Laminate is one of the most popular flooring. He is a beautiful, durable, comfortable and rather unpretentious. But in order to properly put the laminate on the floor, it is necessary to carefully prepare and align the base. If the installation is made on the floor with potholes or irregularities, soon the coating will crack, the lock connections will disperse, and when walking the floor will creak. In this article we will tell about how to make a screed for laminate and get the perfect surface for laying.

Preparatory work

At first glance it is difficult to say, the curve floor or not. If you are going to change the old coating on a beautiful and expensive laminate, you must make sure that the base surface complies with the installation requirements.

Check the curvature (or make sure that there can be a floor in a simple way - with the help of a long meter line. Measure it the floor throughout the perimeter of the room - if the gap between the ruler and the surface will be more than 2 mm, the floor needs alignment. The same can be done by the construction level. When height drops from 2 mm and more than half you need to smoke.

If we are talking about a wooden base, it is necessary to check not so much of its evenness as the fortress. Boards with the slightest defects should be immediately replaced. If the board did not rot and not swell, but has a small crack or a dropped bitch, the hole can be smeared with a putty on wood. Since the laminate requires styling not only on even, but also on the perfectly smooth floor, on a wooden basis it will be necessary to walk with a grinding or squirrel machine.

Construction trick: if the wooden floor is eliminated by linoleum, it can be left and not grinding the boards.

At first glance, it may seem that the independent alignment of the floor is a very time-consuming and complex process, but in fact, even the self-taught builder will cope with it. A large selection of modern building materials and tools will help easily perform this work.

Concrete floor

The rough concrete floor is in any urban apartment, the difference consists only in the finish coating laid on top of it. Unfortunately, in most cases, builders make a screed very poorly and cover tracks of their activities with linoleum or parquet. In old houses, where the parquet was not changed from the time of the Soviet Union, the floors have long begun to creak and get treated, so they simply need to be replaced. After dismantling it turns out that the concrete screed is not even even requires substantial costs. How to align a concrete screed for laminate in this case?

There are several effective techniques for eliminating concrete floor defects, and the choice directly depends on the state of the surface. Given the correct assessment, you can not only save your own time and means to extend the service life of an updated base.

Grinding concrete floor

The easiest, fast and economical way of alignment of the floor. If the surface has minor drops in 2-4 mm, it is not necessary to spend on a tie - can be eliminated irregularities with a grinding machine. To handle a large room, it is better to rent a special oversized technique. Small rooms can be aligned with a manual manual or ordinary sandpaper.

When grinding is finished, the surface must be deleted and must be coated with a primer composition, which will form durable crystalline bonds in the upper layer of concrete. It is necessary so that the laminate is not rubbed about the base particle. The simplest primer can be made from the usual construction glue of PVA, diluted with water. This is written in more detail in the article. "How to make a primer with your own hands."

Self-leveling mixture

At the beginning of the article, we said that a large selection of building materials substantially facilitates the work of novice builders. One of these materials are self-leveling mixtures. These are special compositions that not only quickly smooth the unevenness of the floor, but also have a powerful fastening effect, provide additional heat, hydro and noise insulation. Despite the fairly high cost, many prefer this particular option to align the screed for the laminate.

Distinguish between several leveling mixtures depending on the purpose:

• repair - designed to eliminate serious defects and creating a smooth smooth surface;
• primitive - they cover a flat concrete screed to create a suitable base for laying the finishing coating;
• sealing - liquid substance quickly penetrates into all the smallest slits and floor holes, clogs them and creates a solid monolithic coating.

The composition of self-leveling mixtures includes cement, quartz sand and various modifying additives affecting the operating characteristics of the coating. Also in the mixture add plasticizers to reduce the fascination.

Construction trick: Plasticizers can be purchased separately and add to the usual concrete tie under the laminate so that it froze several times faster.

Repair of self-leveling mixtures are used for floors with drops in height from 5 mm and more. The fill of any leveling screed occurs on beaches, but this is the main difference between expensive modern mixtures - they do not need lighthouses. It is enough to determine the highest point, pour a defective base so that the mixture revenge to the mark (highest point) and wait for drying.

Useful advice: To extend the service life of the screed and improve its characteristics, it is recommended to cover the concrete floor of the primer before work and lay the waterproofing layer. Prepare a mixture with minor portions, especially if there are plasticizers in the composition. Otherwise, with inappropriate, you will not have time to spend the whole composition, and it will freeze before time. Usually the mixture is frozen 15-20 minutes after cooking - first it loses elasticity, and then hardens.

Self-leveling mixtures are applied by wide stripes, ranging from the wall opposite to the door. It is only necessary to pour a little composition on the floor and "stretch" to him with a wide spatula. When the entire floor surface is covered, close the room (the windows should also be closed so as dust and littering) and leave the screed to dry for a period of 3 days and longer (depending on the layer thickness). In no case do not accelerate drying, including heating devices or fans - too fast evaporation of moisture will lead to cracking of the solution.

Execution of a screed for laminate in video format:

Classical cement tie

Economical owners can be advised to prepare a classic cement-sandy solution for tie under laminate. However, in this case, it is necessary to learn how to properly put lighthouses, otherwise the floor will turn out to be a curve. Fortunately, this is not so difficult to do.

After dismantling the old coating, you should mark the highest point of the floor in the room. It is most convenient to do this with a laser level.

If there was no such device at hand, it is possible to use the usual building hydrorem. The highest point of the floor is necessary in order to navigate through it during the installation of beacons - they should be placed above or at the same level with this point.

If you are planning to lay the same type of laminate in the whole house or in several rooms, define one highest point for all. If the thickness of the laminate is different (different models), you will have to find the highest point for each room separately.

Installation of beacons occurs as follows:

1. Treat the concrete black floor by primer and let it dry.
2. In a construction store, purchase beacons with a height of 10 mm. Professionals prefer to enjoy just such as they almost do not bend, unlike lower.
3. Spread the beacons along the floor at 120-150 cm from each other, retreating about 50 cm from the walls.
4. Depending on the floor drops in different parts of the room under each beacon, put the lining in a step of 50 cm. The lining began to use quite recently, and before that the beacons were laid on a conventional cement solution. Some builders even today prefer this classic way.
5. Moving lining, set the lighthouses by level. If you set the beaches for the solution, adjust their position, console or slightly raising from cement.
   
6. Long the beacons with a solution from Alebaster and Rothband in the ratio of 1: 1. Alabaster here serves as a plasticizer, speeding up solidification.
   

Finally, a solution that locks the beacons will freeze in 30 minutes, after which it is possible to fill the cement-sand tie. Check the solution according to the instructions on the package and stir in a large bucket with a building mixer. As in the case of self-leveling mixtures, the cement mortar is better to prepare in small portions, especially since the time for the alignment will go much more.

We make a screed for laminate:

1. The finished solution pour into the space between two lighthouses, ranging from the wall opposite to the door.
2. Take the Construction Rule or the usual long board (Fanoury), run on the lighthouses and align the cement mortar layer by moving it on itself, to the right and left.
3. When you reach the end of the strip, leave the solution for 20-30 minutes, and then again "prole" this sector, since the cement will give a shrinkage in the process, and its level will be below the beacons. Do not stop the fill of the second layer per day or longer, because in this case the screed will lose its strength.
4. By the same principle, pour the remaining strips.

Useful advice: when pouring the second layer of the screed, hold the rule strictly perpendicular to the solution. Movements must be cut, and not stretching, as when applying the first layer. As a result, you will get a perfectly smooth surface that will not give shrinkage.

Dry screed

Dry screed under laminate has recently gained unheard of popularity. This is not surprising - there is no way with the beacons, you do not need to spend mad money for a self-leveling mixture, and about dirt, dust and cement stains can be forgotten. Dry screed is a bulk layer, closed with sheet material (chipboard, drywall, plywood, etc.). To make a dry tie, it will be necessary to determine the highest point of the floor.

How to make a dry tie:

1. Chernovoy concrete floor is made with waterproofing (film, rubberoid, membrane). Cuts of the material to bore with each other with an adhesive 15 cm with a wide tape (at least 10 cm). On the walls to make a battery of 10 cm and glue the edges to get a kind of waterproof container.
2. On the waterproofing, pour clairzit, crushed stone, vermiculite or other bulk material. If you use clamzit, it is better to take different-caliber fractions, then the screed will be more stable.
3. Bulk layer Close the selected sheet material. It can be conventional plasterboard plates, moisture resistant plywood or chipboard.
4. Connect the sheets with high-strength glue and screws.
5. Cut the waterproofing layer sticking in the walls.

After such distemper manipulations, you can start laying laminate. Note that in the case of a dry screed, you will not have to wait a few days so that the surface is dried up - work can be continued immediately.

Wooden floor

As we said at the very beginning, the alignment of the wooden floor is to replace the old rotten boards to new ones. In most cases, all such floors and so smooth and do not need any special training before installing the laminate.

If still, the wooden floor turned out not too smooth, although it is made of durable boards, then on top of it you can simply lay the sheets of plywood or make a cork tree substrate. So you will ensure not only a flat base for laminate, but strengthen the thermal insulation of the house.

Highly rotten or damaged floors are best replaced by new, or dismantled with lags at all and pour a concrete base. How to independently pour the concrete floor of the house, you can find out in the article "Paul in the country with your own hands".

Professional builders for equalizing the wooden floor before laying laminate use cement-chipboard. This material simplifies significantly, because you do not need to install beacons. Plates are placed on the wooden surface, cutting them according to the size of the room, and attach to the boards using self-tapping screws. The slots between the elements are embarrassed by the rotband.

If you make a screed for laminate with your own hands, be prepared for what you have to learn how to change the height of the doorway. Since the floor level due to the screed and the thickness of the laminate is slightly raised, the door will not be in the opening, so it will have to increase it.