leveling compound

[JohnnyB]

Hi,
I'm in the middle of tiling a block of 3 toilets, male, female, and disabled, the owner wants me to tile the floors after I've done the walls. They have been concreted but
there are large ripples where it has'nt been tamped down very well so I am going to use self leveling compound to give me a decent surface to tile onto. I have never used self leveling compound before as this is only my third job after going self employed a few weeks ago. Will the new concrete need sealing and will the self leveling compound need sealing before tiling onto it, and is it hard or easy to use. and how much would I charge the customer for leveling the floor. The three toilets have an area of approx 17 square mts in total, but are three seperate rooms, so how do I price it up as there will be more setting out and more cuts than if it was one room. Any advice would be very appreciated.

 

[tony TLC]

self leveling is easy just follow instructions on the bag i always wet the floor first to slow down the drying process ; mix it wet and push it where you want it do not over trowel it or you can make the floor worse let the compound do most of the work and i charge £15 a bag for laying it it should be easy money.
once dry rapid set will go off a lot quicker seal s/lev to slow it down a little
remember dont over trowel

 

[Concept PHT]

Some 3:1 acrylic primer wouldn't go a miss. Or even PVA. 🙂

 

[GazTech]

We have a mixing bucket with measure markers on it.BAL multibase 25kg does 6mm at 3mm depth,they recommend 5.5 litres per bag,use 6 litres and gently coax it into place against walls etc.Some bal bond, three bags ( for your area)a new bucket at full retail and a days wage.In the pub for the 3 0'clock at Doncaster Happy daze!

 

[Deleted member 15]

I agree with concept prime before self levelling and then before tiling, as for charging i would charge day rate for self levelling

 

[Varley]

I agree with concept prime before self levelling and then before tiling, as for charging i would charge day rate for self levelling

Same here! 🙂

 

[JohnnyB]

Thanks for all the good advice, I levelled the floor yesterday and used 3 bags of solo leveling compound, seamed easier than I thought and did it in half a day, but charged the customer £150 because there was a lot of chiseling out to do around the edges as the concrete was'nt tamped down properly, also used 3 in 1 acrylic primer as advised by concept. Hope to be tiling on Tuesday, but the tiles which the customer has supplied are called Catalonia Caldera which where bought from Porcelainoser .I telephoned them to see what they where made of and they said a mixture of porcelain which I can't quite understand. Are these tiles hard to cut as the soil pipes in the 3 toilets all come from out of the floor and I will have cut around them, but Iv'e been told that you cannot use nippers as porcelain is to hard. The size of the tiles are about 320mm square

 

[UKTT Darren]

You can get porcelain nippers that do the job well, they are like two round Titanium couted tungston disks that close together, i sell them for £20 pair, shears straight through porcelain in a slight curve, failing that remove on the wet saw and snap the pieces off. The reason you need to prime the floor is the levelers react with the concrete forming air bubbles. I use a feather edge for floating out levelers, much quicker and longer reach than a trowel