Concrete floors have become a new flooring option for designers and homeowners in the United States and Canada due to their artistic designs and durability. During the renovation and remodeling of existing buildings, silence is often required to convert an existing floor covering such as vinyl tile or carpet to concrete floors. If the existing floor covering is in poor condition, it must be removed before installing a new floor. Asphalt-based trimmed adhesive that remains on a concrete floor after removing old vinyl tiles and other floors represents one of the most difficult and risky underlays for new flooring installation. Scrap removal by grinding, sanding or shot blasting may contain asbestos. This poses a serious health problem.
The use of solvent-based adhesive removers is excluded due to the smell of solvents in occupied buildings. Quietly they are often not VOC compliant and this greatly affects LEED points.
The following steps are recommended for renovating trimmed adhesives and carpet glues with a self-leveling concrete, Päram 5500:
- Before installing self-leveling concrete, the installing contractor must ensure that the subfloor is properly prepared.
- Thick buildup, powdery, brittle or weak adhesive layers must be removed. Use the wet scraping method to remove thick areas and adhesive buildups, and any areas that are weak and not well adhered to the substrate.
- Hollow spots or nonstructural cracks in the floor must be addressed before proceeding.
- Substrate temperature must be a minimum of 450F during application and the air temperature is kept between 50-800F. Adequate ventilation must be provided to ensure uniform drying.
- The surface is primed with Param Süper Primer. It should be distributed evenly over the floor surface and then brushed into the substrate with a soft bristle broom. Avoid primer pudding. When applying with a pump sprayer, be sure to coat the substrate with an even coat to ensure adequate penetration and immediately follow up to work on the surface with a broom. Drying time is 2 to 4 hours depending on weather conditions.
- Substrate is ready to accept self-leveling concrete after primer is completely dry. Follow the link for instructions on how to install self-leveling concrete. http://www.duraamen.com/products_sl_concrete.php
- The surface of Param 5500 must always be protected from oil, salt, water and surface wear by applying a suitable sealing system. A very popular system is applying a water-based epoxy primer / sealer, Perdure E32 and then applying a coat of water-based polyurethane, Perdure U46 (gloss) or Perdure U45 (matte).