hiya lads , im trying to prrpare myself for going on my own, so in my wisdom id thought id try my hand at SLC

my garage floor is old concrete slabs so im gonna use this to practice on ,rather than a clients house

so, wheres the cheapest place to buy a decent SLC, and r there any to avoid

ill be trowelling it ,so any tips would be great,ill go for the spiked roller eventually,but for now id like to learn old school ,cheers steve

would this be any good for troweling?

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...79-plast-darby

chepest i can find from topps ,ultra, can go on at 50mm in one hit ,any good boys?

The tool you have asked about being any good for SLC? Its a darby for walls really, back in the days of putting browning onto brickwork, not really suitable for your needs, Get yourself a decent trowel, they are not very expensive. As for which compound to use, well that will come with experience, if you have never used them before and your just learning I really dont think you would know the difference between a good and bad one at this time, I use latex SLC buts more expensive than most, go to B&Q and look for the bags that have been punctured, you can get for a few quid and then have a practice, you will have to bond the garage floor or else if wont stick.....goodluck

Think if you want a practise SLC compound try a local builders yard they seem to be cheaper and sell bog standard compound my local builders yard sell for £ 7 per 20kg bag , only tip i can give you on screeding which is common sense really is find your high point and build up to it and feather it in.

I'd get a spiked roller stevee, they're the way forward, never used one yet myself but it's on my next shopping list from tradetiler

Spiked roller Doug? I have not heard of them, are they new? are the spikes there to get air out or something? If its a new tool then I will have to get one, don't like being left out.

they are quite newish (I think) but they are for getting air bubbles out and levelling too. Can be used on electric ufh without damaging it as well.

its on my list doug, .....anyway ,i just got back from my local buildcentre with a 25kg bag of sika slc with latex,the mamager gave me 20% discount ,i paid £14, which is half the price of other makes, ill have a play tommorow,steve

Spiked rollers are ok for slightly uneven floors but not for major troughs and high points i worked along side vinyl layers alot last year and they use them all the time , floors for vinyl can roll and dip the vinyl contors the floor thats why they can get away with using a spiked roller.

spiked rollers are really only used for improving the finish of the compound by removing air and breaking up surface tension. Ideally you want to be using a pin or skid leveller to get the floor perfectly flat, then spike roll it.

I thought everyone used these nowadays?

At the end of the day its all down to the quality of the self levelling compound.
And if your asking for quality ( coverage/ease of pour/smoothability/feather edge) then get MAPEI FIBREPLAN

Timeless John.

Originally Posted by frankenfurter

spiked rollers are really only used for improving the finish of the compound by removing air and breaking up surface tension. Ideally you want to be using a pin or skid leveller to get the floor perfectly flat, then spike roll it.

I thought everyone used these nowadays?

not everyone,

how much is that mapei fibreplan? is it flexi? i'm not the best a laying slc so want to use the best products, i've got a floor to level a week on monday, i was goin to get a spiked roller, i thought these really helped getting it level aswell as getting the air out?

There are some great SLC about but if your floor to be screeded has deep troughs and dips its no good just tipping your SLC over the lot and running a spiked roller over it your just going to contor the bad floor , the teeth on a spiked roller are only 10mm -12mm if your sub floor has a 20mm depression and you run your roller over it youll push the screed from one point to another , get a long straight edge find your low points mark the area and screed & feather to your high points.

Steve, I've never tried to use a darby or the spiked roller that some one mentioned above, but instead we sometime uses a stiff rake to break up the edges between two sections of the pour that is going in. THe key thing is to keep a wet edge so the next bucketful of SLC can flow into the previous one. I'd like to see one of the rollers that you guys have avaialble.

There was another thread recently about SLC's....it had some good tips for you. Dave, could you find that thread for Steve?

thanks rob , it was right in front of me in the stickys,a good read, im familiar with cold joints so will keep an eye on it , cheers mate ,steve

Originally Posted by Rob Z

I'd like to see one of the rollers that you guys have avaialble.

As in a picture?

I use one similar to this one:

Originally Posted by Rob Z

There was another thread recently about SLC's....it had some good tips for you. Dave, could you find that thread for Steve?

Here's a guide I wrote ages ago:

sWe's guides

I was using spiked rollers years ago on two part resin floors, there not that new

thanks swe

Originally Posted by lcjohno

how much is that mapei fibreplan? is it flexi? i'm not the best a laying slc so want to use the best products, i've got a floor to level a week on monday, i was goin to get a spiked roller, i thought these really helped getting it level aswell as getting the air out?

it's flexible, but for interior use only, not to be used for external work

Originally Posted by whitebeam

I was using spiked rollers years ago on two part resin floors, there not that new

Iwasn't sure how long they'd been around Mark, I only heard about them on here!

sWe, thanks for the photo, I'll search here in the US for a company that carries those.