pouring a self-leveling mixture. The sequence of actions in this case should be as follows:

general surface cleaning: concrete should ideally be vacuumed;
covering cracks in the screed (best with tile glue), knocking down bumps and sagging;
floor treatment with a deep penetrating primer;
prepare the mixture according to the manufacturer's instructions. If you evaluate the density of the solution by eye, then its consistency should resemble sour cream. The mixture should be brought to absolute homogeneity - no lumps should remain;
pouring self-leveling screed. Filling should begin from the highest point of the floor - the mass will “spread” over the surface by gravity.
uniform distribution of the solution with a spatula;
rolling out the mixture with a roller - in this way, the air that has fallen under the mixture is expelled, which can provoke many small holes on the new surface;
the leveling mass dries up in about a day - but it should be postponed for a few more days.

Working with a wooden base

If everything is more or less clear with a concrete floor, then the nature of the preparation of a wooden floor raises many questions. One of them - where to start?

We answer - of course, from the revision of the coverage. The wooden floor should be carefully inspected to ensure its strength, to identify rotten or cracked elements. Then it is necessary to evaluate whether it is possible to isolate problem areas (if any) without complete dismantling grounds. At the same stage, the evenness of the surface is checked. Height differences of two or three millimeters are quite acceptable.

Significant differences will have to be leveled. How?

replace damaged boards or their sections;
drive flush / remove protruding nails;
carefully pull all the floorboards to the joists;
lay and fix plywood (thickness about ten millimeters).

Preparing wooden floors for laminate flooring involves careful protective treatment wood. For these purposes, an ordinary (but high-quality) drying oil is suitable. Also, the floor can be sanded, and all the cracks can be covered with a special tool.

We will tell you in detail about leveling a wooden floor for a laminate in the article:. Comparison of three methods: dry floor screed; plywood, fiberboard, chipboard and OSB; adjustable legs.

This video demonstrates another way to level wooden floors (having minor differences) - surface treatment with acrylic sealant.

The use of cement particle boards

You can also level the floor under the laminate with the help of DSP sheets. To do this, you need to lay out the level of the base - building boards. Under the boards, if necessary, enclose sheets of plywood; the structure is well fixed. Cement particle boards are cut to size and placed on top of it. Then carefully check the flatness of the surface and fasten each of the elements with self-tapping screws.

Read about the installation of electric, water and film underfloor heating with your own hands in the article:. Overview of installation nuances various types heating.

How about underfloor heating?

It's popular in recent times addition to the arrangement of laminated floors. Installation requires compliance with a special technology for performing work and accurate weighted calculations - leveling and preparing the base in this case will be more specific. See them in our section about underfloor heating.

When working, try to avoid common mistakes inexperienced homeowners. For example, attempts to even out impressive differences with the help of a substrate laid in two layers. Competent preparation of the base for a laminated floor is a guarantee that the coating will delight you with its aesthetics and durability for many years.

Laminate is a material that is very demanding on the quality of the base on which it is laid.

This article will help you understand what the base for the laminate should be and what steps the base preparation process consists of.

And you will also find out if the laminate can be laid on a concrete screed, wooden floor, and also on top of old linoleum or ceramic tiles.

What should be the basis

Whatever material the base is made of, it must be:

solid and strong, without staggering, poorly fixed elements
clean
dry
perfectly flat

Surface leveling is one of the main stages of its preparation. Any irregularities, even if not very significant, will lead to the fact that the load on the panels when walking on the floor will be unbalanced, and this is fraught with the appearance of cracks, breaks and other damage to the laminate.

First of all, castle connections suffer. An insufficiently even surface of the base will lead to the formation of gaps between adjacent panels and their loosening.

According to SNiP, surface height differences of 2 m should be within 2 mm, and a uniform slope - 4 mm. Today, many manufacturers allow a greater difference, so it is better to clarify the requirements by studying the instructions for a particular laminate grade.

Can laminate flooring be installed over old flooring?

Laminate can be laid on the old floor if it meets the above requirements.

Minor defects can be eliminated, for example, fixing loose or replacing worn boards, gluing loose tiles and filling cracks, chips (if any).

If most of the floorboards are badly worn or rotten, it is better to dismantle such a coating completely. Boards should also not creak or sag.

Laminate can be laid on top of linoleum if the old coating was laid on a well-prepared, even base, it was laid with high quality and does not have swelling. Lagging areas must be glued, holes sealed with pieces of laminate or substrate of the appropriate shape and thickness.

Carpet needs to be removed, the laminate does not fit on it.

Concrete floor preparation

Features of preparing a concrete floor for a laminate depend on the quality of the base, its condition, its main stages are:

Cleaning of debris, dust, sand - it is best to use an industrial vacuum cleaner.
Sealing cracks, cleaning crumbling and exfoliating areas, knocking down sags (if any).
Measurement of height difference and slope, leveling of the base, if these values exceed the allowable values.
Base waterproofing.

Small pits, depressions, cracks can be repaired with putty; to strengthen the base, it is advisable to glue larger cracks with a sickle.

Before applying putty, the areas to be treated must be treated with a primer of a suitable type. It is better to knock down bumps and influxes with a perforator.

After eliminating minor defects, the surface is ground and primed, the primer strengthens the base and helps to get rid of dust and sand.

In the presence of moving sections of the floor of a large area, after sealing the cracks, the base is reinforced with a wire mesh with a mesh of 10x10 cm, a cement-sand screed about 3 cm thick is made over the mesh.

Height differences over the entire area, depending on the scale, are eliminated using a self-leveling or cement-sand screed.

Before carrying out further work, it is imperative to check the moisture level of the substrate.

To do this, a piece of plastic film is attached to it with adhesive tape: if condensation has not formed under the film overnight, the surface is ready for laying the laminate.

But first you need to equip the waterproofing. For hydro- and vapor barrier, a polyethylene film with a thickness of at least 200 microns is used. It is laid in strips perpendicular to the future direction of laying the laminate panels, with an overlap of 20-25 cm and 10-15 cm on the walls, fixed with adhesive tape at the joints and in some places to prevent shifting.

Wood floor preparation

If the base is generally strong, not affected by rot, woodworms, preparation is reduced to the elimination of existing defects:

loose floorboards are fixed with self-tapping screws
heavily damaged floorboards, areas where there are gaps are dismantled, the boards are replaced with new ones
slight differences in height, irregularities are eliminated by sanding, cracks are sealed with acrylic sealant
if the floor creaks, the creak is eliminated
if the floorboards sag, you can lay a second layer of boards perpendicular to them or strengthen the base with plywood sheets
if there is a significant slope or height differences, they are eliminated by one of the possible methods

There are several ways to deal with squeaky wood floors. Protozoa:

drive deeper nails in the places where the boards are attached to the joists and additionally screw a couple of self-tapping screws in these places
make small holes in places where the creak is especially pronounced, and insert several cylinders of mounting foam under the floor

These methods do not require the dismantling of the coating, but give a temporary effect. More efficient fixing the lag with anchor bolts. To perform it, it is not necessary to dismantle the boardwalk, you can remove one row of boards to find the places where the logs pass. Then, every half a meter, anchor bolts are screwed in, which must pass through the boards, logs and reach concrete base.

Before laying the laminate, it is extremely important to make sure that there are no nail heads and self-tapping screws protruding above the floor surface. The protruding nails are either pulled out or hammered deeper, recesses are pre-drilled under the screws, into which the hats can be drowned.

Ways to level the floor under the laminate

Leveling a wooden floor and leveling a concrete floor under a laminate is done by different methods, the choice of method also depends on the nature and extent of the problem (height differences or uniform slope, small or large irregularities).

Leveling the floor with plywood or cement particle boards

Leveling the floor with plywood for laminate flooring is usually used to level the plank wooden floor or parquet, if there are significant irregularities that cannot be eliminated by sanding.

It also allows you to level the slope of the floor, but in this case it is necessary to fill slats of different thicknesses over the old base.

Sometimes used to level a concrete base, slabs or sheets are attached to the logs.

Sheets or plates are stacked in a checkerboard pattern, fastened with self-tapping screws in increments of 15-20 cm, so that the hats are completely recessed. Between the plates (sheets) it is necessary to leave gaps of 5-10 mm. Then the surface is polished.

no "wet" processes, the ability to immediately start laying the laminate
additional strengthening of the base is provided
additional thermal insulation

additional consumption of materials
in rooms with low ceilings, every centimeter of height counts, and slabs or plywood are used to level the floor with a thickness of 15-20 mm.

They are used to eliminate a significant slope of wooden floors.

The floor is disassembled and the lags are given the same height (the excess is cut off with a planer or slats of the desired thickness are attached from above).

People say: "Repair is an expensive pleasure." Here I am, a man of mental labor, as they liked to say in the USSR, but with my hands growing all the same from where I needed to, I decided in my old age to check how expensive it is and how you can save money if you do everything, or at least everything possible, with your own hands?

My three bedroom apartment during construction received a floor covering in the form of linoleum. In the hall and bedroom, its condition, after 22 years of operation, is 4, maybe with a minus, but still 4. But in the former nursery, the rating is closer to failure.

Waves appeared, in some places the concrete under the linoleum was destroyed, which was incomprehensible to me. After all, I thought that the flooring lies directly on the concrete floor, and how it could be broken - nothing rational came to mind (only when I began to deal directly with the repair, I found out that it was a floor screed).

On one of the grandchildren's visits, a small 2-year-old granddaughter caught on the bulge of the linoleum and fell, the old floor was sentenced. We consolidated all our financial resources and began to consider whether they would be enough for a quick and high-quality repair. It is during the construction of a private house that the floor can be laid for several months. What about living on a construction site for a few months? No, sorry.

For quick repair, what is needed? Availability of materials and a team of professional builders. To ensure all this, you need, rightly, money. If they are not enough, it is better to postpone repair work before the advent required amount and live in normal conditions.

Therefore, we started by deciding to determine the amount for the purchase of a new floor covering. The choice was short-lived: laminate or parquet. The price factor immediately crossed out the parquet from the list - it's expensive.

Laminate is a modern, beautiful, durable and affordable floor. I knew its approximate cost - 550 rubles / m 2. Therefore, they quickly calculated the area of the room - 21.8 m 2, and then the necessary amount for the purchase of a new floor. It turned out about 12.0 thousand rubles. There was still 55.0 thousand rubles left in stock, which made it possible to hire professionals to install it.

To understand how to prepare the floor for laying laminate and how to mount it, I went online to look for various forums about this flooring. And here a few surprises awaited me.

1. The best is the laminate of German and Finnish production. But there is one thing that I, as a specialist in the field of mechanization of technological processes, know for sure: in Russia, laminate flooring is produced on the same equipment that the Germans and Finns have.

The process is fully automated, therefore, the quality of the finished product should not differ. This is not an assembly cars, where a locksmith can adjust the car door with a sledgehammer, instead of working for 15-20 minutes with a screwdriver.

2. I thought that the thicker the lamellae, the better. Almost all forums talk about it. But on one site, the eye caught on the phrase: "the quality of the laminate is primarily determined by its density."

It didn't matter right away. But in my head the proposal was spinning and spinning. Decided to check anyway. And suddenly it turned out - indeed, the lamellas have different densities. What this means for quality, probably, does not need to be explained - foam rubber 5 cm thick will not withstand the weight of a person and will doubt.

A denser metal with a thickness of 2 mm can easily cope with this task. Therefore, a denser 8 mm laminate is better than 12 mm, but with a lower density. To provide good quality floor during its operation, the lamella board must have a density of at least 850 kg / m 3.

Small digression: during the purchase of laminate in several outlets, not a single seller named this quality indicator. On the contrary, they asked in surprise, what is it and how does it affect the operation of the floor?

Manufacturers also do not indicate this figure on the packaging. But don't get upset. The calculation is easy to do on your own. To do this, the weight of the slats (net), one of the mandatory product parameters applied to the packaging material, is divided by their area (lamella length * width * number of boards in a pack), and then again divided by the thickness of one board.

3. You need to buy with a margin of at least 10%. The installation technology affects the indicator: direct - 10%; diagonally - 20%; pattern - 30%.

4. The package usually contains 2 m 2 of laminate. There are slight deviations caused by different board size. Based on the knowledge gained, I adjusted the required amount of laminate. It turned out that you need to buy 24 m 2 of lamellas in the amount of 13.2 thousand rubles.

5. Learned that laminate flooring has 4 chronic problems:

Very hygroscopic. Through unprotected sidewalls, it, like a sponge, absorbs water from the air, and this leads to a loss of strength in lock connections and bloating;
Not only conducts well, but also amplifies the sound (resonates);
Afraid of oscillatory movements up and down. Due to constant deflections under the unevenness of the base of the floor, slowly but steadily, the connecting locks are destroyed;
Unpleasantly reacts to tubercles on concrete screed. They are pressed into the array of lamellas, simultaneously pushing out to the surface a part of the pressed material that makes up the laminate. The bumps that appear will wear out over time. In their place, an ugly spot appears, through which the lamella begins to absorb water.

However, these problems have solutions (listed in the same order as the problems):

waterproofing of the base of the floor;
soundproofing laminate;
floor screed device (later it turned out that it can be of 4 types: dry, semi-dry, wet and using plywood or sheets of cement-bonded particle boards);
laying the substrate under the lamellas.

The information received was a little embarrassing - additional costs loomed on the horizon, the magnitude of which was still unclear.

How much does it cost to repair a floor in an apartment

Information on the Internet on issues of interest either did not exist at all, or it was contradictory. Therefore, it was necessary to consult a specialist, and not a simple estimator, who is sent by large repair and construction companies to the customer, but a professional who could answer any question.

The answer was found by itself - a conversation in one company a year ago surfaced in my head. One of the participants of the gatherings, a restaurateur, talked about how he did the renovation of his establishment. The problem was in the time of repair. In an effort to retain customers and earn money, the restaurant owner decided to carry out repairs every day after the establishment was closed, i.e. at night and early in the morning.

However, as soon as the builders started work, the neighbors from above called the police squad. Unfortunately for the restaurateur and repairmen, they were right. This went on several times until all potential performers refused the order.

A colleague, the same restaurateur, advised me to turn to one small company, which worked perfectly and successfully solved sensitive issues. Its peculiarity is that from the authorities there is only a director, he is also the owner. This allows you to control the entire work of the company on highest level. Attempts to expand and invite foremen and foremen to work turned into a decrease in the quality of work, which in no way suited the owner.

After preliminary negotiations, the director of the company asked the restaurateur for a few days for a final answer. During these days, he personally visited every family living above the restaurant, and agreed with them that they would not call the police because of the noise at night. The repair was completed quickly and with proper quality. Under what conditions the neighbors agreed to endure the repair time, so no one found out.

Finding this professional and arranging a meeting was a technical matter. After examining the premises, the young man, the director of the company, first described what is and what should be.

Linoleum lies on a screed 3 cm thick, not reinforced. It needs to be removed.
The builders either saved money or forgot to put the damper tape under the floor screed, as a result of which it cracked and crumbled in some places.
Laying laminate requires mandatory hydro and sound insulation, as well as substrates for lamellas. In addition, you will have to level the base of the floor with a screed (without a screed, the laminate will not last more than a year). All this will significantly raise the floor in relation to the flooring in the corridor. You can minimize the rise in floor level by applying a wet, fiber-reinforced screed (it is the thinnest). The substrate, at the same time, should be purchased with a waterproofing layer, so as not to lay a separate waterproofing layer. Instead of a wet screed, you can use a self-leveling mixture, which will lower the floor level by 1 cm, but this is very, very expensive.
decorative overlay for door frame will have to be cut. Change the door or also shorten it.
The difference between the height of the floors will have to be eliminated with a special inclined threshold.

After that, he dictated the cost of the work and rates:

Remove linoleum - 1,000 rubles. or 50 rubles / m 2 (laminate - 150 rubles / m 2, tiles - 200-300 rubles / m 2);
Break the screed - 5,500 rubles. or 200-300 rubles / m 2;
Load the garbage from the screed into bags (in our case, you will need about 100 bags) - 2,000 rubles;
Take the bags out of the apartment, take them down the elevator and load them into the car - 3,000 rubles. In the absence of an elevator, each floor will cost 100 rubles. for 1 bag. Thank god there is an elevator;
Take out the garbage (order a ZIL car) - 5,000 rubles.

Attention: since the spring of 2018, the cost of garbage collection has increased to 6,000 rubles.

Install beacons, attach a damper tape and pour a wet screed (without materials) - 11,000 rubles;
Lay a substrate with a waterproofing layer - 3,300 rubles. or 150 rubles / m 2 (when laying the waterproofing layer separately, the price for laying the substrate will be 50 rubles per m 2, and waterproofing 150 rubles per 1 m 2);
Lay laminate in a direct way - 7,000 rubles. or 250-400 rubles / m 2, depending on the volume and method of laying.

Thus, only work will cost 37,800 rubles. But still buy cement, sand, substrate and other materials. The mood plummeted. At the family council, it was decided to make repairs with their own hands.

Subfloor preparation

The preparation of the floor for laying the laminate began with the release of the room from the furniture and things, of which there were quite a lot. They planned to complete the work in a couple of hours, but in the end they gave it almost a day for everything.

It was possible to remove the plinth and linoleum quickly, but it was not possible to get rid of it. The management company forbade it to be thrown into garbage containers. But this did not upset us. All the same, you need to order a car for the rest of the construction waste.

The next day, they began to break the screed. After an hour of dusty work, we realized that without a perforator we would be messing around for several days. He was not at home, and his friends did not have a puncher either. The director of a construction company, already familiar to me, advised me to rent an instrument by the hour. The price was reasonable - 500 rubles. per day for a BOSCH puncher.

The perforator was finished by the end of the day. The next day I ordered a car, which should arrive at 12 o'clock. The reserve in time provided for loading bags with garbage. Dense garbage bags were bought not new, but used, which saved a decent amount - the purchase cost only 370 rubles.

The concrete base after garbage removal swept, and then vacuumed. It turned out that in some places the old screed was badly beaten off on it, and there were also cracks - one is quite wide, and three are small.

It bothered me a lot. After all, as I understood reinforced concrete products should not crack. Here are some cracks. If they formed on flat surface, then already along the finished cracks the cracking process will go faster and more intensively. Action is urgently needed.

The Internet is back to help. But I did not find any recommendations that were understandable to a novice builder. More and more there was an instruction where cracks should be sealed with a primer or a special mixture, the cost of which was prohibitive for me. I had to call a professional again. The result was a simple and inexpensive concrete base treatment recipe.

Attention: to help the same novice builders, based on my experience, recommendations on the Internet and professional advice, I wrote an article "". There, a separate block also considers the preparation of a wooden floor for a laminate.

The preparation of the concrete floor for the laminate continued with the cleaning of the remains of the old screed. They, although with difficulty, but succumbed to the hammer and chisel. He also removed with a hammer and chisel several chips and exfoliated parts of the concrete base. And the cracks had to be dealt with.

By this time, I had written in my notebook step by step instruction in terms of their treatment. In this case, several points are underlined.

Small cracks need to be expanded to 3-5 mm, otherwise it is difficult to rub the cement mortar into them - I did this with a bicycle screwdriver and a hammer.
Large cracks are reinforced. To this end, with a grinder, with a cutting wheel for concrete, across the crack at a distance of 4-5 cm from each other, make grooves 9-10 cm long and 15-20 mm deep. Then it will be necessary to put screws with a cut off head in them and fix them with a repair solution. But this is a little later.
Be sure to prime the slots and grooves for reinforcement. The purpose of such an operation is to saturate the concrete with water in the places where the mortar is grouted. It only seems that he is a monolith. In fact, its surface greedily absorbs water (in science, the process is called "capillary suction"). And if you do not saturate the embedding sites with moisture in advance, water from cement-sand mixture leaves - the concrete surface will pull it out like a blotting paper. And without water, the process of hydration (in plain language - the process of formation of cement stone) will not be completed. As a result, we get crumbling small pieces of cement stone. Along the way, the primer binds the dust that the vacuum cleaner could not pull out.
On Internet forums, it is suggested that concrete be primed with water or Ceresit ST 17. However, experienced professionals, to whom I include the director of the company, prefer to perform this operation with cement milk. It's much cheaper and the quality better than water and is not inferior to special primers. At the same time, milk cement penetrates into the smallest pores of concrete and creates a film on the crack surface, which ensures mutual adhesion of the repair composition to the concrete body. For the sake of curiosity, under the bad remarks of my neighbors, I tried to damage the surface of the repaired cracks. After all, it was necessary to know why the garden was built. Under sarcastic chuckles, nothing happened to me.

For reference: why is it cheaper? Cement M400 or M500 will have to be bought in any case - you cannot make a screed without it. And a canister with Ceresit ST 17 for concrete costs about 4.0 thousand rubles, which, you see, is a lot. Also, later I discovered cheaper primers, the cost of which was 2-2.5 times less than Ceresit.

Cement milk consists only of cement (one part) and water (2 parts). I filled the cracks and grooves with cement milk. However, because of the dust, the surface of the concrete did not get wet everywhere, and the base was vacuumed only an hour ago. I had to paint brush rub milk into cracks. In just a couple of minutes, the water disappeared, leaving only a wet trail. The procedure had to be repeated twice more. Only after the third wetting it was seen that the concrete was practically saturated with moisture.

It's time to seal the cracks with repair mortar. Its preparation is not difficult - cement 1 part, water and fine sand 3 parts each, also 1 part PVA glue. Since I needed very little of all this, I made the repair solution in a plastic 2 liter bottle, cut in half.

The components were recalculated accordingly. A huge selection of industrial and very effective repair mixtures is offered for sale. But they are quite expensive, and in addition you need about 10% of the quantity sold. Where to put the rest? It turns out to throw real money down the drain, but I'm not an oligarch.

After thorough mixing, the result was a completely non-fluid mixture. It doesn't fit into small cracks. I had to rub it with a spatula, and also trample it inside the cracks with a screwdriver. It turned out well in the end. Naturally, it is much easier to pour such a mortar into wider openings in a concrete base, or rather, to overwrite it, which was shown by a wide crack. Everything here was done in a couple of minutes.

For observant readers: no, I didn't forget to put the screws in the grooves to reinforce the crack.

Drying of the repair mortar took 28 days. In principle, the work could be continued on the 7th day, but for a number of reasons they were frozen. Further preparation of the floor for the laminate consisted of several technological operations:

waterproofing;
fastening to the wall damper tape;
sound insulation;
pouring a wet screed;
laying the substrate.

In this list, only the laying of the substrate was in last place. The rest of the operations could be both the first and penultimate. It all depended on the type of materials used. In an effort to reduce the height of the floor, I leaned towards the option of priming the concrete base with special waterproofing compounds for waterproofing, which, in my opinion, underestimated the floor by 5 mm.

However, my savior, a young professional, with figures in hand, showed that this option is too expensive and the reduction will be real by only 2 mm. The most optimal option:

prime the concrete floor with cement milk - for better adhesion of the screed to the base concrete or, as pundits say, for better adhesion;
pour wet screed;
lay a plastic film over the screed for waterproofing;
put underlay.

Along the way, you need to fix a damper tape on the wall and install beacons for pouring the screed.

Following the instructions of a professional, I still did not quite accurately write down the first point. More precisely, I wrote it down as dictated, but the point is not at all what is written down. By the way, in textbooks for finishers it is written the same way. But again, this is not entirely true.

Adhesion of the floor with the screed is not required. Otherwise, how to explain the “floating screed”, when the cement mortar is poured onto a hydro- or noise-insulating material - a film with which there is no adhesion of cement and cannot be.

The main and only task of priming concrete is to fill its surface with water so that it does not take it from the screed. There are two important points to keep in mind here.

The factory primer saturates the pores of the floor with moisture and solid polymer particles, which, after drying, form a moisture-proof film on its surface. Therefore, before pouring the screed, the concrete must be dry, builders call this “dry on dry”.
Cement milk saturates the concrete with water and also creates a film. But it does not prevent the flow of water to the concrete base of the floor. Therefore, here the opposite is true - you can not let such a primer dry (“wet on wet”).

Installation of beacons and damper tape

Initially, it seemed to me that it would not take much time to beat off the screed line and install beacons with a damper tape - a maximum of a day, given the lack of experience. But problems began literally from the first steps. I knew what lighthouses were - I saw them while plastering the walls. But when I started to figure out how to install them on the floor, the first thing that caused difficulty was what the zero line and the tie line are, and also how to apply them to the wall.

I read about 5 works on the Internet, but I really could not understand. I do not know, or I became stupid, or it was written not entirely clear. The problem was solved simply - in one of the works I saw a well-executed drawing. Everything fell into place. If it caught my eye right away, then I wouldn't have to read anything.

The zero level, or, as they say, the horizon line is a line on the wall along the entire perimeter of the room, drawn parallel to the horizon (not the floor, but the horizon) at a convenient height for work, about 1.4-1.6 m from the floor. It is easiest to draw this line using a 3-4 m long hydraulic level, a transparent plastic tube. The fuel pipe of diesel cars is ideal for these purposes. Water is poured into it in such a way that it is not at both ends of the tube, 15-20 cm.

It was not difficult to determine how many spans were needed to fill the screed. It didn't even require any calculations. Two spans, a little less than 2 m wide, create difficulties both in pouring and in working with the rule - it is difficult to press it against another lighthouse at such a length when the screed is leveled. Three spans is the best solution. As a result, we received four lines of lighthouses, 22 m long.

The next stage of work required the purchase of fiber (100 rubles), a 2 m long rule (it turned out to be not very expensive - 431 rubles) and 22 m of aluminum guide beacons. The price of 1 m is only 50 rubles, but their purchase as a whole costs 1100 rubles. Plus, you need to look for a grinder to cut them to size.

If it goes on like this, then the little things will eat up all the money allocated for repairs. After some hesitation, it was decided to install mortar beacons, which are many times cheaper, and it’s easier to install them, judging by the comments on the forums. Not from Rotband, which also requires money, but cement and sand. True, there are two buts here:

their drying time is more than 8 days;
the first days you can’t even breathe on mortar beacons, so as not to damage them, they are so tender.

But everything turned out for the better - the "helpers" who could "correct" the grandfather's work did not plan to visit him in the near future. The installation of beacons began again with the rental of a BOSCH puncher (again 500 rubles from the pocket, not counting the fare).

They drilled holes along the line marked with chalk for the dowels. There are five holes in total. The first and last at a distance of 10 cm from the wall, the rest at an equal distance from each other. So we went through all the lines. The whole job was completed in about half an hour.

In dowels, driven into holes, screwed, pre-lubricated laundry soap, self-tapping screws. If anyone thought that soap was needed for easier screwing of hardware, then they were mistaken. Just the opposite, to twist them out when the beacon solution hardens (cement does not set with greasy and soapy surfaces).

By the way, for the same purpose, so that the solution does not stick to the rule, it was subjected to the same treatment. Then the rule was laid flat on two self-tapping screws, the one closest to the wall and the next one, pressing its end against the wall. Above, in the middle of the rule, they put a construction level.

Further work was reduced to “screwing and unscrewing” the self-tapping screw, each in turn, until the rule took a strictly horizontal position at the level of the screed line. Since the second screw has already taken the necessary position, the third hardware very quickly found its rightful position.

I hope there is no need to explain in detail that the rule was already on the second and third screws, and I twisted only the third one. To my surprise, the work was done very quickly, and I was afraid that it would take several hours.

The next step is the treatment of the concrete base with cement milk, but not all, but only those lines where the beacons will be installed. The solution for mortar beacons was mixed with a mixer (I inserted the appropriate nozzle into the perforator) in a 15-liter bucket. The ratio of cement and sand is 1:3. Added 1/3 of water, half a liter of PVA glue and the same liquid soap as a plasticizer. I wanted to get a semi-dry solution, but it does not mold well. The addition of a plasticizer solves the problem.

When there was no pure sand in the solution, I considered that it was ready. The trowel began to make a comb between the screws, but just above their heads. The solution was just not enough for the entire line. Therefore, I did the following batches taking into account the experience gained.

For the first time, I was afraid that during the operation of the mixer, part of the solution would be on the walls of the room and reinsured myself. Then he put a rule on the comb, and a level on it and pressed the entire structure against the heads of the screws to get a screed line. In several places, the solution climbed up. I had to cut it with a master. And so on all the way.

Why did he put a level on the rule? Yes, I was afraid that when you press in the middle, the rule will bend down. And if you press together on the screws, then it can bend in an arc. And so, by clicking on the level, I got a very even line.

At the end of the work on installing the beacons, I accidentally discovered a blunder in my work. All instructions say that mortar beacons should fit snugly against the wall. But who will tell me how, after the mortar has hardened, attach a damper tape around the entire perimeter. No way. And the line of lighthouses will be broken, and this is not discussed.

I'm glad I noticed in time. Therefore, with a trowel, carefully cut out openings for the tape between the wall and the lighthouses. And I made a note in my mind - everything that is written on the Internet should be analyzed. Trust but verify.

I decided to fasten the tape before pouring the screed, when the solution of the beacons will seize to such an extent that it will be possible to work on it. Specifically, how long such a lighthouse dries is not written anywhere. I decided to wait 8-10 days and constantly check the strength of the lighthouse surface with a screwdriver.

At the same time brought all necessary materials: cement, sand and damper tape. Their calculation, for those who are at least a little friendly with mathematics, does not cause difficulties. Multiply the floor area by the average thickness of the screed. And that's it. I got 0.95 m 3 (21.8x0.044).

For those too lazy to go back to the beginning of the story:

21.8 m 2 - room area;
0.044 - the average thickness of the screed (4.4 cm).

You can determine the number of components of the solution using special construction tables. I needed 10 bags of cement, 50 kg each, and 24 bags of sand, also 50 kg each. For the screed, Portland cement M400 is needed.

But I, due to the specifics of my work, knew well one subtlety, which I think will be a revelation for many - all types of cement lose their original properties after 6 months of storage and go one step lower.

M400 cement becomes M300, and M500 comes in its place. Therefore, I bought the M500 brand to be safe. Along the way, I bought a damper tape. I paid 5,720 rubles for everything:

cement - 3200 rubles;
sand 2,400 rubles;
damper tape Knauf - 120 rubles.

Delivery cost 400 rubles. But he began to lift bags into the apartment himself, regretted 3,400 rubles. (100 rubles per bag).

On the 12th day, I considered that it was possible to extend the work. Therefore, at first I unscrewed the screws, attached a damper tape to the PVA glue, primed the beacons and the span between them with cement milk, and then began to make a mortar: M500 cement - 1 part, sand, sifted and washed - 3 parts, fiberglass.

Given the large volumes of the solution, a 50-liter polyethylene container for pickling cucumbers was brought from the dacha. A neighbor recommended taking from him a 200 l cut in half metal barrel, specially adapted for these purposes, but you cannot bring it without a trailer. My friends and I didn’t have it, but we didn’t want to rent it.

I poured one 5-liter bucket of cement and three of the same buckets of sand into the barrel. I scattered a pinch of fiber on the surface and began to mix it all with a mixer. Why a little? And in all the forums it is said that the fiber likes to stray into hedgehog lumps, which then have to be caught by hand.

There was a puncture with the mixer. The dry mixture did not want to stir. First, I had to knead the fibrofolokno with my hands, and then with a trowel. The procedure turned out to be lengthy. I had to involve household members in pouring the screed. After about forty minutes, water was added to the dry mixture in portions.

Having received a solution of the consistency of sour cream, they began to fill in the first passage from the far corner. They laid it in such a way that it covered mortar beacons by several mm. It was possible to put only 1 m from the wall. And here I realized that continuous savings went sideways. I had to rent a concrete mixer. And so they were busy for almost 2 days.

From the experience gained, I note that it is better to level the solution on yourself, it is more convenient. The second point - if the cement is prepared in such tiny portions as mine, then you need to prime it specifically under the volume of the solution for about 40 minutes. And the last - in no case do not leave an unfinished span overnight.

At the end of the work, the professionals put my mind at ease. All separately poured parts of the solution will seize in the same way. The main thing is not to take long breaks. The adhesion of the solution to the beacons will be a little less, but absolutely sufficient to stand for a couple of hundred years.

After pouring the screed, the budget lost weight by about 15,000 rubles. Agree, it's not much. About carrying out waterproofing, laying the substrate and the laminate itself, as well as how different floor levels in the room and corridor were joined, in the next story (to be published on the same page).

In the end, it turned out that preparing the floors for laminate with your own hands is not such a terrible thing. Good luck to everyone in a difficult but interesting repair.

The quality of laying tiles in a wooden house directly depends on the preparation of the base. Laying tiles or porcelain stoneware can be carried out both on the floors on the ground and on the beams. Let's talk about how to properly prepare the base for laying tiles on a wooden beamed floor with your own hands.

Basic requirements for tile floor construction

Floors made of porcelain stoneware or tiles must comply with the operational construction and sanitary requirements for the premises where they are installed. If it's private wooden house, then tile floors are most often arranged in wet rooms (bathroom, sauna, etc.) or where water can get on the floor (toilet, kitchen).

The tiled floor washes well and withstands frequent wet cleaning, therefore, the tiles are also laid in rooms where the floor surface is heavily contaminated (utility rooms, hallway, etc.). The quality of a tile or porcelain stoneware floor is determined by its following properties:

tough and solid construction gender;
smooth, non-slip and even surface;
impact resistance high temperatures;
moisture resistance;
high abrasion resistance;
resistance of the coating to the chemical attack of substances (acids, alkalis).

To keep unexpected water leaks in bathrooms and toilet rooms, the floor in them is arranged at least 15 cm lower than in adjacent rooms. The junction of the tiled floor to the wall must be protected by a waterproof skirting board.

The clearance when laying a two-meter control rail for tiling on the floor surface is provided for up to 4 mm. When arranging a slope in the construction of a clean floor, its size is allowed 0.2% and 2 cm. The deviation in height between adjacent tiles should not be more than 1 mm.

When laying a tiled coating on adhesive compositions, the adhesion strength to separation is allowed at least 0.5 MPa on cement adhesive compositions and 2.0 MPa on polymer adhesives.

The air gap in the floors along the wooden beams should not be connected to the smoke ducts of stoves and fireplaces, as well as ventilation ducts. With a room area of more than 25 m 2, the air space in the floors is partitioned off with boards, dividing it into compartments with an area of \u200b\u200bno more than 5x6 m 2.

Floors made of piece materials (tiles, porcelain stoneware), with insufficient rigidity of their design, become “unsteady”. This creates compressive stresses in the top layer. hardwood floor and leads to the destruction of the tile coating.

The maximum deflection of the beam should be no more than 2 mm. The deflection of a wooden deck is limited to 0.1 mm (calculated for a concentrated load of 0.6 kN).

Permissible loads on the flooring are determined by the calculation of the deflection and "unsteadiness" of the beam ceiling and wooden flooring. As a result, for a given span of a beam (plating) and the load on them, the required section of these elements is selected.

These constructive measures are used both in the construction of the house and in the reconstruction of the floor. In the latter case, the structure is checked for the effect of existing loads and spans of floor elements. If as a result of the installation of a floor made of tiles (porcelain stoneware) there is an increase in weight load-bearing structure, this is also taken into account in the calculation.

The classic composition of the floor in a wooden beamed ceiling:

Wooden beams.
Draft floor from a solid flooring of boards or wooden shields laid on a cranial bar of a beam.
Insulation and vapor barrier for rooms with different temperature conditions of operation (attic and basement floors).
Clean floor.

The design of the wooden floor: 1 - cranial bar; 2 - draft floor; 3 - beam; 4 - vapor barrier; 5 - waterproofing; 6 - insulation; 7 - air gap; 8 - clean floor ( batten)

For a clean tile or porcelain stoneware floor under a tiled floor, an even and rigid base is required. It consists of solid boardwalk, screed and adhesive composition. It is possible to reduce the compressive stress of the "clothes" of the floor by installing a reinforced or dry screed, as well as using a damper tape around the perimeter of the coating.

Floor preparation for a clean tile floor

All wooden elements of the existing floor, on which it is necessary to lay tiles, must be inspected. To do this, the floor is opened up to the rough flooring and beams. In case of detection of defects in biocorrosion or wood strength, replacement or repair of damaged structural parts is carried out.

Even if the wooden elements are not damaged, they must be thoroughly antiseptic. Insulation and vapor barrier also need to be checked for loss operational properties(caking, wetting, decay, integrity violation, etc.). The heat insulator, which increases the coefficient of thermal conductivity when wet, must be protected from above with a vapor barrier.

At the same time, one should not forget about the air gap that separates the insulation and the top flooring from the boards, the size of which is at least 3 cm. If it is possible to leave the existing flooring, its surface is cleaned of the old coating (paint, varnish, etc.). To do this, you can use a building hair dryer, chemical "washes", sandpaper or a simple scraper.

Before laying the wooden covering around the perimeter of the floor, a compensator for possible wood deformations from a damper tape is installed on the wall. It is attached to the wall with an adhesive coating or some kind of fastener. Instead of tape, you can use mounting foam.

Boards are laid with gaps of 3-5 mm, also to prevent deformation stresses in the flooring. All intervals between separate elements It is desirable to fill a wooden covering with an elastic sealant.

Since the installation of a tile floor is justified in rooms associated with frequent use of water, wooden flooring is protected by rolled materials, bituminous, bitumen-polymer mastics or moisture insulating cement mortars at least 2 layers.

Screed device

Next, you need a leveling screed device. For the dry version of the underlying layer, moisture-resistant plywood sheets, wood chipboard, wood fiber boards are used. They are attached to the wooden flooring with self-tapping screws, and the joints are filled with the appropriate sealant or adhesive for fixing the tiles.

The screed on the layer of moisture insulation from the cement-sand mortar is made according to bituminous mastic with sand dressing (sand fraction 1.5-5 mm) or rolled waterproofing layer with factory dressing. On a wooden floor, the screed must be reinforced. These can be grids:

from metal wire VR-I with a diameter of 3-5 mm;
polymer nets made of polypropylene;
fiberglass alkali-resistant with a diameter of 4-6 mm;

Scheme of laying tiles on a wooden base: 1 - cranial bars; 2 - floor beam; 3 - wooden flooring; 4 - vapor barrier; 5 - thermal insulation; 6 - waterproofing; 7 - floor board; 8 - roll or coating waterproofing; 9 - reinforced screed; 10 - tile

Fiber is also used to reinforce the screeds. This is a fibrous material that is made from polypropylene, basalt or glass. There is also steel fiber, which is added directly to the dry mortar and mixed thoroughly. Then water is poured in, and stirring continues for another 10 minutes.

Screed thickness in this option 10-15 mm is provided. Compensatory elastic gap along the perimeter of the floor is performed to the entire height of the screed. The floor made of cement-sand tiles must actually be separated from the structure of the wooden floor and walls (floating floor) so that the integrity of the tiled floor is not violated in case of possible deformations of the wood.

The next step is the application of an adhesive composition that matches the floor covering. These can be cement or polymer adhesive compositions. So, for example, a two-component polyurethane adhesive composition is quite suitable. The thickness of the layer should be 2-3 mm.

It is possible to lay a floor made of tiles or porcelain stoneware on a wooden floor. It is important to take into account all the recommendations of professionals and regulatory requirements for the technology of the device of this floor.