In old houses where the floors were made of wood, the problem of creaks and fragility of the coating occurs very often. The board wears out, rots and cracks. Replacing a wooden floor with a concrete one in an apartment looks rational. This can be done, including in old houses. The concrete floor has excellent strength, service life, it can be covered with laminate in full compliance with the technical requirements for this process.

Removing the old floor

Dismantling the old coating is the first step from which the replacement of a wooden floor with a concrete one in an apartment begins. For this, standard tools are used: a sledgehammer, a crowbar, a crowbar.

  1. Remove floor coverings in the form of linoleum.
  2. With the help of a tool, the coating is disassembled.
  3. In areas where pipes and other communications enter, you should be especially careful.

After removing the old boards, access to the base is opened. Logs are laid on a reinforced concrete slab in apartments, often they are not even fixed. The space between them is covered with the remains of construction debris for soundproofing.

Everything needs to be removed. Garbage collection will require bags and a place for their temporary storage.

After the construction debris and dirt are removed, the logs are evaluated. If the wood is in good condition, a plywood or chipboard screed base can be created to be placed over the existing underlay. But this will cause the floor level to rise, so it’s worth deciding which is better: to make a new coating on the logs, without insulation, or to remove the logs and form a layer of concrete over the floor slabs.

In practice, most apartment owners act according to the second option. Legs are dismantled. After that, you need to carefully assess the condition of the pipes - cold and hot water, sewage. If there is damage or signs of poor condition, the interfloor sector should be replaced immediately. Later, after creating the concrete floor, repairs will cause much more problems and time costs.


Evaluation of the list of works

The slab, freed from the floor, logs, construction debris and other dirt, is inspected. Level measurements are made. A laser level is useful, which determines the height difference and their nature.

Several situations may arise:

  1. the base is formed by several narrow slabs forming a "step";
  2. there is a trough-like shape or there is a bulge in the center of the room with a descending height to the perimeter;
  3. there is a uniform slope of the base to one side or the other.

It is necessary not only to evaluate the work on the level of investment of funds, but also to plan the smallest possible mass of the screed. To do this, the concrete layer is made of a minimum thickness, placing it on a backfill or lightweight mortar.

The procedure for evaluating the work of the future floor with a large, from 70 mm floor height difference, looks like this:

  • the thickness of the concrete screed is 40-50 mm;
  • the rest of the space can be filled with class solution.

A cheaper way is to fill the rough surface with sand, but the mass of such a pillow will be significant. In practice, it is ideal to make a plywood base, under which expanded clay is poured to level the level. This method of work production simultaneously gives a smooth, even surface for the screed, the rough filling has a low mass and provides some degree of additional sound insulation.

The base for a plywood screed can be made on logs from a small section beam. This is a convenient and fairly cheap way. The logs are laid on the floor, providing a horizontal, while in the right places small supports are placed under them. After that, the free space is covered with expanded clay.

When filling the base with sand, it must be spilled with water and carefully compacted. It is not recommended to use a vibrating tool - the plaster finish may be damaged from the neighbors below or other troubles may arise. After finishing work, the sand should be given a couple of days to dry.

The difference, whether a wooden or concrete floor is located on an interfloor floor, is in the mass of the coating. Although, not only in this. About this video:

A little bit about very old houses

In houses where there is no reinforced concrete floor, you can replace the wooden floor with a concrete screed in one way: build a rough coating of plywood or chipboard. Some advise repairing the existing wood floor or laying additional flooring.

However, in practice, such work takes a lot of time, money, requires the replacement of damaged areas, the removal of old paint and other coatings to assess the condition of the boards.

Therefore, proceed as follows:

  • all floor boards are removed;
  • in houses with ceilings on beams or a metal profile between the floor and the ceiling of the lower floor, construction debris is poured for soundproofing. All this must be removed;
  • the state of the lag is assessed. If bad, they are removed. If it is good, the logs are cleaned, treated with anti-mold, antibacterial agents and fixed in such a way as to guarantee the evenness of the plywood or chipboard flooring.

The preparation of the base for the screed begins with the filling of expanded clay into the interfloor ceiling on beams or I-beams. This layer will have a low mass and have good sound insulation. Backfilling is carried out to the upper level of the log. After that, they lay plywood or chipboard and act in the same way as in an apartment.


Construction of waterproofing and insulation

After the rough base for the screed is ready, they begin to create a waterproofing layer. For this, it can be used:

  • roofing material or glassine;
  • bituminous roll insulators based on fiberglass or fiberglass;
  • polymer film;
  • one-sided vapor-permeable membrane.

Before spreading the roll waterproofing, it is necessary to carry out preparatory work. To do this, the entire perimeter of the room is glued with a special construction tape. After that, it is coated with bituminous mastic of a cold type of application. Some compositions will require time to dry, so it is worth warning the neighbors in advance about the need to endure an unpleasant odor.

After the mastic has hardened, the perimeter is glued with a damper construction tape 20 mm thick and a rolled waterproofing agent can be spread out. Strips of material are placed with an overlap of 10-15 cm, each next strip overlaps the previous one. Along the perimeter of the room, the waterproofing should be 10-15 cm on the walls.

Seams are processed as follows:

  • when using a polymer film, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe edge of the strip located on the previous one is glued with a wide adhesive tape;
  • roofing felt and other bitumen-containing materials are thoroughly heated with a building hair dryer over the joint area and rolled with a roller for gluing.

It is not recommended to use floating class materials in the apartment. They require processing with a kerosene burner, which in conditions of limited space and ventilation can be a problem.

To speed up the work will allow rolled waterproofing on a self-adhesive basis. They are more expensive, but will significantly speed up the flooring.

After the waterproofing is laid, a heater is placed on it. This stage of work is carried out if a floor heating system is being built. In other cases, it is not necessary to use thermal insulation.


Reinforcement laying

  • classic, laying on the floor with a gap to the insulation or waterproofing in 10 mm steel mesh with a mesh size of 5 cm;
  • using plastic reinforcing meshes;
  • adding special fibers to the solution.

An aluminum chain-link mesh can also be placed inside the screed. But the leader in terms of convenience and rationality is the method using fibers. This will allow:

  • do not care about the presence of a compensation gap to the waterproofing or insulation;
  • lay a floor heating system inside the screed;
  • work at high speed.

Fibers for reinforcing the screed are affordable, with their use it is possible to ensure the uniform strength of the concrete layer. But when constructing a floor not on a reinforced concrete floor slab, it is recommended to act in the classical way, using a reinforcing mesh.


Installation of beacons

Beacons on the floor on the prepared surface are installed simply: special profiles or a corner for decorating corners during plastering are placed on small mounds of gypsum putty. The evenness of the surface formed by the upper points is checked using a long building level.

If the base is poorly prepared and there is a difference in levels in the hotel areas of the area, the height of the putty mounds varies. It is necessary to place beacons at a distance of 40-50 cm, directing them along the line from the window to the door. Details must not be moved until the putty has completely hardened and the beacons are securely fixed.

Solution preparation

If you want to replace a wooden floor with a concrete screed and at the same time worry less about the pressure on the ceiling, you can use ready-made mortars. For example, KREISEL 440, 441, MZ150, allowing you to create a layer up to 70 mm with a minimum of 35 mm. In this case, it is not necessary to mix the dry mixture - the composition is immediately ready for adding water.

The standard approach is to use a classic cement-sand screed. For its preparation you will need:

  • 1 part cement grade m400;
  • 3 parts of sifted building sand;
  • 0.1 parts of lime dough, acting as a plasticizer;
  • fibers for reinforcement in the amount recommended by the manufacturer.

Before stirring with water, the dry mixture must be thoroughly mixed until a uniformly colored composition is formed. After that, they begin to add liquid, continuing to stir until the consistency of thick sour cream is obtained.

Recommendation: for fast and high-quality work, a large amount of dry mix should be prepared in advance. As needed, you can quickly dilute it with water. If you measure equal parts of the composition, it is easy to navigate in the amount of liquid needed and prepare the solution extremely quickly.

Screed laying

The screed is laid from the window or the far wall to the door. The solution is laid out in large portions and leveled with a long rule along the beacons. There are no difficulties during work, you just need to act quickly so that the solution does not seize and is easily smoothed out. It is recommended to lay the screed together. One is preparing the solution, the second is applying it.

Creating a finish

In the apartment you want to achieve maximum strength and at the same time -. To do this, you can act in several ways:

  • grind the floor with sandpaper;
  • apply special polymer compounds or paint with paint for concrete;
  • iron the surface of the screed after 3-4 days, when partial solidification occurs;
  • form a thin layer of self-leveling floor.

If you plan to lay tiles on the floor, you can do without additional surface treatment. For laminate or linoleum coatings, it is recommended to carry out. The most expensive version of the self-leveling floor allows you not only to get a smooth and even surface, but also to create an effective final coating. For example, a popular 3D floor or with graphic images.


The issue of creating the final coating should be considered in advance. The self-leveling floor will raise the overall level by about 30 mm, a similar situation is with ceramic tiles. However, final clearance can be seen as a secondary measure. As for the concrete floor itself, subject to the above rules and techniques, it is possible, after complete drying in 2-3 weeks, to create a very strong, durable coating for an acceptable cost of money and time.