Hi everyone! First post here. I recently bought a house (ex council house) and we are looking on redoing the flooring which was carpeted with interlocking LVT instead. I've currently teared out the old kitchen as we'd like to fit a new kitchen as well as flooring there. I found that the carpet in the kitchen was layed over black bitumen which seems to be in fairly good condition (pictures attached), with a few holes where the carpet was nailed in and some carpet underlay stuck which I still have to remove: any ideas into how to remove the stuck underlay would be highly appreciated. There was a plastic vinyl where the kitchens cabinets were and the vinyl seemed it was laid over some sort of cement surface thats covering asbestos thermoplastic tiles. I'm unsure on how to proceed to prepare the subfloor for LVT... I've thought of two options: 1- get the asbestos tiles removed from the hall and living room. Wipe and clean all floors really well and then pour the arditex na latex product that seems it'd bond well with the bitumen. Once the arditex na is dry I could then lay the lvt over it. 2- leave the asbestos tiles in. Perhaps prime them with some suitable product and then pour the arditex na on top. Once dry lay the lvt on top. I believe the bitumen is acting as a DPM. I'm not sure how thick it is, but it looks super solid. I'm not sure whether I should also prime the subfloor over the arditex na pour. In addition, I'm not sure whether I should also pour arditex na over the surface where the vinyl was laid (grey area in the pics). The idea would be to have some karndean interlocking tiles, but maybe using the loose lay tiles if the flatness achieved allows. Any feedback you can provide would be highly appreciated! Many thanks, Antonio P.S. I'm unsure how to attach the pics to the thread, going to create the thread and then figure out how to pull the pics in.
Tiles out. Ardex NA. No primer needed. As long as you don’t have any rising damp in the slab it will be ok. If there’s damp you’d have to remove everything back to the slab and NA then dpm1c.
Hi Merit, Thanks for your response! It raises so many questions. Is there a straightforward way or type of meter that'd be useful to measure dampness? Very newbie here. The grey leveled area seems to be on a black DPM, it's laid over a black thin layer that's over the bitumen. I was thinking of leveling the bitumen side of the room up, up to the grey leveled area, but the fact that the grey area already has a dpm might mean, I shouldn't put a dpm on top? Is the dpm1c alright to have flooring sitting on top, or would it need more NA on top of it? What do you mean by the slab? Is it the bitumen? Perhaps I got the terminology wrong. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
For the tiles, Merit suggested taking them out. The tiles in the hall/living room look in fairly good condition and mostly attached to the substrate. Arditex NA datasheet says it's ok to pour NA over the vinyl tiles, but these need to be bound well with the substrate. Would it be ok to just remove the tiles that are loose, and fill gaps with NA and then pour NA on top of tiles? The rooms are carpeted (we already took a peek under the carpets) and there are carpet holders by the skirting around the whole room. So I think when I pull the nailed carpet holders some tiles might break, but most of the other tiles should be ok I think. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
The tiles could come loose under the NA in the future as I’d guess the sub floor doesn’t have a sheet Dpm under it.
Thanks for responding dazlight! Ok that makes sense. They look pretty solid though, but we rather do it well. We were hoping we could screed over the tiles just to save time. Anyway, hopefully the asbestos removal company can come soon, and we can continue working on other parts of the house. For the NA, we have been using a whisker attached to my drill, trying not to spin it too hard to avoid heating up the mix. we've been basically doing 4-5 square meter pours so far in the kitchen guiding the mix and letting it settle. The floor looks really flat, but there are some lumps and valleys. I'm thinking if we want to install lvt on top, the floor will need to be more flat than that. What do you reckon would be best, to add Ardex feather edge to the valleys until we have less than 2mm gap in aprox 2m length, or would it be better to rent a STR machine, and sand the floor to leave it all at the same level? Or even perhaps both? Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
We have finally gotten the thermoplastic tiles removed! Can anyone shed some light with tips for better results when pouring SLC? We've got around 22m2 left to pour up to aprox 3mm. We are considering doing bigger pours than just 1 NA bag to hopefully make the poured areas more continuous. We'll need to lend a hand from friends for more than 1 bag, but hopefully that'll quicken things up and allow for a smother and flatter surface. Does that make sense? We're also considering renting a floor sander to remove ridges. Would you sand ridges, apply some Ardex feather edge product to valleys, or a combination of both? Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Mix a full bag and bottle at a time and use a spike roller on it as well. Always helps with trowel marks. Feather finish is great if any slight problems.
Hi dazlight! Thanks for your response - we have a spike roller, we'll keep using it. Can you help us figure out whether we need a DPM? Basically I tried to measure humidity with an Amazon hygrometer, but I believe the measurement we got (67%) is probably inaccurate and this hygrometer isn't fit for the use. We currently don't have a professional hygrometer. Is this necessary to determine if we need a DPM? If so, can you recommend anything? The kitchen fitter says that the building should have damp course within the foundation. We are hoping this is the case, but can't figure out how to get that reassurance. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
1972 it should have one. Looking at the photo in the pictures I’d say no as you can’t see and visqueen on the edges. To be safe you could NA then either 3 coats of uzin PE404 on top of the NA then the click. Or NA then DPM1c one coat
Ok great, that's very helpful! I called Ardex yesterday to enquire about their DPM 1 coat product and they weren't recommending to pour it down and have flooring on top. They said it's best to sandwich with NA on top. I'm not sure if this is just a strategy to sell more NA, but they were mentioning that their DPM is very thin and fragile, so best to encapsulate. Based on time and money we'd rather don't pour more NA on top of the DPM. Is this Uzin Pe404 durable/strong? I'm just wondering on how to tackle the job. We won't be able to lay all the floor in "one go". In which case, should we just paint 3 coats of pe404 and then when incrementally do the flooring? We're having builders in an out and I'm worried having people walk on the Dpm might damage it. Thanks a lot! Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
Uzin 404 isn’t suitable if there isn’t a functional dpm….. ardex 1c is, well according to the technical docs anyway
What do you mean by functional dpm? A few builders around the Cambridge area (not sure if it's relevant to this area of the country only) have told me the bitumen was used as a dpm years ago. But the bitumen is cracked in some areas (not by a lot, but presume that compromises the membrane) and has been drilled in some others as well. I personally don't have a preference to choose between uzin 404 or ardex dpm 1c. If the ardex solution is better I'm happy to pick that one! Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
The idea of doing the dpm the day we do the floors sounds great for the LVT. We'll get the kitchen tiled (not by me) and the tiler has said that the house should have a Dpm in the foundations (no moisture test). Should I do the same thing in the kitchen? Just dpm the day before the tiles are laid? Or is this not a great idea for tiles? Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
