How to level sitting room floor for new solid wood floor?

W

Winn

Guest
The original wooden boards in the sitting room of our 1930's Corporation house were not level enough to be covered over with the new solid wooden floor we bought so the fitter advised us to pull them up, which we did.
The concrete underneath is humpy and bumpy but is also covered over with spreads of horrible smelly dirty bitumen so the floor surface in our sitting room is now a complete mess.
What do we do now to level the sitting room floor? We could use leveling compound but will this work OK over the bitumen and how difficult is it to cover a whole room this way? Would another option be to put down pieces of plywood for under the new floor?
Any advice will be much appreciated.
 
Ask the fitter to give you a price for him to level the floor to a standard that will suit him, as he will have to stand over the finished floor. Bags of levelling compound are expensive though (about €50-60 each I think for a large bag I think)
 
Thanks. It was the fitter suggested we get leveling compound and get someone to do it - I asked if he could recommend anyone to do it but he said he didn't know.
I will get on to them again - otherwise who could I contact to do this professionally?
 
your floor sounds exactly like ours was... including the smelly bitumen! the guy who fit our floor used different types of plywood underneath to the level the floor out - it was a good bit higher from one end to the other, he also chipped away some concrete bits. I think the whole lot cost me about 1500 Euros. I have one of those 2-bed ex council houses, only it's open plan downstairs, so it was for the entire downstairs minus the hall.
The end result was brilliant and not quite two years later it is in perfect shape.
 
It was the fitter suggested we get leveling compound and get someone to do it - I asked if he could recommend anyone to do it but he said he didn't know.
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I'm amazed that a floor fitter does not know of someone who can level floors! In fact I'm even more amazed that they don't do it themselves. Did you try to get other quotes for the fitting?

I did some Floor leveling DIY, it is possible, but defiantly a pro could do a better job faster.
 
The most lightly person to do this would be a tiler. They for the most part do it quite offen.

Joejoe
 
Thanks for the replies.
Petal great to hear that plywood worked for you - sounds less messy than the leveling compound. Your house sounds like ours, 2-bed ex-corporation house.
Gtec - I know! We bought the floor from Des Kelly and the fitting was included in the price - but the fitter just came and saw the floor that was in it, pulled up a few boards to reveal the hellishly dirty bitumen underneath and left me to get it sorted. I am not keen to attempt this ourselves. Am trying to get back on to DK nobody is ringing me back. Thanks joejoe for suggesting a tiler.
 
Winn, when I bought my floors - I bought them in Brooks, they recommended a fitter as well, whom I rang and who was nothing but rude and unhelpful and when I explained the price I was quoted through Brooks for his services he said there was no chance with the kind of stuff I thought needed done to it. I think if I had booked him through Brooks it would have been 600 Euros, but that was assuming the floor was in perfect condition - they never tell you that bit when you buy the flooring. So the guy I went with came recommended by Woodworkers in Terenure. I'd say there is very little chance that you will get any help or refund from DK, I think you have only two options - cut your losses and get someone else or try and find someone who will do the "ground-work". If you want I can give you the details of the guy who did the job for me, he might be willing just to do the levelling job. He also put some sort of sealant underneath the dampproof plastic layer as he measured the moisture in the floor and it was slightly too moist for wooden flooring. I ordered the plastic layer and chipboard from Brooks, which they deliver, and then he did the rest for me and it took him a week for everything. I was a happy customer.
I put lots of self-levelling compound onto my kitchen floor - it is not as easy as it is made out to be, and it does take some time to dry out properly. You'd have a good bit of delay if you went down that route... Good luck!
 
I was in the same situation as yourself only a couple of weeks ago. I had a big job getting the levels right as I wanted to run the new floor continuously from one room to the other and under the stairs. As the old corpo houses have different room layouts in different areas I had to deal with different levels in each room.

Long story short, plywood was enough in most parts but I did need to use some levelling compound in other parts to get the ply to match through the whole place. My advice would be to get someone to level the whole place with levelling compound first. I've done a fair bit of this myself but can't match a pro. I've seen this done by a professional and its excellent. They will go through a good few bags but they will do a perfect mix and have the right tool to mesh each mix into the other to keep the finish smooth. If the room was clear they would just flood the place in the evening and it would be ready to walk on by the next day.

PM me if you want more details and the name of someone who could do this for you.
 
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