Pour Over Old Floor? (basement)

Jason

My partner and I were contracted to be general managers of a basement remodeling project. The house was built in late 1800's and the walls are all limestone/stone mortar mix. The house is zoned as commercial.

Right now the basement is patchy, it changes in heights from 8'2" down to 7'10", we would like to pour or patch the floor to a single height.

After this is complete we were going to put in carpet in 2 rooms and a hallway and hardwood floating floors in the other main areas.

I wanted to know if someone else has done a patching job like this in a basement before. We had thought about taking out the previous floor, but I don't want to disrupt the house to much with the old walls.

What kind of patching material would you use? The total sf is approx. 1000.

Again we would like to level the floor, but a concern is that we are patching it to thin and it will show cracks (granted it will be covered).

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sage

A fellow contractor/friend of mine had a similar situation recently and it turned out to be cheap to sub to a flat work contractor to pour over and level with new crete. I don't know the specifics and didn't see the process but it was poured one afternoon and he was back to work on a (more level) level floor by the next day.

As far as it being thin and cracking in areas, you will get that but the point is to have the floor leveled so that the finish floor is level. Little cracking and chipping I think would be acceptable. Structure and asthetics seem to not be a factor here.
Anyway I think he paid about $1300-1700 for 500-700sqft. Sorry I can't be more specific but it wasn't my party.

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D.C.

Might check out the drainage system-if there is one, and add a vapor barrier. Carpet and wood floors dont handle moisture too well.

go dart

use a self leveler from a tile shop. expensive matl but just what you need. you,ll need to prep the floor first

Jason

Thanks for all the recommendations. I believe we are going to be renting a very heavy duty grinder. Were going to plastic off the entire basement, get heavy duty suits, masks, etc. and grind down this sucker as close to even as possible. After that I think we will be using an polymer overlay that is self leveling. This way we can save height, patch, and save on bringing in a concrete truck and small army.

I take some pictures.

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Greg Di

No offense, but do you have any idea what a mess/pain in the ass trying to grind nearly 4" of concrete is going to be?

Concrete is one of the cheapest building materials available to you. Unless site access is impossible, I would remove a basement window and shoot in some concrete. A halfway decent mason should be able to float it out very nicely.

Jason

Greg, your on to something. But, were not going to be grinding 4" over the entire basement, just a lot of patches. We are as much concerened about ease, as we are about height issues. I would rather keep the basement at 8' heights, rather than 7'8". If we grind down and then float, we will be able to keep that little bit of height.

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PipeGuy

I too think the benefits of the higher ceiling are considerable. I've been in a number of converted 18th and 19th century cellars whose lack of consistently sufficient headroom made them less than desirable office space.

I also think there are potential benefits that can be facilitated by removing and replacing the old floor - namely M/E/P and underslab drainage improvements that will increase the flexibility of the space, improve the environmental conditions and reduce if not eliminate the potential for water damage. The additional cost, while substantial, might easily be recaptured in higher lease and occupancy rates. Good luck.

Kevin H

I've done this on a house that was built in the 30's..we added a new drain system and poured a 2" cap over the existing floor. the floor cracked almost imediately but the floor was level and dry..I feel grinding would not be the way to go..I think it would be eaiser and give a better result to just tear the foor out and pour a new one- Kevin

scentralpirate

just say no to grinding!

if you want to remove old concrete rent yourself a 90# jackhammer and bust that sh_t out where its high then get someone to shoot some gypcrete over it.

no grinding please

theworx

Greg, if concrete is cheap where you are, I'm blown away. Where I live concrete is the most expensive material going into a new build or remodel. Maybe our locations have something to do with it??

nadonailer

Concrete's cheap! Blow out that old floor and repour with proper drainage etc....
If that's really not an option they make several different types of self leveling 'mortars' that can be trowelled thin and not crack....

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scentralpirate

last time I cared to look at the delivery ticket for a batch of concrete here it was around $130/ yrd excellerants and fiber renforcement costing extra

Jason

Well the project is basically finished.

The grinding was a pain. I wouldn't do that part again. We used a self-leveling polymer modified concrete over the ground down floor and it finished out pretty nice and level.

The grinding help clean up the floor, but wasn't worth the energy.
The polymer was a pain in the ass to get.

If I had it to do again, I would do a tear-out, repour.

Thanks for the help.

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Gordo

They told you so.

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Looks like some pros were here.