Self-leveling concrete floor

[Seasider48]

After watching some of the home improvement shows, I have been wondering about using self-leveling concrete on the floor. I have investigated several of the systems on the 'net and was wondering if anyone on the forum has tried it. The system uses an underlayment that separates the wood sub-floor from the concrete and helps prevent movement problems. The floor then is floating and could be either tiled or have a smooth surface for sheet vinyl. The weight of the product is 6 lbs. per sq. ft. for a dried/cured 3/4 inch concrete base. The conrete dries very quickly also and I wouldn't have to deal with putting a zillion screws into yet more plywood and then having to to deal with all the holes from countersinking. The underlayment is a polymer and has alternately, a waffle texture for air flow and/or a nylon bristle upper side for additional strengthening of the concrete. Tensile strength? Cost seems to be comparable for materials but much less on labor.

I've seen it used on the second story of homes, so the joist structure would be similar to a mobile home. And, if applied properly, there's no problem with tile cracking. I live in southern Florida, so weather extremes are never a problem here.

If it absolutely had to come up for some reason, the underlayment would make it fairly easy. Anybody tried it or any thoughts?

[DCDiva]

I personaly do not think it would work, a MH has so much flex even walking across it, a second story of a house is not made with 2x4 floors--minimum is usually 2x8 or 2x10 and some are made with engineer floor joices. I would check with the maker of the product as any warrenty would be voided if not property installed--I hate for it not to work or rot the wood under it or collaps the mh,Good luck sorry really tired 11:57pm and just got done working

[flcruising]

There are lightweight toppings that require no separation from the subfloor such as Level-Right or Gyp-Crete.

[JD]

I am pretty sure the self leveling concrete will crack. If you have a a slight texture and multi-color glaze to it, the cracks might not be so bad, but I wouldn't bank on it. I am thinking any of the portland cement products would crack due to the flexing of the home, as Diva (sorry, forgot the name) said.

I have seen the epoxy pebble type floors installed with great success. But the epoxy floor is very flexible compared to concrete products. I did a large floor repair, a large kitchen, for a customer that was going to have the epoxy pebble floor installed. My repair included 3/4" plywood. I mentioned to the customer that they should have all of the particle board replaced with plywood, but they declined. I understand. It would cost a lot. But about 2 years later, they had a leak in a bathroom and we were called in for repairs. The particle board got soft and warped badly. The epoxy floor was able to bend right with it. We replaced a lot of floor, but there was still a lot of particle board left. They decided to just go this way, as that is what insurance paid for. The epoxy guys came in and filled in the floor covering where we pulled it up and it looked great! Could hardly tell a repair was made. Anyways, the point is, concrete has like zero give to it.

[flcruising]

Epoxy is an excellent suggestion.