I make some fabricated products, various bins, that are best built on the floor which means the floor should flat and level at to say the tolerance that a typical new slab (i.e. flat enough for welding, not metrology). The building is ancient and the floor is in poor shape and not very level. I can't afford to fix the entire thing but would like to fix some parts of it where we make these products. I know if I just skim over with concrete it it will quickly break up and I'm hoping for something less disruptive and costly than jack hammering out sections and repouring.
Are there any industrial, durable thin layer coatings we could apply over the top of the slab, creating say 10' x 10' area? The variation I'm dealing might only be 1/2 in some areas to 1.5 -2 in others
Any suggestions? Thanks
Yes. Several. Next-door guy, one cycle ago, was a gang-boss for a firm that did very little else, day after day.
The stuff they use is FAST too, since their "niche" was to come in at closing time, work all night, have a zero lost-time refurbed premises open by morning. Retail space and such, of fair size, etc.
What they used is a self-leveling pourable GYPSUM product. And it works a treat!
Downside is THEY would lay tile or carpet over it. It wears waaay TF better than gypsum drywall, but does NOT wear as well as Portland Cement bound concrete.
His crew laid about 40 feet of 4 to 5 inch thick sidewalk with it for his residence. I had a chat with him that with no rebar, no expansion joints, no compacted gravel under, it would have a short life.
He just grinned.
It DID make about five years before it started to fall apart!
Long enough for he who knew it would do that to have sold-up and left the CURRENT owner grumbling!
Storal of the morey is that even EXPENSIVE shortcuts are still shortcuts.
You want"cheap" you gets it by doing it RIGHT.
- saw near the edges to insure de-coupling
- demo hammer it OUT.
- FIX the SUBGRADE.. it does 99.9% of the WORK.
Dividing the cost by... well looks like 40 years and easily as many more left in it for the superb slab the previous owner left ME with, 30 years this month and ISTR 8 or 9 years on his watch?
OTOH, he was not just a gang boss.
He was Vice President of a serious VDOT-spec highway paving company.
And VDOT does NOT put-up with the absolute
shite Pennsyltucky considers a "road", either.
Quite the opposite.
TANSTAAFL.