When it comes to apartment renovations, all people try to find any way to save not only time, but also money. Walls and ceilings are elements of premises that are not as demanding in decoration as the floor, because flooring sets the style.

Even if you decorate the walls with gold, the ceiling with silk, and leave the floor bare, the “feature” of the room will be lost. That is why we will talk about how to hide the shortcomings of a concrete floor.

Plywood is an excellent material

You may ask, why plywood and not some other material, because you can fill the floor with a cement screed, or, in extreme cases, put fiberboard?

The answer consists of several points:

• Price of the material. It is one of the most affordable among those offered on construction market (harmonious combination cost and quality).
• It can be called practical and convenient for DIY work when there is no special equipment. Even filling cement screed takes longer than laying plywood on an uneven concrete floor.
• Wood material considered environmentally friendly, although adhesive mixtures are used in production, they are harmless and non-toxic. At least until they are exposed to fire.

Note!
Disputes about which better base under the laminate - concrete or plywood, so far this has not led to anything.
Some argue that cement is forever, others argue that the wood material is available.

But before you decide to purchase this material, you need to know that plywood is distinguished by its quality and reliability, there are 4 different varieties:

• Grade I is considered the highest quality and can even be used for cladding various surfaces, since there are practically no flaws on it. Only small brownish veins are acceptable.
• Grade II is more affordable, but also appearance its not so clean, there are veneer inserts and small knots. The optimal plywood for a concrete floor without joists is durable and not so “biting” in price.

• Grade III is used for interior work, when the surface will be finished with something, but not for a floor that is constantly under stress. Suitable for leveling walls, garages and utility room.
• IV, it is used only in cases where the budget for repairs is too cut.

For your information!
It should not be strictly within the framework of all rules and standards - from 18 mm to 28 mm.
Thinner sheets are more suitable for horizontal surfaces.

Laying plywood to level the floor

This section contains detailed instructions for all handmade that must be done in order for the laying of plywood on a concrete base to be correct and effective. Remember, the result will be positive only if you strictly follow all the requirements and sequence of work.

Preparation of material

• Before the material can be cut, they must be sawed and cleaned.
• Sawing is done either with a hacksaw (no power tools required) or with a jigsaw. In the first case, there are two disadvantages: the end will be too torn and slightly uneven, and it will also take more time and effort. Using a jigsaw, you can cut plywood in 5-10 minutes.
• To eliminate cutting defects, it is necessary to sand the ends to remove burrs and roughness. This at least provides increased safety, even if you are wearing gloves.

Surface cleaning

Before you begin attaching plywood to the concrete floor, you should treat the surface:

• First of all, the floor is cleaned of all kinds of unevenness, old materials and dust.
• All cracks and deep chips are repaired using cement mortar.
• When working surface It’s clean, you can prime it with one layer, it doesn’t matter what you use, a roller or a brush - the main thing is that the tool is of high quality.

Plywood fasteners

Now the laying of plywood on the concrete floor under the laminate can begin, for this you need to:

• Prepare glue for plywood and concrete so that it interacts with both surfaces.

Note!
Trying to save money on a fixing base, you can end up with a low-quality coating (base), which in a few years will be in free movement.
This will lead to numerous squeaks and expensive repairs, depending on the materials that were chosen as finishing.
Therefore, it is better to buy glue for laying plywood on a concrete floor from abroad and with an average price tag.

• Degrease the surface of the plywood on the side that will be laid on the floor.
• If necessary, lay on the floor waterproofing material, which is fixed at the joints using special tape (although regular masking tape will do).
• Installation of plywood begins with the placement of beacons horizontal level. You can use small cemented pins, or draw a line on the walls.
• Afterwards, glue for concrete and plywood is applied to a small area (slightly larger than the sheet of material being laid) and rubbed with a notched trowel.

• The plywood itself is laid after 1-2 minutes so that the glue sets a little. Before laying it on the glue, inspect the surface of the material; the side that is worse is placed on the floor.
• Tap the material thoroughly with a mallet.
• Drill 6-8 holes around the perimeter with a drill.

• Using a screwdriver, secure the plywood to the self-tapping dowels.

Important!
Before attaching it tightly, align the sheet relative to the walls and other surfaces.

• Leave the plywood floor alone for 1-2 days, then sand the surface.

Now you can lay any floor covering, following the installation rules.

Features of plywood laying

• Before gluing plywood to concrete, make sure that the room is sufficiently insulated (important for country houses). For example, if you choose laminate flooring, you should use additional insulation, which will make the flooring warmer. Plus, this way you will protect the material from moisture.

• Another feature is that the thickness of the plywood should not be less than natural wood(parquet), it’s better – even if there’s more.
• Do not forget that between the sheets of material there should be temperature gaps of 2 to 5 mm, which will allow the material to expand and contract without any consequences.
• We have already talked about how to glue plywood to concrete - the glue must be of high quality, but we have not mentioned what types there are. One-component - without hardener, two-component - with hardener (hardens within a few hours).
• It is better to use a notched trowel to apply the adhesive solution. Regarding those cases when finishing of plywood will be carried out ceramic tiles, then we recommend using a rubber spatula, it will not damage the edges of the material.
• Using plywood of various thicknesses, to eliminate unevenness, you can also use various linings, for example, fiberboard sheets, although they are not moisture resistant.

• Do not forget about safety precautions, especially when working with glue and plywood ends. It is enough to use gloves and protective plastic glasses to avoid adverse consequences.

Well, now you know how to attach plywood to a concrete floor without outside help and expensive construction crews. Although, on the other hand, the demand for the quality of work will be on you, and not on strangers who must guarantee positive result or free rework.

Conclusion

We tried to tell you in as much detail as possible in our article about how to lay plywood on a concrete floor, and if everything worked out for you, it means that our efforts were not in vain. However, you should not be upset if suddenly something does not work out, for example, problems with leveling the surface (the most common problem).

There are three ways to solve this:

• Use concrete screed, flooded according to installed beacons.

• Leave everything as is, with minor differences.
  
• Contact specialists and pay them for the rework.

In any case, no one is stopping you from trying to do it yourself. We even suggest watching the video in this article, in which you will find Additional information on this topic.

Similar materials

Updated: 03/21/2019

The base for the laminate must be perfectly flat, otherwise during operation the panels will begin to creak and sag, and the locks will become loose. There are several ways to level a floor under a laminate, the choice of which depends on the type of base, the degree of its wear, time and financial constraints.

It is advisable to level a wooden floor only if both the boards and joists are in good condition, there are no rotten areas, wide cracks or other similar defects. If serious repairs are required, it is much easier to dismantle the floors to the rough screed and level them with concrete.

To prepare a plank floor for laying laminate you will need:

• grinding or scraping machine;
• wood putty;
• roller and brushes;
• primer;
• plywood sheets, cement-bonded particle boards, gypsum fiber board or chipboard;
• jigsaw;
• roulette;
• screws and a screwdriver.

First, the floor surface is carefully sanded or treated with a sanding machine.

Remove shavings and dust, and fill all minor defects with putty. Next, prime the base twice, dry it, and lay it on plywood or other selected material. Self-tapping screws are used for fastening, and the material is cut with a jigsaw. Now all that remains is to lay the flooring correctly.

Leveling a concrete floor

The easiest and cheapest way to level a concrete floor is grinding. If the concrete base does not have cracks, and the differences in height are no more than 5 mm, the surface is simply processed using a grinding machine or an angle grinder with an attachment.

Then clean the floor with a vacuum cleaner and prime it. This option is not suitable for heavily damaged screeds, low quality concrete and damp floors. In such conditions, leveling is carried out using dry or cement-sand screed, as well as ready-made leveling mixtures.

Leveling the floor with a self-leveling mixture

Cement-sand screed

To work you will need:

• water and building level;
• solution container;
• cement;
• sand;
• rule;
• slats for lighthouses;
• trowel.

A new screed can be poured onto the previous one or directly onto the floor slabs. It depends on how badly the base is damaged. If the old screed has irregularities of more than 2 cm, but is durable, there is no need to dismantle it. Having decided on the base, proceed directly to leveling the surface.

1. Find the highest point of the floor and place marks on the walls using a water level; the marks are connected to horizontal line using beating.
2. The floor is cleaned of dust and debris, a layer of waterproofing and reinforcing mesh is laid, and beacons made of metal slats are placed on cement mortar. The distance between the beacons is about 1.5-1.8 m.

   Installation of beacons. In the photo the floor is waterproofed, but no reinforcement was performed

   Floor reinforcement with mesh. Beacons can be fixed with gypsum or alabaster quick-drying solutions

3. Check the horizontality of the slats with a building level.
4. Cement is mixed with sand in a ratio of 1:3, diluted with water to a paste-like consistency.
5. Pour the mixture between the beacons, starting from the far wall, and stretch it, as a rule, along the stripes.

A day later, the beacons are carefully removed from the concrete, a little cement mortar is mixed, and the resulting grooves are filled with it. Level the surface with a spatula, smooth out small cracks if necessary, and then cover the floor with film. For 28 days, the screed should be protected from drafts, direct sunlight and regularly moistened. As soon as the moisture content of the concrete drops to 5%, you can lay the underlay and lay the laminate.

Dry screed

For dry screed you will need:

• level;
• slats for lighthouses;
• damper tape;
• GVL or plywood;
• glue, screws;
• expanded clay;
• waterproofing film.

The base is pre-cleaned of debris, the cracks are sealed with a solution, and the surface is primed. When the floor is dry, work on the screed begins.

1. The finished floor level is marked on the walls.
2. Cover the base with waterproofing material, laying adjacent strips overlapping.
3. Using a solution, fix the beacon strips on the floor and check their horizontalness.
4. A damper tape is glued along the perimeter along the marking line.
5. The space between the beacons is filled with expanded clay, which is leveled using the rule.
6. Gypsum fiber sheets are laid on top of the expanded clay and tightly joined at the seams.
7. Having laid the first layer, proceed to the second: the sheets are covered on the reverse side with glue and laid so as to cover the joints of the lower layer.
8. Finally, connect the top sheets with the bottom screws.

Prefabricated dry screed

Quite often, the floor under the laminate is leveled using the dry screed method - on joists. In this case, the presence bulk materials is optional; they are used only when insulation is necessary.

For alignment you will need:

• level;
• roulette;
• hacksaw;
• perforator;
• dowels;
• timber logs;
• Chipboard, plywood or gypsum fiber board;
• waterproofing material;
• damper tape.

First you need to determine the level of the finished floor and make markings on the walls. If the base is completely dry, you can do without a waterproofing layer, but if the screed’s humidity is high, it is mandatory.

1. The film is laid overlapping, placed slightly on the walls, and the edges of the material at the joints are taped for reliability.
2. The logs, pre-treated with a primer, are laid on the floor and leveled horizontally using wedges or pieces of wood. The logs are screwed to the screed with anchor bolts or using dowels, drilling holes with a hammer drill.
3. Sheathing sheets - chipboard, plywood, gypsum fiber board - are screwed onto the top of the logs with self-tapping screws in one or two layers.
4. The seams between the sheets are sealed with putty and sanded after drying.

Alignment

This leveling method cannot be called cheap, but it is the one that has the greatest advantages. Pouring the mixture is done quickly and does not require much physical effort; the surface also dries much faster than wet screed. Such mixtures are used on rough foundations with height differences of up to 5 mm.

The base is cleaned and the highest point is determined. Using a level gauge, make marks on the walls with a marker to which the floor should be filled. Next, the surface is primed and dried. If the concrete is not best quality, the primer is applied in two layers. After drying, a film is laid on the floor with an overlap on the walls. Now comes the most crucial moment - preparing the mixture. The dry mixture must be diluted with water exactly specified proportions, but only mechanically. An incorrect ratio of water and dry components or manual mixing will lead to delamination of the leveling mixture, the appearance of bubbles, and a decrease in the strength of the coating.

If the area is large, the filling solution is prepared in portions so that it can be used before it hardens. Fill the floor in sections, starting from the far corner. To level, use a special spatula - a squeegee, and then roll out the mixture with a roller with needles. Adjacent areas should be filled at intervals of no more than 10 minutes. After pouring, the floor is covered with film and left for at least 3 days. During drying of the polymer, it is necessary to exclude temperature changes, drafts, mechanical loads and vibrations.

Table. Self-leveling mixtures

Name	Drying time	Layer thickness	Consumption kg/m2	Price RUR/kg
Eunice Horizon universal	3-7 days	2-100 mm	3-4	236/20
BOLARS	4 hours	2-100 mm	3-4	239/20
Vetonit 3000	4 hours	1-5 mm	1,5	622/25
Perfecta Multilayer	2-3 hours	2-200 mm	7-14	312/20
Axton	3-4 hours	6-100 mm	14-16	150/25
Palafloor-303	4-6 hours	2-100 mm	1,4-1,6	308/20
GLIMS-S-Level	24 hours	2-5 mm	3	478/20

All of these methods allow you to create the most even base for laminate flooring. If the technology is followed during leveling, such a floor will not require overhaul 10-15 years.

Video - Leveling the floor under laminate

Video - Leveling the floor under the laminate with a prefabricated screed

For anyone modern coating, be it laminate, carpet or linoleum, you need to prepare a smooth hard surface. Laying plywood on a concrete floor allows you to remove unevenness and hide defects. In addition, the material serves as an excellent insulator and increases service life. finishing coating. The wood from which plywood is made makes it attractive for installation from the point of view of environmental friendliness and naturalness.

To decide which material is best suited for installation, you need to consider quality characteristics one type or another of plywood. The use of wood fiber for its intended purpose, taking into account its advantages and disadvantages, guarantees long term coverage services. Plywood for a concrete floor varies in the degree of water resistance, the content of toxic substances, and the raw materials used to make the sheet.

Depending on the degree of moisture resistance, plywood grades are distinguished:

• FSF, which has maximum performance. However, the material remains unsuitable for laying floors in the bathroom, bathhouse, kitchen, and other rooms with high level humidity;
• FC having average moisture resistance. The layers of material are glued together with a safe adhesive containing urea resins. Plywood is successfully used for finishing residential premises;
• FOF, used primarily not for laying floors in a residential building, but in the construction of industrial facilities.

If we consider the raw materials from which the sheets are made, we can distinguish:

• Conifers with increased resistance to fungus and other pathogenic microorganisms. The leaf is used primarily for roofing works, not suitable for home;
• Birch veneer, from which the panels are made, ideal for laying the floor of a living room.

Plywood under laminate on a concrete floor has different levels of content harmful substances. Indicator E1 indicates the presence of formaldehyde in amounts of up to 10 mg per 100 g of material. This sheet should be chosen for laying flooring in a residential area. The E2 indicator means that 100 g of canvas contains from 10 to 30 mg of harmful substances.

Plywood laid on the base

For finishing the floor inside a residential building, it is preferable to use FK plywood. There is an additional division of the material into 4 grades, depending on its characteristics:

• Grade 1, which has the least number of external defects;
• Grade 2, allowing the presence of knots and veneer inclusions;
• Grade 3 with a large number cracks, knots, other flaws;
• Grade 4, which has the lowest quality. At the same time, the sheets are glued together soundly, which allows the sheets to be used for carrying out construction work in some cases.

Plywood varieties

The best quality material is not used for subfloor construction because the cost of installing plywood over a concrete floor would be high. The best option– use of 2nd grade fabric with minimal formaldehyde content. Suitable sheet thickness varies between 12 and 16 mm.

Cutting and fitting plywood

To determine the required amount of fabric for installation, you need to calculate the floor area, then add 5-10%. The standard size of a plywood sheet is 1.25 by 1.25 m. It is inconvenient to work with a whole sheet, so the material for laying must be cut into pieces in advance. It is best to divide the sheet into 4 squares measuring approximately 60 by 60 cm.

Cutting a solid blade allows you to ensure required quantity damper seams. The gaps compensate for possible deformations that occur after installation under the influence of temperature fluctuations and humidity. In addition, small-sized elements themselves are more stable and hold their shape better.

Preparing the floor for linoleum

It is better to cut the fabric for laying electric jigsaw. If the material is of high quality, after cutting there will be no chips left and no delamination will occur. The sawn sheet needs to be laid out for an approximate fit without glue or screws. This way the exact number of elements is established, the features of the room are taken into account - niches, protrusions, etc.

It is necessary to leave gaps up to 1 cm wide between the squares. There should be 1.5-2 cm left from the outer elements to the wall after installation. Sheets should be placed according to type brickwork, with offset rows. This eliminates the possibility of joining four seams in the same place. After preliminary adjustment of the elements, it is recommended to number the sheets, photograph or sketch a diagram of the surface, so that later you can quickly lay the plywood on the concrete floor.

Methods for attaching plywood to the base

Fixation of sheets must be carried out comprehensively, using glue and self-tapping screws. The choice of fasteners depends on the thickness of the sheet, while glue for plywood on a concrete floor has a different composition. To determine the appropriate binder mixture, you need to consider different solutions.

We apply glue solution on concrete

Water-based glue has a number of advantages. The composition does not pose a health hazard and is not a source of pungent odor. The main disadvantage of the binder mixture is the long drying process, which takes up to several days. This leads to downtime and slows down the speed of floor installation.

Solvent-based adhesive, on the contrary, dries faster. A significant disadvantage of the solution is the pungent odor that fills the entire space of the room. To mix harmful effects to zero, it is enough to ventilate the room well. However, this feature often becomes the reason for refusing to use such a binder composition.

The two-component mixture combines the advantages of the above adhesive compositions. The glue dries quickly bad smell absent. The characteristics of the two-component composition make it possible to attach plywood even to a wet screed.

Step-by-step installation guide

Laying sheets

Leveling a concrete floor with plywood involves several steps. To properly lay the canvas, it is not necessary to involve professionals. You can handle everything yourself, while saving on the cost of repair work.

Checking substrate moisture

The first thing you need to do before attaching plywood to a concrete floor is to determine the moisture level of the base. Excessive dampness can cause further delamination of the fabric. To check the degree of humidity, you do not need a special device. Required polyethylene film, weights for fixing it. Procedure:

• Spread polyethylene on the concrete surface;
• Place the weights along the edges, leaving the center free;
• Leave the polyethylene for several days (a week is required for the most accurate result);
• Assess the moisture content of the film. The resulting condensation indicates that the sheets should not be laid directly on such a concrete floor. It is necessary to create additional waterproofing using special solutions.

Cleaning the base

Apply primer

Before attaching the plywood to the concrete floor, you need to sand down any uneven surfaces using a grinder with a special attachment. Then you need to remove the old solutions (putty, paint, etc.) and fill the holes. Cracks and other floor defects are eliminated before laying plywood with various mixtures, for example, cement and sand.

Next, a thorough cleaning of the surface from dust is required. Does an excellent job with this task industrial vacuum cleaner. If there is no such unit, an ordinary broom will do. In this case, it will take more time to clean the surface. It is important not to wet the broom with water to avoid wetting the concrete screed.

Base primer

The cleaned concrete floor is treated with a special compound using a paint roller. You can use regular primer or primers recommended by experts. The latest formulations have a number of advantages:

• Perfectly removes dust from the surface to be laid;
• Penetrate to a good depth, which is important for the top layer of coating;
• Capable of increasing the rate of adhesion of various materials.

Laying laminate

Laying plywood

The numbering and placement diagram prepared earlier will help you quickly and correctly lay out plywood under linoleum on a concrete floor. Procedure:

• Cover the concrete surface with a layer of adhesive up to 2 mm thick. Apply binder for laying floors it is better to small areas in order to have time to lay out the sheets before the mixture begins to set;
• Place the sheets based on the diagram;
• Secure the canvas with self-tapping screws around the perimeter and in the center. Screw in the fasteners in increments of 15-20 cm, departing no more than 2 cm from the edges of the plywood. The length of the screws should be at least 3 times the thickness of the sheet;
• Sand the floor with sandpaper or grinder with a special nozzle. At this stage, minor differences in height, burrs, and other minor laying defects are eliminated.

Checking work

Carefully inspect the floor surface. The laid sheets should not touch the walls. Check the spaces between the panels. Permissible differences in height are up to 2 mm. Next, you need to take a block or wooden hammer and gently tap on the surface. A dull, heterogeneous sound indicates separation of the material from the concrete floor. In this case, the plywood installation needs to be redone.

Laminate is one of the most beautiful, popular, modern and high-quality floor coverings. Laminate flooring is suitable for residential apartments, offices and other administrative and public buildings. Floors covered with laminate delight owners with an extremely aesthetic appearance, durability, and strength. In addition, it is very pleasant to walk on laminate flooring barefoot. But before laying the laminate flooring, you need to perform some preliminary procedures. We are talking about leveling the floor.

Leveling the floor: what is it for?

Laminate flooring is very demanding regarding the evenness of the surface on which it will be laid. The specificity of laminate boards is that for them correct connection and many years of high-quality service, a completely flat floor is required.

With all its advantages, laminate flooring has one drawback: it does not smooth out existing floor unevenness; it requires a fully prepared and level floor.

But if you still neglect this stage and lay the laminate on the existing floor, what will happen? In this case, no matter how high-quality the laminate is and no matter how carefully you lay it, it will not please you for a long time with its beautiful appearance.

• Laminate panels will begin to sag under the weight of human weight if there are voids underneath them as a result of being laid on a raised surface.
• The interpanel seams will begin to move apart, the inner surface of the laminate will be unprotected and thus moisture will be able to easily penetrate to it. This will soon lead to delamination of the inner side of the panel.
• The locking mechanism of laminate panels will not be able to cope with excessive loads. Over time, the locks of the laminate will become loose, severe cases may also crack.
• In particularly critical situations, if you lay laminate on a floor that has very serious unevenness, it may swell or the panels themselves may crack.
• When walking on laminate flooring, the panels will creak.

All these signs can appear together or separately, but in any case, the appearance of the room and the laminate itself will be hopelessly damaged.

Therefore, the answer to the question of whether it is necessary to level the floor under a laminate flooring is clear - just level it and nothing else. There are many ways to accomplish this task.

The maximum permissible deviation from a perfectly flat surface is 2 millimeters.

Application of different materials

You can level the floor different materials. The choice of material depends on several factors. Let's consider what properties the most popular leveling materials have and on what coatings they are recommended to be used.

This material can be used if you need to level a wooden floor. A good and easy to implement option for budget renovation. The disadvantage of this method is that the putty often has to be applied in several layers when the unevenness is deep and one layer is not enough. As a result, it is necessary to thoroughly dry each layer before applying the next one, which means a lot of time.

Putty - a budget option, however, the leveling process using this material takes longer

A very popular material for leveling wooden floors. It is inexpensive, quick and easy to install, and covers all existing defects. You need to pay attention to a couple of nuances - do not use plywood sheets with delaminated edges and ensure the same level of humidity in the sheets and the room itself.

Plywood is the most popular material for leveling wooden floors

Applies to concrete floors. It is good for initial leveling, when it is necessary to close significant cracks, potholes, depressions in concrete and other noticeable flaws, but is completely unsuitable for a finished floor, so another layer of mortar is poured on top of the screed - thin, giving a smooth and perfect flat surface. Has low thermal insulation properties, therefore, to make a concrete floor warm, you need to lay a backing layer on top of the finished coating. The disadvantages include the fact that the screed mortar is very heavy and creates a large load on the concrete slabs.

Floor leveling screed

Used on concrete floors when final leveling work needs to be done. Spreads independently over the entire surface of the floor, eliminates all minor flaws, and when dry gives a perfectly even coating. However, it is completely unsuitable for use on very uneven terrain. concrete base, because it spreads very thin layer, which will not be enough to fill all more or less noticeable irregularities.

A very popular material, endowed with many useful qualities. Expanded clay is very light, so when used, the load on load-bearing and supporting structures will be minimal. At the same time, it has high strength and can last for many years. Provides good sound insulation, does not support combustion (fireproof), environmentally friendly, chemically inert (does not enter into chemical reactions with other substances and materials, does not release anything into the environment). A floor covered with expanded clay has heat-retaining qualities, so you will never freeze. In addition, it is not afraid of rotting, fungus or mold, is widely available in any hardware stores and has a low cost.

Expanded clay has excellent heat-retaining properties

Substrate

Material such as underlay is also used to level the floor. The use of this material is advisable if the irregularities are no more than 4 millimeters. In this situation, it is impossible to lay the laminate directly on the floor, but at the same time it is too expensive to carry out more thorough leveling work. In this case, the use of a substrate will be quite sufficient to achieve the required degree of leveling of the relief. Substrates come in several varieties:

• Cork;
• Cork-bitumen;
• Polyurethane foam;
• Polyethylene;
• Foamed propylene.

For greater evenness, you can also lay the underlay on an already leveled floor. It is inexpensive and will not cause damage to the owner’s pocket, but will ensure more reliable preservation of the underside of the laminate panels.

Comparison table of materials

Material	pros	Minuses	On what floors is it used?
Inexpensive Simple workflow	Takes a lot of time Each layer must be dried	Wooden
	Cheapness Ease and speed of installation Reliable hiding of all existing defects, regardless of their severity Eco-friendly	Combustible Prone to rotting Afraid of moisture	Wooden Concrete
	Fills large and deep floor defects well Inexpensive	Does not allow for fine alignment Very heavy Doesn't retain heat well	Concrete
	Ideal for smoothing out small defects Used for final floor leveling Uncomplicated workflow	Not suitable for leveling large depressions and differences in the floor	Concrete
	Very light Durable Good sound insulation Good thermal insulation Fireproof Environmentally friendly Chemically inert Does not rot Low price		Concrete
Substrate	Cheap (except cork) Versatility (can be used on any type of floor) Soundproofing Moisture insulation	High cost of cork; Loss of elasticity over time in polyethylene Susceptibility to combustion, toxicity and limited service life of polypropylene foam (up to 10 years)	Any types of floors

Step by step instructions

Concrete floor

Concrete flooring is very common in our homes and public buildings. And almost always such a floor has more or less serious unevenness and other defects, including chips, cracks, differences in planes, cavities in the form of shells, concrete sagging, potholes, crumbled and peeling areas. All these defects must be corrected if you intend to lay laminate flooring.

Leveling a concrete floor is carried out in two stages: first, rough and large unevenness is eliminated using cement-sand mortar(screeds), and then final leveling is performed with a self-leveling mixture, which fills all the smallest cracks, smoothes out the slight relief resulting from the application of the previous solution, and gives semi-final ideal evenness.

If your floor is fairly level, you can immediately use a self-leveling mixture. But in this case, the original floor covering should have minimal unevenness, since the layer of such a mixture is thin and does not eliminate serious defects.

Cement-sand screed

This is what it looks like serial circuit work when leveling a concrete base:

1. First of all, we remove from the concrete floor all traces remaining from the previous coating. We remove paint stains with solvents or drying oil; oil stains must be annealed.
2. A cement-based working composition is used to fill potholes and cracks. Sludges of concrete are removed using a hammer drill; small ones can be left - they will be hidden with a screed.
3. All concrete surface treated with soil solution.
4. Then you need to decide on the height of the future screed layer. For this, a level is used and marks are made on the walls along the entire perimeter. We place the beacons in accordance with the level (we use slats for this), securing them with a solution.
5. Next, a screed mortar is prepared, consisting of 75% sifted sand and 25% cement M 400. The consistency of the mortar should be such as to prevent it from spreading ahead of time.
6. The resulting solution is poured onto the floor and leveled in accordance with the beacons.
7. When the screed has set, we remove the beacon strips. We also fill the resulting holes with the solution, giving time to completely set.

On this rough alignment the floor is finished.

When mixing the screed, you should pour the dry ingredient into the water, rather than pouring water over it.

If the solution thickens, it must be thrown away. A solution diluted with water loses its properties, and such screed becomes of poor quality.

Video: leveling the floor with cement screed

Now comes the turn of the “jewelry” leveling of the concrete floor. Self-leveling mixture is a special solution that spreads over the floor and is optimally distributed so that the result is a completely flat and smooth surface.

Otherwise, such mixtures are called self-leveling, self-leveling floors, floor levelers, seamless polymer floors.

1. The mixture is prepared in strict accordance with the instructions, after which it is stirred using a construction mixer.
2. The concrete floor is poured with the prepared mixture.
3. If the room has a large area, the floor is divided into sections and each is poured in turn, but the entire room must be filled with the mixture at one time, i.e., part of the room cannot be postponed until the evening or the next day.
4. After pouring, you need to go over the solution with a toothed roller so that there are no air bubbles left in it.

Self-leveling mixtures look dry after just an hour, but further work should begin after at least three days. It is prohibited to change the proportions of dry composition and water at your own discretion. Self-leveling mixtures dry quickly, so your actions must be precise and quick, but without haste. The mixture should have a temperature of +10 degrees and above, and the room temperature should be the same.

Now your floor is ready for laying laminate, however, for greater comfort and safety of the laminate panels, you can also lay a backing.

Video: leveling the floor with a self-leveling mixture

This method is quite simple to implement, but it cannot be called cheap. Expanded clay has many attractive properties, so it is often preferred among all leveling materials. If you decide to level the floor under the laminate with expanded clay, the sequence of your actions will be as follows.

1. Before laying expanded clay, the entire floor surface is covered with a film that provides a waterproofing effect. The film should extend onto the walls by at least 10–15 centimeters.
2. Further along the entire perimeter there is edge tape, whose width should be equal to the height of the future expanded clay layer or exceed it.
3. Then sheets of superflooring, gypsum fiber board, chipboard or plywood are laid on expanded clay distributed over the entire area of ​​the room.
4. Every new leaf attached to those already laid using special glue and self-tapping screws. It is necessary to observe a step of 10 to 15 centimeters.
5. It is also necessary to ensure that there are no cross seams, for which the sheets are laid in a checkerboard pattern.
6. Superfloor sheets (gypsum fiber board, plywood) located near the walls must have a cut rebate. This is necessary in order to provide a double layer of material near the wall.
7. After the entire area of ​​the room is covered with superflooring, the underlay is laid, and the laminate is laid on it.

Video: leveling the floor with expanded clay

Wooden floor

Leveling a wooden floor under laminate is both easier and at the same time more difficult than concrete. It's easier because wooden base much easier to process than concrete; and it is more difficult - because today a single universal method for leveling wooden floors has not yet been invented. Depending on the nuances of a particular wooden flooring, different methods are used.

Leveling the floor with plywood before laying the laminate is very good decision in terms of financial costs. This method is used when the wooden floor has many different defects. When choosing this leveling method, keep in mind that the humidity level in the plywood sheets and in the room where you plan to lay the laminate must be the same. This is achieved by wetting the plywood with plain water, after which you need to leave the sheets to dry in this room.

Before starting leveling work, it is necessary to carefully check the condition of the utilities running under the floor; At the same time, the insulation also needs to be checked. This work is carried out in advance, because after the laminate is laid, it will be very difficult to get to the communications. Also, we should not forget that air should circulate freely under the laminate boards. Sheets of plywood intended for leveling should have a thickness of no more than 50 mm.

To successfully level a floor with plywood, you should have a screwdriver, self-tapping screws, a laser level, PVA glue and the plywood sheets on hand.

First of all, you need to install beacons, for which simple self-tapping screws are used. We screw them in throughout the entire floor, observing the desired height. The frequency of beacons depends on the thickness of the plywood: what thinner sheets, the more often beacons should be installed, and vice versa.

Next steps:

1. To install the logs, you will need plywood strips, slats or boards, the thickness of which is about 3 cm. They are attached using a special glue for wooden parts or self-tapping screws. Sometimes there are gaps between the joists and the old flooring; they need to be filled with pieces of plywood coated with glue. The pieces are prepared in advance.
2. For greater convenience, it is better to cut plywood into square sheets of 60 square meters. centimeters. At the same time, try not to allow the edges of the resulting squares to separate. If the edge is delaminated, it is not recommended to use this square; it is better to take another one.
3. Then the entire surface should be cleaned of dust and dirt - both those that were already there before and those formed as a result of these manipulations.
4. Plywood squares should be placed on the joists only after all the glue has completely dried. When laying plywood, care must be taken to ensure that the sheets are joined strictly on the joists, and also not to allow four sheets to be joined at the seams at the same time.
5. After this, all the necessary protrusions, arches and other holes are cut.
6. Now comes the turn of self-tapping screws with an invisible head - with their help, sheets of plywood are secured to the joists.

To avoid protruding screw caps, you need to take care of this in advance. To do this, we drill and countersink the places of their future location.

Please note that the plywood sheets should not be placed end to end. There should be a distance of several millimeters between them so that temperature fluctuations do not cause their deformation.

Putty

Another budget-friendly way to level the floor for laying laminate flooring. Using a mixture sawdust and PVA-based putties, you can level a room with a fairly large footage, spending very little.

First of all, you need to prepare the floor by cleaning it. The sawdust that will be involved in the leveling process should be moistened so that it does not dry out too quickly, otherwise it will draw moisture from the putty. The sequence of actions when leveling the floor with putty mixed with sawdust looks like this.

1. Using a level, you need to fill the floor with beacons - ordinary wooden slats.
2. Then the space between the slats is filled with a mixture of PVA putty and sawdust. In the case when one layer is not enough to level out the existing depressions, several layers are applied, each of which must be given time to dry completely. The thickness of each such layer is a maximum of 20 millimeters. Under no circumstances should a new layer be poured if the previous one has not completely dried out.
3. During work, the horizontalness of the resulting surface must be constantly checked with a level.

Despite its efficiency and ease of execution, this method takes a lot of time, which is associated with the mandatory drying of each layer.

The wooden subfloor can also be scraped, this is quick and easy way. The scraping work is carried out using a scraping machine, but hard-to-reach places can be processed with a manual scraper. Sanding is resorted to when the condition of the original floor is quite good and the boards do not have serious irregularities. A scraping machine is not able to remove pronounced floor relief, but it can cope with minor defects “excellently”. This method is suitable for both parquet floors and regular wood floors.

Before starting the scraping process, all furniture, paintings, chandeliers and other interior elements are removed from the room. If something cannot be taken out, these items are covered with film, and the edges of the film are fixed with tape. Entrance door the room is being removed because the floor in this area also needs repairs. To prevent debris from getting into the corridor or adjacent rooms, you need to seal the doorway with polyethylene. To ensure proper ventilation, be sure to open the windows.

The floor is inspected for various defects. Detected chips and cracks are puttied. Empty spaces between floorboards are also puttied or filled with sawdust. If individual boards are in very poor condition, they must be replaced with new ones. You should also make sure that the nails are deep enough into the floor. If the caps still protrude, you need to use a hammer and deepen them.

A wire brush will help remove old varnish or paint. After brushing, the floor is treated with a sanding machine to consolidate the effect and finally remove any remaining paint and varnish. You can also wipe the floors with mineral spirits. Then the floor must be thoroughly washed. This can be done with plain water or an alcohol solution. Don’t skimp on water – every last speck of debris must be removed. After washing, you need to give the boards time to dry, so don’t start following works if the floor is not completely dry.

Take care of your funds personal protection. Looping produces a lot of dust and noise, so you will need a respirator (a regular cotton-gauze bandage will be of little use), safety glasses, and thick clothing with a closed collar and long sleeves is also desirable. Good construction headphones or at least earplugs will help with noise. In addition, the scraping machine produces quite noticeable vibrations, which will require special gloves to dampen. However, you can use regular thick mittens instead.

Handling the scraper requires some skill: it has a lot of power, and during operation you will constantly feel that the machine is trying to escape from your hands.

So, all the preparatory activities have been completed, and now you proceed directly to scraping. The work sequence looks like this:

1. Load the sander with coarse sandpaper and turn it on. The scraping process begins by inserting coarse-grained belts into the machine; before each successive layer the grain size decreases.
2. Start looping from the corner, carefully moving in a straight line to the opposite wall.
3. When you reach the wall, turn around and start moving back. You must shift in such a way as to capture the raw space. Your movements around the room will resemble a snake.
4. Each new floor strip is processed slightly overlapping with the already processed area.
5. During the looping process, it is best to hold the cord from the device on your shoulder - this way you will prevent it from getting under the machine.
6. Remember to keep an eye on the sandpaper as you work. If the area is large, then the tape will probably wear off before the room is completed and will have to be replaced.
7. Also, sandpaper needs to be cleaned during sanding. You can clean it by fanning it with a broom or cloth. The dust collector also needs to be checked and cleaned.
8. Having completely covered the entire area of ​​the room and are about to start looping a new layer, keep in mind that each time the layers are made perpendicular to the previous one.
9. Passing final stage, move parallel to the laid boards.

If the belts are roughly smoothed at the beginning of work uneven areas and remove the remaining paint, then fine-grained belts carefully sand the surface before completing the sanding process, giving it smoothness and shine.

After completion, the floor should be thoroughly swept or, even better, use a vacuum cleaner. Finishing touch– treatment with white spirit. The scraped floor is sufficiently even and allows you to safely cover it with laminate. But for greater evenness, softness and neutralization of possible micro-irregularities, it would not be superfluous to additionally lay a substrate under the laminate.

Video: leveling the floor by scraping

So, as we see, in no case should you neglect leveling the floors before starting to lay laminate flooring. The service life of your laminate flooring will depend on the quality of the procedure and the correctly selected materials, which means your nerves, cleanliness and comfort in the house, the ideal evenness of the floors and good mood all household members. Spend a couple of days on this procedure and enjoy a perfectly executed repair for many years!

My name is Elena. Hobbies - music, literature, attending concerts, dancing, photography/photoshop, learning to edit videos, regional studies, European history and North America, the history of Catholicism, a bicycle, writing various stories, sometimes stories and poems, sometimes modeling from plasticine and polymer clay.