Bought into the self-leveling compound hype for a small bathroom floor and regret it

I saw everyone online raving about self-leveling compound for fixing uneven subfloors before tile work. So I spent about $80 on a bucket and primer for a 5x7 foot bathroom job in a house off Old Highway 12. Figured it would save me time compared to mudding and patching. Well, the stuff ran under the door jamb before I could catch it, took forever to dry in that humid basement, and I still had to sand down a high spot it created. Ended up spending an extra 3 hours cleaning up and redoing part of the subfloor anyway. For small residential jobs like that, I think plain old thinset patches or even just shimming the underlayment works better and costs less. Has anyone else found self-leveling compound to be more trouble than it's worth on small floors?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel_butler20d ago

That 80 bucks hurts, I've been there. I did a 4x6 laundry room with the stuff and it leaked under the baseboard into the next room, took me an hour with a putty knife to scrape it off the foundation. For anything under like 50 square feet I just use a bag of Ardex or even a mortar mix with a straightedge. You can feather it thin, it sets up fast, and you don't get that panic when it starts flowing where you don't want it. The key is your subfloor has to be sealed tight at the edges too, which that door jamb got you.

felix_williams7120d ago

Funny you say that, I used to be all about self-leveler for everything but you just changed my mind. That bit about scraping it off the foundation with a putty knife made me cringe, I've had almost the same thing happen in a tiny bathroom and it's a pain. For small rooms I'm definitely switching to just bag mix and a straightedge like you said, especially if it sets up fast and I don't have to worry about it running under the door jamb. @joel_butler you're right about the subfloor needing to be tight, that's the part I always skip and regret later.

jesse_green5515d ago

That bit about the stuff running under the door jamb got me. Did you seal that gap with anything before you poured? I always thought people just let the compound find its own level and it would stop at the jamb, but now I'm wondering if that's what got you. Sounds like a nightmare to clean up, especially in a basement with humidity already working against you.