If you decide to make repairs in your apartment,whether it is overhauling the entire space or repairing the flooring that has become unusable, then you will hardly be able to do without leveling the floor. Even in a new apartment, the floor of concrete slabs is very often uneven, especially at joints. In old apartments where people live for a long time, the condition of the upper part of the concrete floor is not only bad, but deplorable, and without its preliminary equalization of quality repairs in an apartment one can only dream. 
Before leveling it is necessary to carefully measure all unevenness of the concrete floor.
Preparing the floor for leveling
To determine the method of leveling the floorand purchase the necessary materials, you must first measure the floor level. To do this, you first need to dismantle the floor covering and conduct a study of irregularities. For measurements, a long level is used to determine the consistency of all the floor areas. The surface of the concrete floor becomes uneven or due to the erosion and appearance of scraps in the process of operation, or because of the crooked laid during the construction of the house of concrete slabs. Often there are cases when both reasons are present. Using the level, the planes of the laid boards are first checked and the highest point of the floor is marked. Then, the damaged and worn sections of the slabs are examined and the deepest depression is noted. Preliminary determination of the required height of the raising of the floor level is extremely important, since with a significant rise of this level serious difficulties may arise: doors can not open or will interfere with the operation of the heating battery. Often time and money to eliminate these troubles takes more than the alignment itself. Back to contents</a>
Methods for leveling the floor
Installation of pin beacons. Usually a floor covering is the last thing that is dismantled during the preparation for the repair work, and the first thing that is being restored. Simply put, the floor needs to be leveled before the walls and the ceiling are leveled. To date, there are 2 ways to level the concrete foundation:
- by lighthouses;
- the device of the filler floor.
If the area of the room is small, and the differencethe minimum and maximum points of the floor plane does not exceed 35 mm, then the best option would be a self-leveling floor. If the differences between the points are large, then you can use the exposed beacons. Choosing one of the options, it is important to understand that the ideal way to level a concrete floor has not yet been invented, and each of the methods has its pros and cons. And it is very important, before proceeding with the alignment, to understand them so that in the future in the process of work you do not do anything stupid. Back to the table of contents</a>
Beacon alignment
Floor Screed Scheme. This way for today the most widespread among fans all on the house to do the hands. It is best suited for leveling floors in large rooms: halls, living rooms. Applying this method, initially on a concrete base you need to lay and fix special beacons - metal slats, which further serve as a guide for the installation of a new floor screed. The main advantage of this method is the device of high-quality and strong screed, including on large surfaces, with minimal costs and time for work. But to harden such a surface can be from 10 to 30 days, depending on the thickness of the screed layer and the temperature in the room. If you need to level the concrete floor quickly, then this method will have to be abandoned. To perform alignment, you will need tools:
- a vacuum cleaner;
- perforated corners;
- Master OK:
- rule.
Before leveling the floor, its base needscarefully sweep, and even better - vacuuming to remove accumulated dust and dirt. As lighthouses, metal perforated corners are most often used. Beacons need to be installed along the room: the first and the last - at a distance of 30 cm from the side walls, the rest - at an equal distance from each other, with a step between them should not exceed 1 m. Installation is carried out in this order. Having made the marking of the floor, strictly on the lines "spank" in 20-25 cm steps with cakes of a previously prepared cement or gypsum mortar. These cakes are laid in a vertical line and leveled by the level of beacons, deepening them into a solution or raising and placing a smaller cake from below. 
Tools for floor screed: metal beacons, construction level, building mixer, large capacity. When the solution seizes slightly and fixes the exposed beacons, the empty space left underneath is filled with a solution. At this stage, there is still an opportunity to correct the exposed beacons, achieving the most flat horizontals. After that, beacons should be given time to fix firmly in the solution and only then go to the leveling of the floor. For smoothing use a freshly prepared cement mortar. Optimal density of the solution resembles thick sour cream. A thicker solution will be difficult to smooth out, and too liquid will not be strong enough, and it will dry very long. The alignment process should start from the far corner of the entrance doors, moving to the door. The first and second rows are poured simultaneously. Then, in the same way, the last and penultimate series are filled. Then the fill is done in one row from each side, ending with the central one. The cement solution pours out between the installed beacons and is leveled by the trowel to fill all the remaining voids inside the screed. After filling with a solution of the series on the lighthouses, a rule is placed by the rib and carried out 2-3 times, leveling the solution level with the beacons. Pouring and leveling of each successive series must be carried out very carefully, constantly monitoring the density of the solution, since it can not remain exactly the same, and at the points of contact with the already laid grout there may be inundations, negating the efforts to create a level surface. The last row is filled and leveled in small portions, the space actually filled with the solution should not exceed the length of the arms extended. This is the most difficult and time-consuming part of all the work on leveling the surface of the concrete floor. Then the laid screed should be allowed to dry. Only after full drying you can proceed to further repair. Back to contents</a>
Filling device floor
This is the fastest and easiest to perform, butFar from being the cheapest way to level the floor. To level the concrete surfaces, special self-leveling compounds are used. Such a mixture is simply poured on a concrete base, and due to its specific properties, it spreads thinly over the surface, filling all the irregularities. When aligning the surface in this way, you need to acquire such tools:
- vacuum cleaner:
- foam rubber roller;
- needle roller;
- with paint spray.
As with the alignment of the floor on the beacons, firstyou need to clean its surface. At the end of cleaning, the concrete surface is treated with a special primer for self-leveling floors. After the primer, you can begin to dilute the self-leveling mixture, strictly following the instructions printed on its packaging. The bay is self-leveling floor, it needs to be walked in different directions with a needle roller to remove the air bubbles in the diluted mixture. Work with the roller you need in special studded shoes - paint dashes, and needles in the roller should be longer than the height of the filler floor in its deepest place. The floor dries up in just a few hours, after which it is possible to proceed with further repairs. This drying rate is due to both the specific composition of the mixture and the thickness of the filling layer, which does not exceed 3-4 mm. Despite the speed and simplicity, this method is still not ideal. It is not suitable if the difference in height of the surface to be leveled is greater than 3 mm. It is also poorly suited for pouring floors on large areas, since the self-leveling mixture quickly seizes, and there is simply no time to perform high-quality treatment with a roller on a flooded surface. Back to contents</a>
Floor leveling simultaneously with tile laying
This alignment can not be considered completein fact, this is a kind of technology for laying tiles on the floor. It provides a flat horizontal laid on the concrete base of the tile, rather than the most concrete floor. First, using the level at the bottom along the perimeter of the walls, a marker is marked with a marker marking the future horizontal of the laid tile. Then, the actual tiling is performed, while the level of the laid tile is regulated by the amount of adhesive applied to its base. However, in this way, you can even out the irregularities in 2-3 mm, with large drops it will not help. Aligning the concrete base of the floor is not among the complex construction operations, such work requires the artist not of high qualification, but attention and patience. Therefore, for its implementation there is no need to resort to the services of construction companies, you can safely take up work independently, saving money for professionals to perform more complex repair operations.
