Episode 2: Self leveling Concrete Trial & Error: watch before you try it! 

Thanks for the comment!

Thank you for the kind words! Good luck with your project

Thank you so much for the tip!

Thanks for watching! Glad to hear it helps you on your way! The best of luck with your project!

Thanks for the comment, glad it provided you some insights. In the video of the actual pour, you can check out the final result. Hope you like it!

Exactly! Please check my video on the actual pour of the complete floor to see my workable setup for DIY enthusiasts.

Thanks for watching, I'm very glad it helped provide some insights. All the best of luck with your project!

Thanks! Stay awesome!

Thanks for watching and your kind words. The best of luck with your project!

My pleasure, good luck with your projects!

Was thinking about bare foot, would that be too much?

Thanks for watching!

Many thanks for the comment. It's always good to learn from each other's mistakes, can save a lot of time.

Happy it helps. Thanks for watching

Hi Logan, sorry to read things are not going exactly as planned. It is a challenging job to do, i must say. Hope your next one goes better! Maybe you can try adding a little bit extra water to the compound, so it has a better flow to it. Also, check the follow up video where i show how i did the complete pour with 4 extra helpjng hands. The product sets fast l, so you need all the help you can for a steady supply. Good luck!!!!

@@pencilntools nobody is perfect so i can't expect to be perfect on my first try! I found this video refreshing since it shows the learning process not just an edited video with all mistakes left out. Each day if we get a little bit better then we made some progress! Thanks for making these videos and showing reality!

Many thanks for the comment, glad you find it helpful. The final pour went really well. Video will be up soon!

Thanks for the tip 👍

Exactly! You will see in my next episode what setup i have used. The 2 pairs of extra (untrained) hands are the minimum for good rotation, for me personally.

A well trained eye!

@@pencilntoolshaha , next time u latex mate, try Ardex NA with Ardex P51 primer and do the whole room together and u will get no ridges and an incredible finish! I’ve been doing screeding for 6years now … makes a hell of a difference getting a quality screed

Why are there soooo many DIY videos with dudes in flip-flops? I saw one with a guy using a high-speed diamond grinder (prep concrete) and he was wearing...yes...flip flops. 😂😢 Soooo risky and stupid all at the same time.

​@@uthamancoAnd all the bare skin....all of these caustic alkaline cementous products burn your skin. No shoes, no pants, no gloves, let me guess..no mask?

There are compounds that are suitable for outdoors, generally they are more expensive though. If you use the wrong compound and it rains and freezes, it will damage the flooring. If it doesnt freeze, it does no harm.

As Belgian as can be;-)

Thanks for your question. If the old concrete is still fixed, you could pour it over it. It can fixate the underground. It depends on the situation however, as it needs to be judged based on your specific scenario. Perhaps a professional in your proximity can have a look at it to provide a more definitive answer. Hope it helps you!

Once this has set, it is best to purchase new bags. The chemical process has already taken place, so the end result will not be as good if good at all. It's a bitter pil to swallow, but it will yield the best results and the most pleasant way to work. Hope it helps

Thanks for you question, but I think this is for another video ;-)

Hi Brian, thanks for watching and for your question. The absorbance test can be done with water. If the water forms a droplet on top of the surface, it is sealed enough. Vapor can still pass through but that is good. If the water seeps in, you will see a darker spot forming quite fast, then in my experience it is not sealed enough as air will escape and form bubbles. Let me know if you need more info! Best of luck!

@@pencilntools ahh thank you so much. You have been so helpful! 😊

Don’t copy me! I’m stupid! :-) during the actual pour, I was wearing boots though.

Dear Ronnie, thanks for watching and your question. There are definitely brands that offer outdoor compounds. The one I used will not work for outdoors as water can seep in during freezing it will break the floor. So please make sure to choose the right compound. Extra tip: Outdoor, in full sun and a lot of wind, it will dry really fast! Choose a cloudy day without rain and little wind (or work in the evening when the sun is already down a bit) and make sure you have enough helping hands to keep pouring continuously, as it will go really fast and once it sets, there is no way of altering the results. Check this one for an easy setup: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hT4S41T3kog.htmlsi=skc2nUKLRZOxSm8a 3 unexperienced people and we managed well I think! Good luck with your project!

That is a self level compound based on cement and polymer fillers. Hope it answers your question.

It's a self leveling compound you can find in most DIY markets. This was a house brand of a construction super market.

Im not sure what you mean. Can you please rephrase the question so i can help you better?

Hi thanks for watching! No, I'm Belgian 😊

Thanks for watching and excellent comment. The primer is not for adhesion only. It is to fixate the underground and above all, to prevent the self level compound from drying too quickly. This will be very detrimental for the strength of the compound as it is cement based. It also reduces the open time of the compound, meaning you will have to work even faster to blend in two batches. Also, if the underground is not sealed properly, you will get air bubbles in the end result. You can actually see that during the video. And I'm not talking about the air mixed in the compound but air escaping from the underground. Hope it helps.

Thanks for visiting my channel. I’m sorry to read that my title and thumbnail description was not clear enough, so I will elaborate. It states: self levelling concrete. TRIAL and ERROR. Trial and error is a process through which one TRIES out something new. This could be a new material, process, product brand,…. With the goal to (hopefully) learn from the mistakes that inevitably come with new processes. (No matter how expert one thinks he or she his) Reading installation guides one can find anywhere on the web is easy, doing the actual installation is different in that guides cannot teach you all variables that come with the specific project. For example: I tried 2 different brands and found out one brand (very cheap) was not giving good results whereas the other one was a lot better (a bit more expensive too, unfortunately) and easier to work with. I learned about the impact of water to compound ratio (the ratio indicated a between x & y), what to look for when priming the underground, what happens when it’s not done correctly, how the roller works and feels and how important good ventilation is in the room I was working in. (Without a fan on one corner, open windows didn’t do the trick and gave me a white layer of alkaline salts that crystallised from the water) Had I just followed the process you can read on the bag, or see in product videos, it would have cost me a lot of money and stress afterwards, as the learnings would come during the actual installation, which is too late when working with a fast setting compound. Since I had too much depth to fill in in some spots (including cracks) I had a perfect opportunity to test all this, and to make the starting point a bit more level, which also helped for the volume calculation. (The floor was indeed prepped by cleaning and scraping as instructed) The final part of the title states: before you try it. This means it is geared towards DIY people who want to try working with this compound and have little experience with potential variables. So they can learn from my mistakes and hopefully save stress and money down the road. You can see in the follow up video how I did the actual installation (in the next episode). For a first timer, I’m very pleased with the result. Would a pro do a better job? Sure! But that’s not the point, the goal is that everybody can learn here. One last thing: staying polite can save some shame in the future:-)

Your comments are very Ill received. If you have a cogent argument, make it, but there is absolutely no excuse for the insults or tangible frustration you expressed. I myself am very handy, but I failed when laying this compound on my first attempt. I was relieved to see this video as it and others like it helped me identify where I could improve. I will be reattempting to apply the levering compound today and while at it will incorporate the spike roller that only two videos mentioned. Mr. Pencil and Tools if you are reading this, please continue to do what you are doing as it is helpful, and by the way the manner you replied to "People call me" (Although I doubt, they do) was a reflection of your intelligence and proper upbringing. Cheers!

@jose jimenez thank you so much for the support and kind words! I wish you all the best for your upcoming projects and hope all goes well! Enjoy the learning process, and never give up. That is the only way one could fail.

🤣🤣

Look everyone. He knows everything about everything. I bet he is such a cool guy. Where is your RU-vid video to show how the greatest flooring levelers such as yourself do it?

Thanks for sharing!

how thick do you have to pour to make it flow?