0

I have a situation very similar to How to level a section of raised concrete floor?. Except, in my case the obvious solution of grinding the high point is not possible.

In my hallway I have a raised area my wife asked me to investigate. I have removed flooring to uncover what looks like a retrofit of copper water pipes into the concrete slab, crossing the hallway. The pipes are set very shallow and the area matches cracks in the slab, representing a raised area (which, for illustration, we scale up and down when walking the length of the hall).

I have included a drawing which exaggerates the slope for the purpose of illustration. The slope from the high point is about 3mm in height at a meter's distance. The hallway overall has a remaining slope of about 1mm per meter, but it is consistent and not noticeable.

My first thought was "self leveling" until I measured how much elevation would be added to the various transition thresholds, and it would be adding up to 3cm of material to get the whole hall exactly level with the high point. What I am thinking now, is to add material with the goal of making the transition more gentle, so that the change is less psychologically noticeable. But I don't know what this technique would be called. I have indicated my idea in green. Whereas the self-leveling result in pink.

Illustration of the hallway with pipe retrofit/repair cross section

The flooring to be replaced is laminate flooring, running left-to-right in the diagram. The laminate flooring didn't have any trouble covering the bend; it is our feet that disagree with the wobbles.

Douglas Held
  • 113
  • 6
  • 3mm over a meter wouldn't be detectable to most people. I suspect that it's more and your means of measurement was a bit faulty. Or did you mean 3 _centimeters_? – isherwood Aug 07 '19 at 19:50
  • 1
    You know what, this is a bad question. In the end, I hired a tiler and he helped be to measure more carefully so that we actually found the shape to either side of the peak was concave. We got some self leveling concrete and laid 2-3 mm thick on either side (more or less, the pink areas) and now it is flat enough that the feet are happy. – Douglas Held Aug 08 '19 at 23:53
  • 1
    Glad to hear it worked out. You should provide and accept an answer or delete the question so it doesn't get stuck unresolved. – isherwood Aug 09 '19 at 00:03
  • 2
    I’m voting to close this question because the OP indicated that the original premise of the question was due to faulty measuring, therefore there wasn't really an issue. – FreeMan Apr 29 '21 at 13:25

2 Answers2

0

Is your idea to level off the center only? I don't see that working out. The slope at the outsides would be even worse. I think you're assuming you normally walk right down the center of the hallway, but I don't think that's true; if two people pass in the hallway, or you're carrying a bag or something in one hand, you will go down one side or the other.

Is it possible there's an error in the question? If the slope is only 3mm per meter wouldn't it have to be a REALLY wide hallway to come to 3cm of rise from the outside to the center?

batsplatsterson
  • 24,664
  • 1
  • 31
  • 80
0

I'd be fixing the original problem, which was that the pipes were not properly let into the slab. It wouldn't be a terribly difficult chore to remove more concrete with a rotary hammer, for example, and you can repair the plumbing with pex or self-locking fittings (like Sharkbite).

Doing what you proposed is putting a larger bandage in place of a small one. It doesn't feel like a good solution.

isherwood
  • 119,766
  • 7
  • 148
  • 349
  • I think that makes sense if it is a new construction, but this is my house. I don't want to rent concrete impact tools, filling the house with dust and laying new pipework. – Douglas Held Aug 08 '19 at 23:51