Hi all....your help on this would be greatly appreciated. We've fitted an LVT in a hallway on top of FBalls Stopgap 30 Fast track. There are undulations to the floor that were smoothed out by the screed but the floor is not dead level and neither will it be without digging out the old floor and completely relaying a new one. However, as you look down from 1 end to the other the surface of the product seems to be rippled! We've been back up uplifted the affected area's and refinished before refitting the planks. The screed looks perfectly smooth, but when the LVT is fitted it seems to show up peaks and troughs in the floor! The product is Galleria by Lifestyle. Does anybody have any suggestions on how it can be put right?
Is the screed solid? Daft question really but it sometimes looks flat but really it's loose and hollow. Have you got any pics?
Trowel marks? Did you spike it before it went off? Using ****e like Galleria wont do you any favours either
If there's a big source of light at the end of the hall you'll have to get it billiard table flat so no undulations show. Did you use PS? Have you put a straight edge across it to see how flat it is?
Fasttrack is deceptive it will appear really smooth and flat but could have high and low spots and slight trowel marks in it, first few times I used fast track I literally had to feather the whole lot (couple of 7m2 hallways) as it didn't come out great, then after the fball course and seeing steve gibson put it down I got to grips with it, it really is one of those screeds where less is more, I now just push it into position and aerate it, there is no time to muck about with it as as soon as you finished mixing it its going off 3 times faster than a normal screed.
are there any window patterns that can be transferred on to the Floor we had it before where we replaced a few tiles and tried to Smooth Out a ridge that was Showing but it still showed until we realised it Was the lead pattern on the window. Sounds stupid but 4 of us took 3 hours to notice what it Was
Sounds like the sub floor you've screeded over all ready had ripples in it & the screed & could have done with a heavier coat or a couple of coats ! You need to put a long level over the floor or even better one of those bosch lazer levels !
I've never used Fastrack 30 as the working time appears too short to be able to achieve a good level finish. It's easy enough to make a mess of a more common screed like 300 or K11 in a hallway let alone one that sets hard in 30 mins or less. When the data sheet says about spiked rolling this I can only see trouble in a hallway: Caution Due to the fast setting nature of FAST-TRACK 30, apply the material immediately to avoid issues with joining mixes. If working alone, we would recommend that sufficient water is available and measured ready for the required number of units to minimise time taken between mixing units and application. Care should be taken with the use of a spiked roller with such a fast setting product. Regardless the only way to fix it as far as I can see is to lift all the lvt and reapply a screed that will give a longer working time.
sounds like you have not put it down correct and it has started to set while it was trying to 'level ' itself rather than you doing that bit. Big issue with fast track products, you simply cant leave them to sort themselves out. Why did you use fast track anyway?
Will be using ultra floors fast track on Thursday. Super 30 I think its called. Its bag an bottle. Got to screed 4 small rooms an lay them same day.
It's not bad stuff but you have to wait at least three hours to lay on even though it feels solid and looks dry it will still be crumbly and not cured.
Because the hall way is the main hub in the house and we wanted to get the floor down quite quickly ie in 1 day. Im kinda taking FBalls at there word and fitted the product on it as soon as it had dryed out....Weve done a couple and not had issues before.
Yes, correctly rollered etc....I thought trowels marks too, so we went back, uplifted it and feather finished but made buggerall difference!!
TBF the floor isnt great anyway, it undulates all over the place. Other than digging out the original subfloor and relaying (beyond our remit) then its never going to be flat. Unfortunatley, the customer is under the impression that 'self leveling compound' will sort her floor out completely. I can explain the undulations but the rippling effect is the main issue. Also, compounded by the fact that the customers have googled LVT, floor prep etc and are now telling me how its should have been done!!
It's the amount of levelling compound that's needed. I always use to get enough bags from the shops to cover the area at 5 m2 per 3mm. Problem is most subfloors need more than 3mm worth of levelling compound to sort them out!
I always tend to work with that I'll get 4 to 4.5 metres out of a bag. I know most say 5 but I never go short on a job.
