On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 22:48:37 +0100, Chris Bacon
wrote:

Mark S. wrote:
A while ago I took off the top inch of loose concrete on the ground
floor of my project.

I levelled it with compound to cover the dust/roughness more than
anything else.

It's been left about 12 months and there's a few patches where the
compound has lifted off and there's what I suspect is "salt"
underneath?

What "compound" did you put on it? Did you do ant preparation/treatment
apart from scabbling it off?


I think the damp course was a layer of tar like paint that had been
under the skim level that had become detatched/broken up.

"The skim". What's that, the "compound"? The black stuff is hopefully
bitumen emulsion.


Is it possible to fix it using anything within the inch or so that's
"spare" or is it a job I really could do without doing that needs
doing? :-(


If the surface is coherent, use bitumen emulsion again. If it's not,
take it back until it is, or dig it out & replace.


Just managed to save some money to get some work done on it too.

Shouldn't be expensive. What's the "project"?


The floor was breaking up when I'd taken the carpets and lino up. The
top inch or so was hollow and crumbling and lifting off.

I took the this top inch off over the whole downstairs floor.

There's a concrete slab underneath except between the two was the
bitumen type stuff which is what was the damp course.

I used self levelling compound over the whole floor to keep the dust
down and make it less of a pain to keep swept etc.

Bits of this have lifted off leaving the salt deposits under them. If
you put something on the floor and leave it there's a "damp" patch
under it when you move it.

Do I repaint the floor with a bitumen paint and will that fix it or
just dig the whole lot out and re-lay it in the normal way with proper
layers, insulation etc.


The project is the house...


Mark S.