benpost wrote:
well just did the first coat of pva. amazing how many bits of grit the
roller picks up even after i'd hoovered it. well hopefully this first
coat (diluted 5 to 1) will seal most of it then i'll do another coat
maybe a bit thicker to finish off.

wait for that to dry then have a go with levelling compound. what type
of trowel do i need to do a basic levelling (after all its meant to
level itself?)?

It never does what it says on the tin. I am sure if you put it in
10-20mm deep, with a mechanical vibrator, it would eventually puddle
itself more or less flat..but in my case, it had 3mm lips where it
stopped flowoing, and was out by +-5mm everywhere..it simply did not flow.

I used a float at the edges to kill the lips, and guessed at the depth
in the 'puddles' I had to fill.

I would never use it for tiles. I had far more success in the kitchen
with no levelling compound, using tile cement from 5-40mm thick. That
was simply a question of covering the area in strings first (checked
with a level), and seeing where the highest point was..add 5mm + tile
thickness to that, and using it to set my my datum string, against
which the first course was laid. Each one checked with a small level to
make sure the tile itself wasn't slanted.

Where I knew I has problems and need extra cement depth, I used to
scrape out each old cement mix and plaster it on that bit of floor..to
build it up. Not perfectly, just smoothly. Then when the time came to do
the job finally, I need a smaller amount of fresh to fill the gap.


In one bathroom where I had an inch and a half of fallaway in one
corner..I screwed bits of scrap wood to the floor to save on
cement..that seems to have worked as well ;-)