Ron had recently converted his porch into a four-seasons room. He insulated the walls and put in state of the art windows so that his family could use this room year round, but he still needed to install a new floor that would blend with the rest of the house and insulate the room from the cold coming in through the existing floor.
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Ron had installed a pre-finished oak floor in his kitchen several months earlier and really liked the way it turned out so he wanted to use the same product in the new room.
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| The existing floor was made of pre-cast concrete pavers, laid into a concrete slab. The surface was very uneven and needed to be leveled before he could install anything on top of it.
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| Once the floor was level, he would lay down a sub-floor and then finally install the pre-finished oak on top.
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| Ron decided to use a self-leveling underlayment, which is like a concrete slurry poured over the uneven surface. To make sure the underlayment bonds properly, he first applied a latex primer, which acts as a bonding agent to the surface.
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| Ron used a wide paintbrush to apply the bonding agent around the edges, and then used a mop to apply it to the rest of the floor.
Ron's consultant suggested that he set up a production line for mixing, so he got a few friends to help him out.
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| They created a self measuring bucket by boring a couple of holes in the side at the level that was needed. When the water reached holes, the excess ran out onto the ground. This guaranteed a consistent quantity of water and a consistent mixture for each batch.
They used an electric drill to mix the dry underlayment with water in a five gallon bucket.
Since the material took only about 20 minutes to set, it was important to mix and pour in a more or less continuous operation of blending the ingredients and carrying the buckets into the room. |
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| When poured out, the underlayment flowed by itself. Ron began pouring at the lowest point in the room. The material was similar in consistency to a thick milkshake that created a natural level when poured. Each bucketful flowed into and blended with the one poured before. This created the effect of one continuous pouring.
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| Ron made sure to plan the pour in advance so that he finished near a doorway. A few strokes from a garden rake helped to get rid of lumps or voids.
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| After the underlayment dried, Ron was left with just a couple of small problems: a small hole that did not fill in, and a ridge where two pours came together. To fix these, Ron used another type of underlayment that is generally used to smooth and prepare floors for a variety of floor coverings.
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| Instead of water, Ron mixed the material using an acrylic additive. The material was then troweled onto the floor surface and feathered out to a very thin edge. The product was designed to do this without the risk of chipping or cracking. |
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| Once the floor was flat and level, Ron could have installed a floating floor system on top, but he wanted as much insulation value as possible and the nail down wood strip that he was going to finish with was simply not going to insulate as well as he needed. So first, Ron installed a subfloor using DriCore insulated panels.
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| The panels come in 2 x 2 foot squares are made from chip board, with a moisture barrier on the back. Each panel has interlocking tongue and groove edges, and they are very simple to install.
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| Ron began by placing a spacer strip along the wall and then set the first panel in place.
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| A few taps with a hammer on a block of wood interlocked the tongue and groove edges. Ron measured from the end of the first row to the wall, deducted 3/8ths of an inch for an expansion gap, and then cut the panel with the table saw.
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| Ron tightened up the last row using a pull bar, which dropped into the gap between the flooring and the wall. A few hammer blows on the striking surface drove the edges together.
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