If the wooden floor has lost its attractive appearance or has irregularities, then you should not immediately dismantle it. It is better to use the recommendations on how to level the wooden floor and varnish it, or you can apply a decorative coating, such as linoleum. Work can be carried out without tearing the boards. Leveling a wooden floor takes place in several stages. Let's consider them in more detail.
Preparatory stage
First of all, it is necessary to make a thorough inspection of the old wooden flooring. Assess the feasibility of restoration work. Using the building level, determine how large the degree of floor difference in the apartment is. Further, they measure the room at the same distance from the corners, mark the strokes on the walls, as well as in the center of the floor. With the help of the building level, distances are measured, the degree of surface difference is determined. In the absence of broken, rotten boards, the presence of small scratches, cracks, chips or damage to the paint layer, the surface can be restored by sanding.
If the floor has significant irregularities, and the difference in its different parts is more than 5 cm, then for leveling you can make a screed or lay a layer of plywood on the logs.
Surface putty
If the difference between the floor level in its different parts is no more than 3 mm, wooden boards can be treated with acrylic sealant or putty. Before filling, the surface should be primed. If the floor has a small area, then use a construction gun with acrylic sealant. For a large area of wood floors, you will need acrylic putty, which is sold in large volumes in buckets. It is not recommended to lay a layer of putty with a thickness of more than 3 mm. To obtain a finished surface that matches the base, a colored sealant of the same shade is used.
If it is planned to lay linoleum on a leveled wooden floor base, then the puttied surface must be sanded. To eliminate defects on wooden skirting boards, wood mastic is used. If it is necessary to solve the problem of how to level the wooden floor under the laminate, then to give greater strength to the wooden base, instead of acrylic-based building materials, you can use a composition based on PVA glue. For a layer with a height of not more than 2 mm, a finishing gypsum putty on PVA is used. With a higher layer height, wooden boards are covered with starting putty or PVA-based wood sawdust.
Due to the increased stickiness of the compositions, it is quite difficult to apply them evenly on the floor, and the resulting surface will require prolonged grinding until it is completely leveled. However, the base will turn out to be durable and can be used under a laminate or linoleum.
Processing with a scraping machine
Floor scraping is a simple process. Even a beginner can level a wooden floor with their own hands. For processing it is recommended to use a scraping machine. Before starting work, you need to make sure that the boards are firmly nailed, screws and nails do not stick out. Otherwise, the machine is likely to break down. A layer of a wooden board with a thickness of not more than 3 mm is removed mechanically. After removing the top layer of the wooden coating, all holes and cracks must be sealed with putty, the tone of which matches the color of the base. Mastic is used to seal cracks. In hard-to-reach places, surface treatment is carried out manually.
It is recommended to use the cycling method in a non-residential apartment. Since the process of the machine is accompanied by a lot of noise and high dust formation. In order to protect your hearing and breathing organs from dust or noise, you must use a mask, headphones and goggles. Treated boards must be cleaned of dust, wiped with a sponge dipped in solvent, and then varnished or painted.
Screed options
There are two ways to level an old wooden floor with a screed:
- pour a regular cement screed,
- use self-levelling mortars.
When choosing the first option, it must be taken into account that a cement mixture screed with a thickness of more than 5 cm will increase the load on the foundation and floors of the building by more than 70 kg / m2. In this regard, a cement screed is not recommended for use in a private house with wooden floors. When pouring a screed from a cement mixture, to protect the wooden floor from moisture, it must be insulated with a layer of polyethylene. When using a self-levelling mortar for leveling a wooden floor, an elastic and smooth base is formed, which is well suited for all types of flooring, including under linoleum.
Work with self-leveling compounds
This method can be used both in a wooden house and in buildings with concrete floors. At the initial stage, the preparation of a wooden surface is carried out. It is necessary to check whether the boards are securely attached to the floor base, and whether all screws and nails are screwed in below its level. Then the wooden base is sanded with a vacuum cleaner, the old layers of paint are removed and the floor is cleaned of dust. To seal the cracks, a special mastic for wood is used.
A layer of moisture-proof primer is applied to the prepared wooden surface, which will ensure good adhesion of the base and the self-leveling mixture. On the walls of the room, using the building level, mark the upper limit of pouring the mixture. A reinforcing mesh is laid on the floor, overlapping adjacent canvases. Then, according to the instructions, a self-leveling mixture is prepared and poured into it. For a more even distribution of the mixture, you can use a rubber studded roller. After the composition has dried, a coating is laid on the floor, for example, linoleum.
Leveling a wooden floor with a mixture is one of the simple and high-quality ways to get a smooth finish in an apartment or private house.
When and what kind of plywood is used
Covering an old wooden base with plywood sheets will hide even significant damage, as well as level the floor difference of more than one centimeter. Let's take a closer look: how to level a wooden floor with plywood.
- First of all, you need to choose the right sheet material. For a slight alignment of the base under linoleum or carpet, you can use sheets of plywood with a thickness of about 1 cm. For a base under parquet or laminate, use sheet material with a thickness of at least 2 cm.
- The environmental performance of the material is also important. In an apartment or a private house, plywood of the FK or FSF brands is used. The FK brand material is made without the use of phenols and is the most harmless to human health. However, indicators of resistance to moisture and mechanical damage are average. In the production of FSF grade material, formaldehyde resins are used. Plywood does not have high environmental properties, but is more durable and moisture resistant.
The leveling of the wooden floor with plywood is carried out using the first and second grades of sheet material. Linoleum or carpet can be laid on a plywood base.
Preparation of the surface and material for work
First you need to inspect the wooden boards, secure them firmly or replace damaged ones. If communication pipes are found under a wooden base, they are examined for damage or the need for replacement. After installing the plywood coating, it will be more difficult to replace.
Sheet material must be kept indoors for several days. As a result, the humidity of the material and the air in the room will be the same. This will reduce the likelihood of deformation after installation. If you plan to lay linoleum or laminate, be sure to arrange ventilation holes.
Methods for fastening sheet material
There are several ways to fix the material on the surface of a wooden floor.
Plywood is laid directly on boards, logs are not used. Adjacent sheets of material are placed at a distance of 0.5 cm and indented from the walls at least 1.5 cm. Then, wood mastic is applied to seal the indents. Plywood sheets are evenly attached to the highest points of the subfloor. If several layers of material are laid, then brickwork technology is used.
Another method involves creating a base in the form of a grid of logs and boards. Logs are bars made of wood or plywood, about 4 cm wide. Logs are mounted with an indent from the walls of at least three centimeters. A sheet material is attached over the resulting base. To seal the cracks, mastic is used.
With large differences in the level of the base of the floor, mini-lags are mounted. To obtain a flat floor surface as a result of work, accurate calculations are made of the places where the mini-lag is established, their height and size. To increase the height of the support, the logs are placed on special point supports. Lags are fixed with special glue or self-tapping screws.
Logs can be replaced with a crate of point supports made of pieces of timber or thick plywood, which are called shabashki. The thickness of the supports is calculated based on the difference in floor height. Sabbaths are installed at a distance of about 40 cm from each other, forming a grid. Sheets of plywood are stacked on the resulting grid of cobs and attached to them. To eliminate the gaps, wood mastic is used.
To increase the thermal and sound insulation properties of the floor, a thin layer of insulating material is laid on the logs and between them. After installing the plywood base, it is recommended to varnish it.
For decorative flooring, linoleum or other finishing material is covered.
How to level a wooden floor?
This question is relevant for owners of wooden country houses and for owners of ordinary apartments.
Any tree eventually dries out, becomes covered with cracks and loses its smoothness, whether it is expensive parquet or a subfloor under linoleum or carpet.
There are several leveling options for wood flooring, what are the best ways?
How to level a wooden floor? How is the leveling of the wooden floor under the linoleum? If the house is old, then what material is better to choose for work?
To remove bumps or a slight slope in the house, which is better - mastic or putty? The answers to these and other questions are in this article.
Wood floor leveling methods
An uneven floor, in the future, can significantly damage the finish - paint, linoleum, laminate, carpet, etc.
Do-it-yourself leveling of the floor will help to avoid such problems - even an inexperienced builder will cope with the technique of work, if you choose the right option and study the instructions in detail.
Leveling a wooden floor in a private house is a very relevant issue.
To level the wood flooring in the house today, you can use the following methods:
- scraping;
- use of self-leveling compound;
- putty;
- rough floor from plywood sheets.
Looping is the most famous, but at the same time the most time-consuming method.
It can be manual and mechanical - using a special scraping machine.
Usually scraping is used in a wooden house, when linoleum or carpet finishing is not needed, but only the boards need to be updated and varnished.
Self-levelling compound is a relatively new method, but experienced professionals do not always recommend its use.
An old wooden floor under the load of a cement-sand mixture can sag, and the screed itself can crack over time.
However, today there are special self-leveling mixtures for wood, so with large distortions in height and finish for linoleum, tile, laminate and parquet, such alignment can be used.
The most popular ways to level wood flooring are puttying and laying plywood sheets.
Which of these options is better?
To choose the appropriate method, you must first assess the condition of the floor in the house.
To do this, you need to carefully examine the boards: are there any cracks on them, how dry is the tree.
If possible, it is better to tear off one floorboard and inspect it from the inside - how dry it is, if there are any places of decay.
This will make it possible to understand whether it is necessary to change the rough coating or whether alignment can be carried out without replacing the boards.
Then - you need to evaluate the deviations of the floor in height using the level.
To eliminate small irregularities and distortions of less than 3 mm, putty or mastic will help, for more serious defects, a rough plywood coating is necessary.
Leveling with putty
Putty for wood floors is ideal for finishing under painting, linoleum, carpet and even laminate.
Do-it-yourself leveling of a wooden floor with putty can be used if the tree does not have serious damage, and the deformation in height is no more than 2-3 mm per square meter of surface.
For leveling work, you can use several types of putty:
- acrylic (very plastic and does not collapse over time);
- solvent-based (universal and suitable for any type of wood);
- polymer (perfectly fills gaps and smoothes out irregularities);
- based on PVA glue and sawdust.
Putty based on glue and sawdust is a fairly new, but rapidly gaining popularity building material.
This composition has a low price tag, while it is very durable and provides additional surface insulation.
You can use this mixture for all types of finishes, but most often it is used under linoleum and laminate.
To level the wooden floor with your own hands using adhesive putty, you must strictly follow the technology.
First, we install beacons (slats made of wood or metal) over the entire surface of the floor from steps of 35-50 cm.
Then we fill in the first layer of a mixture of sawdust, glue and putty, carefully filling the gaps between the slats with a spatula.
After the starting layer dries, you can apply the finish.
Such putty dries on average in 2 days.
If the defects of the wooden flooring are insignificant, then a tool such as mastic can be used for leveling - based on rubber, polymers or bitumen.
Mastic is usually used in cases where the finishing of the coating (linoleum or carpet) is not required.
Mastic emphasizes the color and relief of natural wood, adds shine, protects against moisture and direct sunlight, mechanical damage.
In some cases, mastic is the best option for the job.
Leveling with plywood
Leveling a wooden floor with plywood is necessary in cases where the floor height differences reach 3 mm or more.
This method allows you to hide noticeable defects and prepare an uneven floor for any finish - carpet, linoleum, laminate, parquet and tile.
The choice of plywood depends on the width of the boards - if the floorboards are up to 20 cm wide, plywood sheets with a thickness of 8-10 mm are suitable, more than 20 cm - plywood 10-20 mm is needed.
There are two ways to mount plywood sheets - directly on the subfloor and with the help of a crate.
If the deformation of the floorboards is not more than 5 mm on the entire surface, then you can fasten the plywood directly to the boards, if up to 8-10 mm, then you will have to install wooden logs (battens).
How to level a wooden floor with plywood correctly?
First of all, you need to prepare special tools:
- jigsaw and screwdriver;
- roulette and level;
- sheets of plywood and logs for lathing (plywood strips or timber);
- screws and dowels.
The first stage of work is the division of the floor into squares 30 × 30 cm.
After marking, it is necessary to set beacons along the perimeter of the surface, in the corners of the squares (their role can be played by self-tapping screws).
After that, lags are installed, the step is 35-40 cm.
You can fix the rails to the floor with self-tapping screws or special glue.
Then you need to cut the plywood into pieces of about 60 × 60 cm.
They are mounted with screws on the logs, it is better to place the sheets in a checkerboard pattern.
If the floorboards have severe defects or additional insulation is needed, then alignment can be carried out in 2 stages: first install the crate, then lay the screed between the slats, and after it dries, mount the plywood.
If you are finishing under linoleum, laminate or parquet, then it is important to process the subfloor.
To do this, you need to slightly sand the surface and cover it with a protective varnish.
To protect the subfloor and future flooring, you can use a special substrate - cork or polyethylene foam.
It is much easier and cheaper to reanimate an old floor from boards than to perform a complete replacement of the coating. Of course, both the logs and the boards must be strong enough for this, and the damaged areas should not be too large. There are several ways to level a wooden floor, depending on the degree of deformation.
To choose the right alignment method, you first need to accurately assess the degree of damage. To do this, you need to walk over the entire surface, carefully examine every centimeter of the floor, remove 1-2 boards and inspect the logs. If rotten or bugged areas are visible, serious repairs will be required, with the replacement of damaged parts. If the logs and boards are in good condition, without cracks and rot, the floor does not sag or creak under load, and only peeling paint and a wavy surface are defects, repair costs will be minimal.
Small gaps or squeaks are also not a problem, since such defects are not difficult to eliminate. If the gaps between the boards are wider than 10 mm or there is a noticeable floor slope, the wooden surface will have to be covered with sheet material, such as chipboard.
So, if the damage is minimal, the easiest way to level the floor is to process it with a scraper machine. If the machine could not be rented, you can use an electric planer.
Step 1. Surface preparation
Everything superfluous is taken out of the room, skirting boards are removed, and garbage is carefully swept away. The protruding nail heads are hammered with a hammer so that they are recessed into the boards by a few millimeters. The areas of the floor that are not tightly adjacent to the lags are additionally reinforced with self-tapping screws.
Step 2. Looping
When working with a scraper, you will need headphones and a respirator. Start work from the corner, slowly moving along the wall. Having reached the second corner, the machine is turned around and moved in the opposite direction, treating the floor surface with narrow stripes.
Step 3. Sealing gaps
After removing the top layer of wood, all cracks and cracks in the floor become clearly visible. To seal them, use an acrylic putty of the appropriate shade, which is carefully applied and leveled with a metal or rubber spatula.
Step 4. Finishing the floor
After waiting for the putty to dry, the boards are cycled again, then the floor is vacuumed and primed. If the primer absorbs very quickly, another layer should be applied to close the pores of the wood well. After that, the boards can be painted or opened with wood varnish.
In the case when the floor has undulating irregularities due to the deformation of the boards, but at the same time it is strictly horizontal, it can be leveled using a sheet covering - plywood, chipboard, cement-bonded particle boards or GVL. Fiberboard is not suitable for these purposes, as it eventually takes the form of a base.
Comparison table of sheet materials for flooring
| Name | Characteristics | Thickness |
|---|---|---|
| Moisture resistant plywood | High strength, thermal insulation properties, suitable for any topcoat | 4 to 24 mm |
| Cement particle boards (CPS) | Durability, environmental friendliness, incombustibility | 10 to 32 mm |
| Chipboard | High strength, sound and heat insulating properties, ease of processing | 6 to 28 mm |
| Gypsum boards | Suitable for any coating, has a perfectly flat surface, heat-insulating properties | 10 to 12.5 mm |
| OSB | High strength, durability, suitable for any coatings | 9 mm |
For work you will need:
- screwdriver;
- jigsaw;
- self-tapping screws;
- primer;
- acrylic sealant or putty;
- any sheet material for the floor.
Step 1. Preparing the base
The baseboards are removed, peeled paint is removed from the floor surface, protruding nails are hammered in, cracks and recesses in the boards are covered with putty. Then garbage and dust are removed, the floor is primed.
Step 2. Cutting and fitting the material
The size of a chipboard sheet is 250x185 cm, plywood - 125x125 cm, therefore, for convenience, the sheets are cut into several parts. Optimal for laying are squares 60x60 cm; they are less affected by thermal expansion, as the number of damper joints increases. The material is cut with a hacksaw with fine teeth or a jigsaw; so that during cutting the edges of the chipboard do not crumble, you need to stick masking tape along the cut line. Cutting plywood should be done as carefully as possible so that torn edges do not form.
An important point: if, when sawing a plywood sheet, its edges delaminate, the material for laying on the floor is not suitable.
So, the sheets cut into squares are brought into the room, laid out on the floor and adjusted to the size of the base. They cut out the material under the existing ledges or niches, cut off the extreme sheets to offset the seams, leave technological gaps around the perimeter of the room and damper seams between the squares themselves. In order not to confuse the elements when laying, immediately after fitting, each square must be numbered.
Step 3. Covering
When using waterproof plywood, you can immediately start laying, but chipboard must be pre-treated with drying oil or coated with 2 layers of primer. The first sheet is laid from the corner, leaving a gap of 1-1.5 cm between the edge and the walls. The length of the screws for fastening should be three times the thickness of the material. Self-tapping screws are screwed in in places where the material is in close contact with the board, that is, in the upper part of the wave. If the waves go along each board, sheets with a thickness of 8-10 mm can be used, but if the distance between the waves is more than 20 cm, the recommended thickness is from 16 mm.
The distance between the screws should not exceed 20 cm; holes for fasteners are pre-expanded at the top with a drill of a larger diameter so that the heads of the self-tapping screws are hidden in the thickness of the material. A gap of up to 10 mm is left between adjacent plywood sheets, the rows are laid with seams offset by half the sheet. If necessary, you can mount a second layer of coating, covering the lower seams with whole sheets. Both layers are fastened together with self-tapping screws.
Step 4. Finishing
When the rough coating is laid, the joints between the sheets and the recesses from the screws are covered with acrylic putty or sealant on the same basis. Next, using the level, check the horizontalness of the floor, the absence of irregularities. Rough areas are treated with sandpaper or a grinding nozzle, dust is removed from the surface, primed. After that, the base is completely ready for laying the finish coat.
Video - leveling the floor with plywood
If, in addition to the undulating surface, the floor has a noticeable slope, another leveling method is used - fastening plywood to logs. So you can even out differences from 3 to 10 cm in height and prepare a reliable foundation for any coating. Bars, durable boards, and strips of plywood up to 4 cm wide are used as a lag. Base preparation is carried out as standard: everything superfluous is taken out of the room, skirting boards are removed, the old coating is cleaned, and defects are repaired.
Step 1. Marking the floor level
From the highest point of the base, a mark is projected onto the wall using a level gauge. Recede up a distance equal to the thickness of the coating, and put another mark. Now, using the water level, marks are placed around the entire perimeter at this height and connected in one line. This is the floor level.
Step 2. Installing the log
If there is a risk of dampness of the base, a waterproofing film is laid on top of the boards, in other cases, the logs are attached directly to the wooden surface. You can install the bars both along and across the boards.
The logs are laid flat in parallel rows at a distance of no more than half a meter and baited with nails. Then, using a level and wooden linings of different thicknesses, each lag is set horizontally. So that the linings do not move, they are glued together. When all the logs are level, the nails are hammered to the end, securely fixing the bars on the wooden floor.
The thinner the plywood, the smaller the distance between the lags; in places where an increased load on the floor is expected, cross-beams from bars of a smaller section are additionally attached between the lags.
Step 3. Laying the plywood
Sheets of plywood are cut into squares and laid out on logs to fit. On each square, it is necessary to immediately mark the places for fasteners so that when laying, no extra holes are drilled. If the material lies neatly and evenly, there are no extra gaps, you can attach it to the logs. Start from the extreme square and gradually move along the row. Self-tapping screws need to be slightly recessed into plywood so that the caps are 1-2 millimeters below the surface. Be sure to follow the joints - they should not coincide anywhere.
Step 4. Arranging the ventilation holes
To prolong the life of the wooden base, small holes must be made in the floor for ventilation. In opposite corners of the room, preferably under the radiators, they determine the place for the ventilation grilles and make neat cutouts in the plywood. A ventilation grill is installed on top, smearing the joints with glue or sealant.
Step 4. Finishing the floor
The finished coating is checked with a building level, all joints and attachment points are inspected. If no defects are observed, the seams and recesses from the self-tapping screws are covered with putty, then the surface is ground and dust-free. Finally, a primer mixture is applied and the base is allowed to dry.
Dry mix for floor screed
In the process of work you will need:
- container for kneading;
- construction mixer;
- fiberglass mesh;
- primer;
- putty knife;
- putty;
- polyethylene film;
- stapler.
Step 1. Preparing the floor
The boards are cleaned of old paint, grease stains, debris and dust, the skirting boards are removed and thin boards are laid in their place so that the solution does not get into the gaps. The gaps between the floor and the boards, as well as small cracks and recesses, are puttied, the entire surface is primed.
Waterproofing and reinforcement
A polyethylene film is laid on the floor, the joints of the overlapped strips are fixed with adhesive tape, and a fiberglass mesh is laid on top for reinforcement. To prevent the mesh from moving and popping up when pouring the mixture, it is fastened to the floor with stapler brackets. In this case, it is very important to hammer in the staples so that the mesh is not pressed tightly against the base. It should be in the thickness of the solution, and not under it, otherwise there is no point in laying it.
Step 3. Filling the mixture
The dry mixture is poured into a container with clean water, observing the proportions indicated on the package, and mixed for a minute with a construction mixer. The finished composition must be applied and leveled for 15 minutes, until the mortar begins to harden. The mixture is poured onto the floor and leveled with a wide notched trowel over the entire surface.
Step 4: Finishing
4 hours after applying the screed, the planks along the walls can be carefully pulled out and the joints sanded. After that, the surface is ready for any finishing coat.
Sometimes a cement-sand screed up to 7 cm thick is also used to level the wooden floor. But in this case, the floor itself and the floors must be very strong, in excellent condition, which is rare for an old floor.
Video - Leveling a wooden floor
Video - How to level a wooden floor in an old house
During the renovation, the floors must also be replaced. The coating plays an important role in creating the interior, in addition, the use of creaky and sagging boards is not the best solution. To save money and effort, it is necessary to simplify the process as much as possible. For example, removing the old coating is a very costly pleasure. It's best to avoid this. The following is how to level a wooden floor without tearing the boards. There are several ways, the choice between them depends on how damaged the wooden floor is.
Sex examination
At this stage, it will be necessary to carry out not only a thorough inspection, but also the measurement of irregularities. The wooden floor must meet the following requirements:
- boards should not be damaged by rot or mold;
- gaps or gaps between the elements should not be more than 5 cm (even if they are less than 5 cm, plywood alignment will be required, other methods cannot be used);
- height differences do not exceed 1-2 cm.
If these conditions are not met, then it will be almost impossible to repair and level the wooden floor without changing the boards. To select an alignment option, you need to know the elevation difference. The following instruments are used for measurements:
- construction levels (laser, hydraulic, bubble);
- rule.
The easiest option is to attach a long rail or metal profile to the floor and measure the deviation with a ruler. Also, to examine the wooden floor on your own, you can buy a bubble level at the hardware store. It determines the slope of the board and costs in the range of several thousand, depending on the length of the hull.
The hydraulic level can be made independently. All you need is a thin transparent tube and water. The disadvantage of such a device is that it is not very convenient to use. The most accurate way to measure a wood floor is with a laser level. Such a device is used by professional builders, its cost is high, and its use requires special skills. If you need to align the boards in a house or apartment on your own, there is no need for such accuracy.
Ways to perform work
There are several alignment methods, each suitable for different situations:
- Laying a substrate made of elastic material used if the irregularities do not exceed a few millimeters. This increases sound insulation. Most often, materials such as isolon or polyethylene foam are used. The thickness is assigned within 2-5 mm.
- For more serious defects, cycling is suitable.. This method is also not able to even out serious differences, but it can ennoble the surface and give it an attractive appearance. Before starting work, the floor is carefully inspected for the presence of metal fasteners. Staples and self-tapping screws will have to be removed, and the nails are recessed into the boards so that there is no chance of damage to the sanding machine.
- Putty is suitable for height differences of 2-3 mm. Sealants or acrylic compounds are used.
- Self-leveling floors or cement screeds.
- The most reliable option, which will allow you to level the wooden floor with serious drops and crevices, has become plywood or OSB boards. For work, material with a thickness of 14-22 mm is used. There are two methods that can deal with different sizes of bumps.
It is worth talking about puttying and plywood in more detail.
putty
Eliminate gaps between boards with putty Leveling the wooden floor in this way will require preparatory work. They consist in cleaning the surface from dust and dirt, priming. The primer layer allows you to guarantee a high degree of adhesion of the putty to the wooden surface.
The material for processing is selected depending on the finish flooring. If you plan to lay tiles, linoleum, laminate or parquet on the boards, then acrylic putty will do. When using a wooden floor as a finishing one, followed by coating it with varnish, a sealant is taken, matched to the color of the material.
Acrylic mixtures are characterized by low strength, so you can replace them with other compositions:
- if the layer does not exceed 1-2 mm, putty on gypsum using PVA glue is suitable;
- for a greater layer thickness, a mixture of sawdust and PVA is used.
The disadvantage of this composition is the difficulty of distribution over the surface, therefore, after drying, grinding will be required until it is completely leveled.
plywood laying
The most reliable way to level boards. After laying the plywood, you can mount the flooring (tile, carpet, linoleum, laminate, parquet). There are two technologies for performing work:
- without intermediate supports for differences less than 1 cm;
- with intermediate supports for differences of more than 1 cm.
Laying without supports consists in fixing sheets to glue and self-tapping screws. Before starting work, it is necessary to perform the layout of the elements and their cutting. The distance between the parts is assumed to be 2-4 mm, and between the wall and plywood - 8-10 mm. This is necessary so that the sheets do not act on each other, and waves do not appear when the material expands.
Plywood layout options
Having laid out the parts of the flooring, they are numbered. And start fixing. The adhesive layer should not exceed 2-3 mm. The composition is applied to the surface to be leveled. Sheets should be stacked with a run-out of at least 10 cm.
After the glue has completely dried, you can proceed with the installation of fasteners. Before starting work, holes are drilled in the sheets for self-tapping screws, which are located at a distance of at least 20 mm from the edge of the part. The fastening step is taken within 15-20 mm. After completion of the work, the surface of the plywood is polished with a special machine.
The use of intermediate supports increases the leveling capacity. You can use logs or point support points (shabashki). The former allow for higher reliability, while the latter save on materials. It is important to provide for the location of the elements so that the joint of the sheets falls on the place of support. The step of the elements is assigned depending on the thickness of the plywood sheet.
- when using flooring with a thickness of 12-14 mm, the step of the supports should be 30-40 cm;
- thickness 16-16 mm - 50 cm.
For OSB and chipboard, other values \u200b\u200bare accepted:
- thickness 16-18 mm - step 30-40 cm;
- thickness 20-24 mm - step 50 cm.
Laying plywood on intermediate supports The thickness of the supports is taken on average 15 mm. The width of the boards for the manufacture of logs is 40 mm. Fastening to the wooden floor is carried out on self-tapping screws. Attaching plywood to the supports can be done with self-tapping screws or glue.
When leveling the floor without removing the boards, it is important to make sure that the subfloor is in good condition. If the logs are rotten, then none of the methods described above will help, only the replacement of the structure will give the result.
In order to determine how uneven the floor is, you need to determine the floor marks in all corners, in the middle of the walls and in the middle of the room (if the room is very large or the floor is very uneven, then more marks are needed). The easiest way to do this is with a two-meter building level. with various measuring instruments used for this purpose are set out separately.
If the floor marks are at the same height
(plus or minus 5 mm is not considered, however, it all depends on how demanding you are, you can not count the difference of 1-1.5 cm), then the floor is even. And if the height differences do not exceed 2-3 mm, then such a floor can generally not be leveled with sheet materials.
- You can putty such a floor 1-2 times with acrylic putty or acrylic sealant. The main advantage of acrylic putties is high plasticity, even if the boards bend a little when walking on the floor, the putty will not collapse. If the amount of work is not large, then acrylic sealant sold in syringes for a construction gun will do. Floors must be treated with a suitable primer before applying putty in order to improve adhesion to the boards. It will look something like this:
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In this case, it was necessary to level about 1.5 m 2 of the floor. For large volumes, it is better to buy acrylic putty for wooden floors in buckets, however, the principle of applying putty will not change. By the way, in this way you can level the floors for painting and even for varnish, for example, parquet floors (of course, if they are in good enough condition), but then you need a tinted sealant. However, buying a tinted sealant to match the color of the tree is now a small problem, although the choice of colors is not very large and they cost much more than white acrylic sealant, but still.
Before laying linoleum or carpet, it is desirable to grind the putty surface.
- The main disadvantage of acrylic putty is its low strength. Therefore, instead of acrylic putties or sealants, you can use putty mixed with PVA glue. If the thickness of the applied layer does not exceed 1-2 mm, then you can use a finishing gypsum putty mixed with PVA glue. With a greater thickness of the applied layer, you can use a gypsum starting putty mixed with PVA glue or sawdust mixed with PVA glue. The main disadvantages of this method: it is very difficult to immediately apply putty in an even layer due to the extreme stickiness of the putty (PVA is a very good glue), so the putty surface will have to be sanded for a long time to get a smooth surface.
The thicker the layer of sealant or putty, the longer it will dry. therefore, if the unevenness of the floor is more than 3 mm and there are a lot of them, then one cannot do without a screed or laying sheet materials. How linoleum was laid on the floor, pre-leveled with putty, can be viewed separately.
2.1. On an old wooden floor, plywood 8-20 mm thick, or chipboard, OSB, MDF boards can be laid.
Gypsum sheets can also be used. In this case, the top of the wave will serve as a support (like a lag) for the new flooring. With a board width of 10-20 cm and a uniform distribution of waves, a plywood thickness of 8-10 mm is enough. If the waves on the boards through one board or the width of the boards is more than 20 cm, then it is better to use thicker plywood (in the figure below).
Picture 1. Simple leveling of a wooden floor.
It does not make sense to use fiberboard for leveling the floor, since over time the fiberboard will take the shape of the floor and waves will appear again. In principle, the thickness of sheet materials can be greater, but the thicker the sheet materials, the more expensive and, most importantly, heavier they are. I prefer moisture-resistant plywood, it is indispensable for kitchens and hallways in stalinkas and Khrushchevs, but it costs more than other sheet materials. Sheet materials are attached to the wooden floor with screws or self-tapping screws. To drown the head of a screw or self-tapping screw, a sweat is made. Sheet materials are attached to the boards at the top of the wave (see figure). After screwing the sheets, the joints of the sheets and the caps of the screws are puttied with acrylic sealant. If you have high-quality plywood with a good texture pattern, plywood joints are neat and well-fitting, and the sweat is evenly distributed, then you can choose an acrylic sealant of the appropriate color and simply open the plywood with varnish.
Sometimes, if the old wood floor is relatively level, but there are small "pits", then you can try to level the floor with plywood using foam. I myself didn’t level the floors like that, so I put the description of this method in a separate article.
If the height differences on the floor marks do not satisfy you, then here you have to tinker. It is necessary to make a support for the new foundation at one mark. You can do this in 2 ways:
2.2. Tape support - mini-lags from a bar.
This method is good if you need to equalize the height difference from 3 to 10 cm. True, in order for the timber to be at the same height, wooden linings of different thicknesses are used - shabashki. Usually shabashki are made from plywood of different thicknesses, but they can also be made from short bars using an ax or a chisel. Where we are talking about millimeters, roofing felt or any other thin waterproof material is used. The distance between the mini-lags depends on the thickness of the sheet material and in principle requires engineering calculation , but as practice shows for plywood 12-14 mm thick and for chipboard, OSB 16-18 mm thick, the maximum distance between mini-lags is 35-40 cm. For plywood 16-18 mm thick and for OSB 20-24 mm thick, the maximum distance between mini-lags 50 cm. This logical series can be continued further, but it is difficult to lay thicker sheet materials even together, and the load on the floor will again increase, it’s good if the floor is reinforced concrete or along metal beams, but you need to carefully increase the load on wooden beams. With large height differences, it is convenient to use a bar of different sections, where the height difference is small, a bar of a smaller section is used, but it is also necessary to fasten it to the floor boards more often, then a bar of a larger section is used.
Figure 2. Alignment of a wooden floor on minilags.
Minilags can be attached both across the boards (in the figure above) and along (in the figure below). It is important here to accurately mark the sheets (determine the places for the holes) so as not to drill extra holes.
For clarity, photos 1 and 2 show the transition from the old wood floor to the new flooring in the doorway. The floor was leveled with waterproof plywood, in some places the covens were supported, mainly on mini-lags made of bars of different sections, the total height difference of the old floor was more than 6 cm.
Photo 1. View from the corridor. (increase)
Photo 2. View from the room
2.3. Point support - shabashki.
This method is suitable if the elevation changes are not very large. A point support is less reliable than a tape support, therefore, the shavings for sheet materials should be placed more often, so that a mesh with a cell size of 30-35 cm is obtained for plywood 12-14 mm thick and for chipboard, OSB 16-18 mm thick. For plywood 16-18 mm thick and for OSB 20-24 mm thick, the mesh size is 40-45 cm.
Of course, both with a tape support and with a point support, you can make more distance between the supports, but in this case the new floor will be too susceptible to dynamic deformations, in other words, it can bend when jumping and dancing, and even when walking.
After the base of the floor is leveled, laying the top coat on it, whether it be parquet, linoleum, carpet, PVC tiles, is quickly easy and pleasant. Just do not forget about the ventilation of the underground. To do this, in one of the corners (where the old ventilation was), after laying the finish coat, a hole is drilled and a small ventilation grill is placed.
If the height difference of the old wooden floor is more than 8-10 cm (and this happens), then it is better to remove some of the boards and replace them with sheet material.
The floor can be leveled with a "wet" screed.
But only if you are absolutely sure of the strength of the wooden floor, for example, if the floors were immediately made under the screed, or these are wooden floors on a reinforced concrete floor, with logs on brick columns, while the logs and the distance between the logs and the thickness of the floorboards are selected in such a way as to ensure the minimum deflection of the floors under the design loads. The fact is that cement screeds work well in compression and much worse in tension, this can lead to the fact that the cement screed on a wooden floor will collapse or the ceramic tile pasted on such a screed will peel off. To level wooden floors, special dry mixes with plasticizers and fillers are used to provide the screed with maximum strength and elasticity, for example, Vetonit 3300. Such a screed is applied with a layer of no more than 1 cm, before applying the screed, a reinforcing fiberglass mesh is stuffed on the wooden floors and the floors are primed. If the unevenness of the floor exceeds 1 cm, then such a screed will not help. Theoretically, a conventional cement screed 5-7 cm thick with a metal reinforcing mesh can be made on a wooden floor, in this case the load on the floor will immediately increase by 75-100 kg / m 2, therefore, before making such a screed, you must first check the bearing capacity overlap. To protect the wood from the effects of water from the screed, a plastic film is laid on the wooden floor.
But in any case, regardless of the leveling method, one should not forget about the ventilation device for wooden floors so that the floors do not rot. Underground space must be ventilated. Previously, for this, a hole in a board with a diameter of about 50 mm was drilled in one of the corners of the room and a decorative lattice was stuffed on top, or a ventilation duct was made in the wall and a decorative lattice was nailed to the wall. The grids look like this:
Figure 3 Ventilation grilles for wooden floors.
If you had similar gratings on the floor or on the wall, then do not rush to cover them up or wallpaper them.
In general, old wooden floors, with cracks, paint stains, knots, chips, dents and other defects, are incredibly steep and super-style, now more and more people who are tired of the straight lines of modern design want to lay a parquet board on a perfectly smooth and even screed, stylized as old warped wooden floors. Such a pleasure is not cheap, so before sewing up wooden floors, think about whether you need it?
I took out questions on leveling a wooden floor for laying a laminate, as well as a recipe for preparing a putty mixture from Ruslan.