Concrete floor with own hands

In order for your floor to be durable and reliable, it is necessary to have a suitable foundation under it. The undoubted leader in this regard is the concrete floor. Due to its strength, reliability and evenness, it is an ideal basis for any type of finish coating. Concrete floor is able to withstand a very large load per unit surface area, which makes it possible to safely mount heavy pieces of furniture or interior on it. Among other things, pour concrete floor with their own hands is not so difficult.

Concrete flooring technology

Concrete is cheap and affordable for every material that is convenient and easy to use, which does not require special skills to lay it. Due to these important qualities, people prefer to build a concrete floor with their own hands during the construction of country houses or when repairing in urban apartments. In this case, you need to know how to properly fill the floor with concrete so that it is strong and durable. In this regard, anyone who wants to do self-pouring concrete floors, you should familiarize yourself with the technology of this process. In addition, you need to prepare the tool you need to work and prepare the base. Only after these conditions are met can you proceed directly to pouring concrete floor.

The whole cycle of work can be done alone, but it is better if there is an assistant who is called upon to perform certain types of support work. This will greatly speed up the task. The entire process of the concrete floor can be divided into several stages: preparation of the base, isolation of the concrete floor, reinforcement, arrangement of the formwork, preparation of the concrete mix and its pouring, leveling of the surface and screed of the concrete floor. Let's consider all of them in more detail.

Preparing the foundation for the concrete floor

In order for the floor to turn out to be strong and reliable, it is necessary to carry out qualitative preparatory work, among which is the preparation of the base. If the repair is carried out in the apartment, then first remove the old base. It is removed with a perforator to the very ceiling. The thickness of this old screed can reach 5 cm, so there will be a lot of broken pieces of concrete, and you'll have to work hard to take out all the garbage from the apartment. In the end, the floors are cleaned of dirt and dust. For this you can use a vacuum cleaner.

Note that if after analysis of the finishing finish you have found that the old screed is still quite normal: it has no visible chips, cracks or fractures, it can be left only by updating the upper leveling layer. As for private houses, they make a concrete floor directly on the ground, which entails the availability of additional labor.

Technology of concrete floor installation on the basis of

First we prepare the base. To do this, perform the following work:

• Mark the level at 1 m from the bottom of the doorway and transfer it to the walls along the perimeter of the entire room.
• From each received mark we measure downwards 1 m. The marks themselves will be the zero level to which it is required to pour concrete.
• By means of nails drive nails, between which we pull the cord. This measure will always clearly see the zero level.
• Remove the soil layer to the required depth. Most often it is 25 cm.
• The resulting surface is required to be rammed with a self-made rammer or vibration plate.
• Then you need to pour a 5-centimeter layer of gravel, pour it with water and also ram.
• On the gravel, pour the sand in a layer of 10 cm and stamp it. At this stage it is necessary to check the horizontal surface. If necessary - pour out the sand and level the surface horizontally.
• If you need to hide some communications under the floor, then you need to do this under the sand layer, placing them in a box.
• On top of the sand pour another 10 cm of crushed stone, the size of which should be from 45 to 50 mm. It should be sprinkled with sand and compacted. The result should be a fairly flat surface.

For convenience, you can make each layer on horizontal marks, previously applied to the walls of the socle part of the walls. The thickness of all the preliminary layers should be such that the concrete floor itself should account for at least 2 cm and preferably 5 cm.

Waterproofing for the concrete floor

For any concrete floor, it is very important to perform a high quality waterproofing. If this is not done properly, the dampness will penetrate all layers of the floor, including concrete. As a result, the microclimate in the room will be moist, and it will be impossible to get rid of this. This situation will lead to the fact that the interior items and people's health will suffer.

The easiest way for waterproofing is to take an ordinary polyethylene film, the thickness of which is not less than 200 microns. However, it is recommended to use special waterproofing membranes, since polyethylene can crack in time. Roll materials are also suitable. To waterproofing a polyethylene film was a quality, it is necessary to arrange it in several layers, and specially designed for this purpose, materials are laid only in one layer.

Whether it is film or roll materials, they must be overlapped at least 20 cm and glued together with adhesive tape. The edges of the waterproofing material are to be taken out to the walls, so that they are just above the zero mark. The edges can also be glued to the wall on the scotch tape.

When laying a concrete floor on the ground, it is worth taking care of and thermal insulation. As heat insulation materials, foam, claydite, basalt cotton wool, expanded polystyrene, mineral wool, perlite, particle board, cork coating, moisture resistant plywood, linoleum on insulated basis can be used. Depending on the selected material, the layer is determined, where it is required to lay it. Expanded clay under waterproofing, slab and roll materials on top of it, and such as plywood, chipboard, linoleum, carpet - already on top of the screed.

To reduce the effect of thermal expansion of a concrete monolith on walls around the perimeter, it is necessary to glue the damper tape. Due to its elasticity, it compensates for the forces of expanding concrete. If this is not done, the concrete will swell and crack. The damper tape should be glued to the thickness of the entire concrete layer with an elevation above it by 1 - 2 cm. Surplus can then be cut off with a knife or hidden under the skirting board.

Reinforcement of the concrete floor

Reinforcement of the concrete floor is carried out using a special reinforcing mesh. Such an approach will provide greater strength and reliability of the floor, will not allow it to crack even at elevated loads. The mesh for reinforcement can be metal and plastic. Such a mesh is sold in stores, but you can make it yourself, welding from wire, the thickness of which is 3-5 mm. In order for the grid to be inside the floor monolith, it is laid on supports with a height of 2 to 3 cm. When using soft variants of such a grid, it is pulled on pre-pins knocked into the base. In addition, for reinforcing the concrete floor, it is possible to use reinforcing bars with a thickness of 8-15 mm, which are welded to each other by a cross to a cross or by wire.

Assembly of formwork

In order to make the large room more convenient to pour, it equips the formwork, which divides the entire area into equal rectangles, so large that each of them can be poured in one time. These rectangles are called cards. For the construction of the formwork on the floor, guide rails from bars or metal profiles are placed. They are leveled and fixed with cement mortar. The upper edge of these guides should be flush with the zero level. Between all the guides set formwork and all the cards are formed. So that these guides and parts of the formwork can be easily removed from the concrete, they are lubricated with oil.

Mortar preparation and pouring

The strength and durability of the concrete floor is achieved by filling it in one set. For this reason, many order a ready-mix concrete. It is delivered in a concrete mixer directly from the factory and immediately poured into the formwork. This greatly saves time for work. However, this is much more expensive than preparing the mixture yourself.

For self-preparation of concrete slurry you need a concrete mixer, sand, gravel, cement and water. To obtain high-quality concrete, cement must be of M500 or M400 grade. Sand is required to be purchased without impurities of clay, preferably of river origin of fine fraction. To prepare concrete, it will be necessary to mix 2 parts of sand, 1 part of cement, 4 parts of rubble and 0.5 part of water. Concrete is mixed very thoroughly in a concrete mixer and poured into a "map".We level the mixture with a shovel, do piercing movements and stretch the solution over the entire area. In this simple way, the concrete is compacted well, and air is extracted from it.

A better floor will be obtained if you use a special electric vibrator, which is very capable of compacting the concrete mass due to its penetration into all voids and cracks. As soon as you see that concrete milk appears on the surface, you can stop shrinking and move on to the next card where your partner has already filled a fresh solution. It should be noted that the pouring of concrete should be made from the opposite corner of the door and move towards the door.

Aligning the concrete surface and floor screed

After you fill a few cards with a solution, the surface should be leveled. For this purpose, a rule that is at least 1 m long is best suited. It is installed on two adjacent guides and is attracted to itself. For the rule to go easily and leave a smooth surface behind it, it needs to be moistened in water. When moving, surplus concrete will be poured through the guides into other cards, and the level of the floor in the process sector will tend to zero.

Having filled and aligned one card, move on to the next one. When the whole floor is flooded, it must be left to freeze for 3 to 4 days. Then the guides and formwork should be removed, and the voids that have appeared should be filled with mortar and leveled. When drying, the concrete can crack, so it is worth pouring water every day. When the work is completed, the whole surface is again wetted and covered with a polyethylene film. It prevents the rapid evaporation of moisture and makes it possible to harden the concrete in a favorable environment for it. It takes 3 to 4 weeks to completely dry the floor. During the entire drying period, the concrete should be wetted with water.

After full hardening on the concrete floor, it is necessary to apply a layer of screed. The screed is made by applying a thin layer of a liquid cement slurry to the floor with a plasticizer. You can also use self-leveling compounds, which when poured onto the floor themselves spread out a thin layer, forming a perfectly flat surface.

The screed starts from the far corner and ends at the door. Drying of the screed lasts 2 - 3 days with permanent wetting. Self-leveling compounds harden after a couple of hours and do not require wetting. After the screed device is finished and dried, you can begin laying the finish coat on the floor.

Self-contained concrete flooring is a long and painstaking process that does not tolerate haste. To create a quality, durable and durable floor, the technology of its laying should be observed with great accuracy. If it is violated, the floor can collapse and it will have to be broken by a puncher, starting all over again. At the same time, concrete floors, though labor-intensive in laying, but are simple and reliable in operation, are cheap and convenient.