Creating Smooth Gradient Where Wall Has Been Removed

[Thomas Moore]

Afternoon all,

Another newbie question here. Got some great advice last time so hoping you might be able to help me out with this one.

We're refurbing a through kitchen / diner. Sometime in the past, a brick wall separated the two rooms. This has been removed and has left a finger-shaped ridge in the floor (approx. 2m x 60cm). The foundation of the old brick wall has been patched up with concrete and the rest of the floor is the residue of bitumen adhesive from 1950s 9x9 vinyl asbestos tiles. The difference in the height of the floor across the width of the concrete 'finger' is about 2-4cm.

I was planning to use SLC on the entire floor and then tile it. However, we've been advised not to, since it will raise the level of the lower section of the floor and create a high step into the room. It's also unnecessary since the two halves of the floor are each reasonably level - just not level with each other! The plan instead is to smooth out the ridge, creating a gentle gradient which can then be tiled.

I've been advised to use a levelling compound and a straight edge to shape a gentle slope ready for tiling. However, I'm stuck trying to find a suitable compound. Presumably I can't use a *self*levelling compound, since it needs to be trowelled on and hold the shape of the slope until set.

Any recommendations on what would work best for this - both in terms of a suitable compound and any tips on technique?

As always, all help and advice is much appreciated, guys.

 

[White Room]

Some slc can be quite rapid nowadays....

 

[Old Mod]

Can u provide a couple of images please. One fairly close up and one which will show how this ridge relates to the room as a whole.
Thanks.

 

[Thomas Moore]

Sure, here are some photos.

 

[Old Mod]

So the left hand side, so to speak is flat and level and the right side is flat and level.
They're just different levels, is that right?
What's the tile u are using?
And which side is the entrance to the room

 

[White Room]

The second picture looks like the floor is rising up from the dip.....

 

[StevieBoy]

The second picture looks like the floor is rising up from the dip.....

Agreed as the left side of the level in pic 4 looks flat to the rubber handle bit, then the floor dips then it looks like it rises back to the same level again.

If so, just tile it, making sure there all flat to the level and build em up.

 

[Old Mod]

Well it says in the third paragraph that both sides are level, just not with each other!

 

[widler]

Ok, it's obvious that the 2 floors are not the same height, it happens when they asphalt the floors either side,you can't get them mm perfect, so you take a wall out and you have two different heights, it also may run up a bit .
you canfeather SLC from the high spot and run it as far as you can, don't worry about the SLC running away, just don't mix it to runny and trowel it flat at the edge .
Depending what tile you are using and which layout, you can run your tiles from either side of the 'dip' to lose it .
or you can knock the new stuff up, cut the high floor back a few foot, re fill it and repeat the steps above for a flatter floor, which is the slower option but will make it flatter 😉

 

[Thomas Moore]

Morning guys. Apologies for the delay in answering the questions. I'm attaching a quick floor plan with the rough area of the ridge highlighted in red.

Yes, 3_fall, you're right: both sides are fairly flat (with a gentle slope) but the left-hand side is slightly higher than the right. There are two entrances to the room, one on the left side and one on the right. You can probably see from the first picture that there used to a be a doorway connecting the two halves of the room before the wall was removed. At this point, of course, the floor levels are the same.

The tiles are 662x235x8mm wood-effect ceramic. The plan is to lay them left to right since there's a window at each end of the room. As such, they would lay across the change in level.

Apologies for the confusion over the levels and whether there's a dip in the floor. There isn't a [major] dip; I had laid the spirit level to show the approximate gradient.

widler, that's pretty much what I was thinking but was concerned about the SLC pooling at the lowest point. From what you say, using a thicker SLC mix and trowelling it seems like the easiest option. The portion of the ridge nearest to the wall (with the most severe level change) will be covered by kitchen cabinets, so hopefully the remainder will look OK.

I'll be using LevelFlex SLC in another room. Do you think that a thicker mix of this would be suitable for this job? Presumably, it'll have no problem adhering to the mixture of concrete / bitumen residue provided it's primed first with something like a PrimePlus slurry?

View attachment Floorplans and services.jpg