Floor Leveling

[§tudz]

Hi all,

I know the floor in my garage (soon to be fish house) is not flat and no where near a decent slope. I think I need to flatten it out, Ive read about slef leveling screed/concrete but some of the sites say you can only do it a few mm thick, and I think it will have to be a cms to an inch or so thick to do the job.

Im not sure how to even go about checking the level of the floor first off and then how to actually level it

Any advice?

 

[nurglespuss]

It all depends on what wieght/dimensions of tank/tanks your going for?

Self leveling concrete is 'ok' but won't adhere well to the baselayer of existing concrete beneath (it shifts and erodes easily).

Personally, I would remove a couple of inches of concreted, create a good keying base and relay a new layer.

 

[§tudz]

Thats a good point, as I am going to have a couple of large tanks in there and also some shelving units for more tanks, bit like in LFS'

I really think I need to clear it out and see how bad it really is.

Is there any other suggestions for making a flat base for tanks to stand on?

 

[OldMan47]

I would look at the options available to me quite honestly. If it will cost me X amount to level the floor and Y amount to level each individual tank stand, which will cost me more to actually carry out? Another consideration is the overall ease of care. Let's say the floor leveling is cheaper to do, if you level the floor, do you need to do anything special to deal with a minor spill or leak? If the cost of routine care is too high, it will probably not happen. That leaves you with a dilemma of how to deal with any leak or spill.
My own default position is to have my location deal easily with spills or similar events and to make plans around what to do to establish a situation where that becomes my main concern. That means I often focus more on what to set up to deal with a floor that is not quite level rather than doing things that will cause my floor to be level. A few shims here and there to make my tank stands level are far easier, in my mind, than setting up all the contingencies that I would need to deal with a spill on a truly level floor. That means my priority becomes a floor surface profile that drains well with the right measures taken to make the tanks in the area truly level. It gives me the benefits of both options. I have tanks and stands that act as if they were on a level floor while having a floor that drains well and does have puddles form that keep me from my tanks.