Cracked Lightweight Concrete Floors

Mike Costello

I run into this stuff all the time in hotels and condos.I have yet to meet one job super or homeowner that wanted to either re-pour the stuff or rip it out and put plywood.

So in a real world- I dont wanna go home-get the job done as best you can mannerI have primed the stuff (ok soaked it) with dependable latex and then skimmed or patched it the best i could with dependable mixed 100% with the latex.

Beats going home for the day as long as whoever is making the desicions on the job understands that this is a band aid

csheafer

The "right" answer is the one that will satisfy the customer and allow this next installation of carpet and pad last as long as it should.

At the end of the day, the floor needs to be stable enough that it is not makeing noises under the carpet and pad. To me, the best solution in this case is to secure the very loose pieces and do a quick skim coat of the gypsum based patching compound.

What will help this situation also is using a high density pad to minimize the movement of the carpet and help protect your subfloor.

Be prepared to also pay extra for the installer to put down the tack strip.
It is so cracked that special tack strip they make for this application nails are not going to hold and will need to be re nailed big time so that the nails go through the light weight concrete and into the plywood subfloor.

There is another option here that has not been mentioned.
There are company's that will come in with basically a self leveling compound that can cap the entire floor. A regular carpet installer can do this type of work, but it will end up costing you more because carpet installers do not have the specialized equipment to do this kind application.
THEY ALSO WARRANTY THEIR WORK!

Let us know what you decided and how the job came out!

PrecisionFloors

READ my posts. NOWHERE did I state the need for 10k in floor prep did I? The whole intention of my posts was to make sure the op new to use the appropriate material to skim it with.....YOU took it upon yourself to put words in my mouth and jumped on your high horse, chip intact, and decided to try and make me look as though I were giving unnecessary advice. Prior to this, my posts consisted of TWO sentences. I guess you can add mind reader to your list of trades under your screen name......although you suck at it

To those that followed you and failed to READ befor responding, I'd suggest quicker eyes and a slower mouse

I stand by my two whole sentences. My posting of advice in this forum speaks for itself...I damn sure don't need your support to denounce or solidify it.

OP good luck with the job, patching is just fine in his application, I was just trying to point out that you want to make sure of a good bond between the patch and the substrate, otherwise its a waste of time.

I'm done with this one.

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comp

i haven't read the whole thread yet ,,but in the early 80's i was laying carpet daily on lite weight crete,,,,had problems in some buildings and finally found out there was different contractors .. After that i got the OK to add a latex sealer (we rolled it on ) after i did the take up ,,, i could put tack strip down with nails (no contact cement ) and it was almost like working with wood