The floor on the balcony and how to level it with your own hands: what to fill it with and how to make a screed

How to level the floor on the balcony. For example, you can make a dry or wet screed, or use a self-leveling mixture. The specific choice depends on the nature of the rough surface. More details about the production of the base and screed laying technology are described in this article.

Materials and tools

The main way to fill a balcony floor involves laying a cement-sand screed. For this, the following tools and materials are presented:

• the actual composition for the screed;
• trowel;
• roulette;
• construction level (preferably laser);
• construction pencil;
• Sander;
• damper tape;
• beacons and screws for fixing them;
• fishing line or construction cord.

How to fill the floor on the balcony with your own hands. For example, you can use plywood, OSB, DSP, plasterboard. Finishing materials are also common. There is also quite a wide choice here. It depends on how the floor screed on the balcony was made. For example, if plywood, cement and sand screed or plasterboard are used, the following options are suitable:

• linoleum;
• carpet;
• tile;
• laminate;
• self-leveling floor

If the floor on the balcony was filled using a screed or OSB or DSP sheets, you can consider decking, ceramic tiles or porcelain stoneware.

Determining the finished floor level

It is very important to decide what to fill the floor on the balcony with. But first of all, you should find out exactly the level of the clean floor. To do this, use a building level (spirit level) according to the following instructions:

1. Mark danger on the wall anywhere.
2. Then, at the same level, calculations take place on all other walls.
3. Connect the points with a horizontal line.
4. Measure the spread from the floor to this line that is in the frequency of cases (shortest distance).
5. Focusing on this point, use a spirit level to mark the level of cleanliness of the floor.

Filling the floor on the balcony with your own hands will be more accurate if you use a laser level rather than a water level. It is installed in the highest corner on the balcony and turned on. The horizontal line will be built automatically - it is along it that you can navigate during the formation of the screed.

Formation of cement-sand screed

The main leveling technology is a screed on the balcony under tiles or other coverings. Moreover, there are 2 methods - wet and dry.

Wet screed

The instructions for forming a wet screed are as follows:

1. Before pouring the floor on the balcony, a damper tape is attached around the entire perimeter for marking. Determine 2 lines of passage of beacons with an interval of 10 cm from the walls.
2. Prepare the screed solution according to the instructions. Or they mix it themselves from sand and cement M400 3:1 with the addition of fiber based on a ratio of 900 g for every 1 m3.
3. Along the lines of the beacons, mounds of the prepared mixture are formed every 50 cm. Each beacon is carefully fixed with a slide of solution so that the mixture completely covers it.
4. Next you need to understand how to make a screed on the balcony. To do this, the solution is poured between the lines of the beacons, starting to move from the far wall towards the balcony door.In this case, the solution should completely cover the beacons.
5. After pouring each square meter (can be measured visually), the surface is leveled using a rule. First, air bubbles are removed from the solution by going over it with a trowel. Moreover, one should strive to ensure that there are as many punctures as possible.
6. The mixture is again added to the emerging voids and leveled again. Do this until the surface becomes as smooth as possible. When they reach the door, the screed on the loggia from the other wall is made in the same way.
7. When the mixture sets, the beacons are removed, and the solution is again poured into the resulting voids. It also happens that the screed shrinks as it hardens (if there was no fiber in the composition). To correct this, you need to additionally fill in the self-leveling mixture.
8. Next you need to wait a few days and start finishing. If you plan to lay tiles, you need to wait 7-8 days, if laminate - 10-12. Moreover, it will be possible to place heavy objects and furniture only a month after finishing.

Dry screed

Dry screed on the balcony is a simpler option, because in this case you do not need to prepare the solution and, accordingly, wait for it to dry. The sequence of actions is as follows:

1. The preparatory stage is exactly the same - they mark the level of the finished floor, make markings and place beacons.
2. Expanded clay gravel is poured - it should be of large or medium fraction.
3. Since you are screeding the floor on the balcony with your own hands, you also compact the layer yourself. To do this, use a board with a handle like a hand tamper.
4. Add expanded clay and level it with the rule. Moreover, you need to move in the direction from the door.You cannot walk on the layer - sheets of drywall are laid on top of it to move it.
5. The beacons are removed and expanded clay is added to the traces of the metal profile, then leveled again using the rule.
6. Lay the flooring in 2 rows so that their connecting seams do not coincide. The rows are fastened with self-tapping screws at intervals of 20-25 cm.

Self-leveling mixture

Filling the floor on the balcony with your own hands is also done using a self-leveling mixture. This option is acceptable if there are slight unevenness on the subfloor (differences within 30 mm). In this case, it is undesirable to use cement mortar, because it may crack, and it will not be easy to level it.

Therefore, you can purchase a self-leveling mixture and lay it 3-30 mm thick. To work with it, you will need a primer and standard tools (roller, spatula). You also need a special needle roller, which is needed to remove air bubbles through punctures, and a construction mixer. Screeding on a balcony with your own hands is carried out in several stages, shown in the diagram.

It is quite possible to do the filling of the balcony slab yourself. To do this, you need to prepare the surface, make markings and determine the possibilities. The mixture of the entire screed is formed using wet technology or self-leveling mixtures are used.