Self-leveling floors: reviews of owners, pluses and minuses in the apartment, photo

Decorative jets are no longer unusual, but have not become familiar. He looks stylish, original, beautiful. Its advantage is a wide variety of options, the ability to create a multi-colored and even bulk floor. What are the floors and floors of plus and minus in the apartment?

Self-leveling floors

These are coatings made of cement and polymers, which are applied to a concrete base. Their advantage is the absence of seams, strength, durability. Usually they are used in industrial construction. But more and more often liquid floors are found in apartments and houses.

They are of two types.

• Floor-screed is used as a flat surface for laying a laminate or other types of coating. It is characterized by a short period of hardening. Self-leveling or self-leveling flooring is a mixture that, in addition to conventional sand and cement, includes various plastic plasticizers. They help the surface to become very even. The process does not require the use of complex instruments or tools.

Instead of the cement floor for the screed, you can use gypsum. How are such self-leveling floors assessed by the owners? Pros and cons are found in both kinds. Gypsum floor is much cheaper. It, like cement, needs to be stacked in several stages of 3 cm, bringing it up to a thickness of 10 cm. Since gypsum is still more expensive than cement screed, it can only be used to eliminate small errors in the surface.

Gypsum does not like water, so in the kitchen, in the bathroom, it's better to give the cement one, and in the bedroom and the hall a gypsum is set. It is not compatible with glue mixtures for cement based tiles.

Both types of floor-screeds dry out much faster than sand-cement screeds.

The floor for the screed can not be operated without a finish coat. It crumbles and collapses, while the sand-cement screed can be used without coating for a long time. But it dries much longer. Completely this coating dries up in 28 days, while the floor can be covered with a finishing coat after 3 days.

• Finishing - smooth glossy surface.

Can have a different thickness and percentage of sand in its composition. Depending on the purpose, smooth and rough finish floors can be used . Reviews of the owners of the pros and cons (photo in the article) see in both. Smooth are easier to clean, but they can lead to injuries. The rough ones do not slip, so they can be used where there is a risk of injury. But washing them is more difficult.

Using a variety of mixtures, pigment dyes, you can create an incredible number of different versions of the filler floor of the desired color and characteristics. Let's consider what type of flooring can be . Reviews of the owners of the pros and cons of each of them describe in detail.

Kinds

• Polymer high filling floor is particularly strong due to quartz filler. Its tension coefficient reaches 600%. It is used in production.
• Epoxy coating perfectly connects to the base of any type (concrete, metal, wood), resistant to mechanical attack, chemicals. It hardens slowly.
• Polyurethane floor is the most elastic, so it is used in rooms with high temperature and vibration. It is worse to suffer contact with chemicals.
• Methyl methacrylate floor of acrylic resins hardens very quickly, in just a couple of hours.

There are monophonic, patterned or patterned, with pictures embedded in it, backlighting, a 3d image, the quality of a matt or glossy surface can be a filler. Pros and cons of reviews describe differently. Many laid the self-leveling floor as a basis for the laminate. They were quite satisfied with the result.

Benefits

• Durability. The floor will serve not less than 20 years. The mixture is perfectly bonded to concrete, which allows to obtain a high-quality coating.
• Tightness. Has no seams, so there is nowhere to accumulate dirt.
• Has a small thickness. Highly filled with thickness up to 4 cm, thin-film even less.
• Absolutely smooth surface. The liquid composition is equalized by the laws of physics. With a large floor thickness, markers are used to obtain a level surface.
• Not slippery.
• Lasting.
• It does not bend, so the furniture does not leave marks on it from the legs.
• Does not burn.
• Does not form dust on its surface.
• Does not rot.
• Does not harm health.

Owner feedback

Pros and cons of such sexes indicate that the attitude to them is ambiguous. Everyone talks about the perfectly flat surface of such a floor.

Some buyers are questioning whether the filling floor will be slippery, since it is very smooth. But the owners say that the floor does not slip more than the tiles. In any case, they have no special problems in connection with this.

Some complain that the floor changed its color from the original one. This can happen if you use a cheap, substandard composition, which is often done in store rooms or cellars. Therefore, buyers do not advise chasing a cheap product. It is better to buy products of well-known companies with a good reputation, many of which have been working on the market for a long time. Good reviews about the mixtures of the firm "Ekoteks", "Tikkurila"

3d floors

A very effective element of the interior is a polymeric bulk-filled 3d floor. It differs from the usual stereoscopic effect.

Such floors are often placed in the halls of various cultural and entertainment institutions. More and more often they can be seen in apartments, moreover not only in large, but also in small ones. The advantage of a floor with a three-dimensional image is its original appearance. You can order or make any drawing by yourself. Before the polymer is poured on the floor, various decorations, such as shells and pebbles, are laid.

3d-floor have a variety of subjects. It can be flowers, animals, ponds. Sometimes they combine patterns on walls, curtains and other elements of the interior. Often owners place in their bathroom images of fish, dolphins. Sometimes, however, these drawings from the side seem out of place. So the images of monsters from films can hardly be considered an acceptable solution. A gulf in the middle of the room will tickle the guests' nerves for a long time, and even to the master himself.

How are these self-leveling floors created? The feedback from the owners of this original cover suggests that they can be made by themselves.

Creating a 3d floor

• Align the surface using a leveling concrete mix "filling floor".
• Grind and primer it.
• The 3d-picture is pasted.
• Fill with a polymer.
• Cover with epoxy or polyurethane varnish.

Differently characterize the self-leveling floors of the owners' reviews. Pros and cons are for every species. Among the advantages - originality and smooth surface without seams.

Users are advised to install a floor with a 3d-picture in the room, where there is only one entrance. After all, the image will be voluminous only on one side. The same property should be taken into account when choosing pictures for sex.

disadvantages

But not everyone likes liquid floors. Reviews of the owners of the minuses are seen in the fact that they:

• Easily scratched, fade.
• Long froze, about 6 days.
• Difficult to look after. To ensure that the quality does not deteriorate, the floor is washed with special means using a washing machine.

Experts who establish such floors, say that it is environmentally friendly. Consumers did not detect the presence of harmful substances, which could manifest an unpleasant odor.

What else needs to be foreseen is the color of the image. It is not enough to just look at it on the computer. It is necessary to print a sample copy, as often the colors on the image do not correspond to the real tone of the floor.

Scratch Resistance

Different opinions and estimates cause liquid 3d floors. Reviews of the owners say that many on the floor have scratches. Although modern technology can cope with this problem.

Consumers advise choosing a light tone of the floor. It is less visible scratches. Or choose the floor of the company "Tikkurila", scratches on which do not remain. Besides, it does not dim, it does not need to be polished.

But you can also get bumps. This happens when the surface under the filling floor is not high enough.

User reviews say that decorative floors are well combined with the interior.

They are easy to clean. Five minutes is enough to wipe the dust. Mud in such a floor is not absorbed.

Reviews of other consumers note that the filler floor is very attracting dust and it is very noticeable. Because it is often and carefully cleaned.

Cracks in the floors

Appearance and durability of the flooring in many respects depend on the quality of the work performed. If the base is laid incorrectly, it is not solid enough, then the appearance of cracks in decorative concrete floors is more likely.

Many users report that their floors do not crack, although they have been in operation for five years or more.

Floor temperature

The concrete itself is quite cold material. Therefore, many buyers are afraid that there will not be warm and 3d, and liquid floors. Reviews of the owners of the pros and cons are seen in both types. Some argue that the new floor is warm in winter and summer. Others advise to lay the screed under the heating system. But not everyone liked this idea. It is said that harmful substances will be released at high temperature. Experts say that the polymer is a very strong material that does not pass any substances when heated.

Consumers who need a flat surface for laying linoleum or another coating, use gypsum floor.

Price

Calculating the cost of installing the floor, you need to take into account that the price of installing the floor in a small room will be twice as large as when installing in large rooms. If you see the price of 3 thousand rubles on the site. Per square meter, then when installing in one room, count on 7 thousand.