Floor screed repair: how to restore it yourself

Floor screed repairs are usually required due to poor installation, such as missing shrink joints, poor surface preparation or air bubbles. Although sometimes the old base cracks due to wear and tear, especially with intensive use of the floor. A description of the main reasons for the repair, as well as the procedure for carrying out the work, can be found in this article.

Types of defects and causes of their occurrence

Screed repairs are carried out in various cases when it is necessary to eliminate large or even minor defects. The surface must be solid, since even small cracks can cause it to collapse. The main types of flaws are:

1. Potholes and cracks - occur due to an error in laying the screed when shrinkage joints were not provided in the thickness of the floor. But even if they were, such defects can still appear due to incorrect consistency or weak reinforcement of the base.
2. Small holes all over the floor are caused by air bubbles during pouring. Most often this indicates a lack of priming of the surface. Then you will need a repair mixture for the floor screed.
3. The surface begins to peel off - the reason is due to poor cleaning before starting work. Similar phenomena are observed due to improper preparation of the base.
4. Also, the repair mixture for the screed is useful in case the surface becomes dusty due to natural wear and tear. Usually this happens only over time, but it can happen literally within a year due to the use of low-quality concrete.

Materials and tools

Do-it-yourself floor screed repair begins with the selection of materials and tools. The easiest way is to purchase a ready-made mixture, although you can make it yourself using cement, sand and plasticizers. As for the tools, you need to use the following:

• trowel;
• drill with mixer attachment;
• bucket;
• putty knife;
• hammer;
• chisel;
• construction level;
• rule;
• Bulgarian;
• epoxy primer;
• construction or household vacuum cleaner;
• concrete shoes (put on feet so that no marks are left on the surface when walking).

Step-by-step instruction

The work is carried out in several stages - first, a repair compound is prepared for the floor screed, then the cracks are filled. Small defects are eliminated first, then larger ones. The algorithm of actions is as follows.

Small cracks

Repair of cement screed begins with the elimination of small defects. First, the area is cleared of dust, and then the crack is widened with a hammer and chisel so that a depth of 1 cm is obtained. Now the defect should have the shape of a cone, the sharp end of which goes down. After this, the floor surface is cleaned again and dust is removed.

You can use a sandblaster or vacuum cleaner. The surface must be treated with an epoxy primer, which is diluted 10 times with a solvent. Then the floor must dry completely, after which it is sanded and cleaned again.

Deep cracks

To eliminate deep defects, select the same repair composition for the screed.Large cracks also need to be widened, but to a depth of 5 cm. For such purposes, use a grinder with an appropriate attachment. Deep grooves are made on both sides of the crack.

After this, take a hammer and chisel, with the help of which they remove chips of concrete and deepen the crack. Dust removal and treatment with epoxy primer are carried out. Moreover, the solution must be applied in 2-3 layers, each time allowing the previous one to dry. In order for the restoration of the floor screed to be successful, reinforcement is laid and grinding is performed.

Pothole Repair

The same floor repair compound is also used to repair potholes. To do this, the area with delaminations is cleaned to a depth of 2 cm using a grinder. The concrete is completely removed to this depth; to extract it, they use a hammer drill.

Clean with a vacuum cleaner and apply primer. Then the actual repair of the old floor screed begins - the cavities are filled with mortar, leveled and sanded, and then cleaned again.

Thus, the repair of cement-sand screed can be done independently. But even if all the work is carried out efficiently, a problem may arise with the appearance of dust, especially with intensive use of the floor. Therefore, it is advisable to stock up on mixtures like “Ashfor” or “Elakor” for timely processing.