LESLIE: Alright, now we’ve got Scott in Hawaii who’s dealing with a drainage problem. What’s going on in your fabulous paradise home there, mister? (Tom chuckles)
SCOTT: (chuckles) Well, I have a concrete floor, slab floor, in a garage that has been modified to be used for a surgery room for horses. And so it has …
LESLIE: I was going to say. (chuckles)
SCOTT: … quite a lot of force on it and the floor isn’t level. And so there’s a – the low spot is near the end of the surgery table. And I was wondering if there’s a good way to raise the floor an inch or two and not have to dig it all up.
TOM: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I would recommend a floor leveling compound for that.
SCOTT: OK.
TOM: You can get a cement-based floor leveling compound. It will adhere well to the existing concrete and, you know, it can add as much as an inch or so to that floor. So you can use it for this exact purpose and that is to level out the low spots.
SCOTT: Does it have a minimum thickness that it needs to be or …?
TOM: Why, because you want it to have no thickness in some places and a lot in others?
SCOTT: Well, I’d like not to raise the floor too much because then I have a problem with the height of the room.
TOM: No, I don’t think you have to raise it that much. I mean you can raise it whatever you need to. The idea of a leveling compound is to allow you to do just that; to level out the …
SCOTT: OK, and if I want to shape it a little bit so that it does drain on out where it’s supposed to …
TOM: Mm-hmm. Yep. Sure. Well, as the compound starts to dry, it’ll become less flexible and you can shape it.
SCOTT: OK, and cracking; do I need wire or anything in it or just (inaudible at 0:31:13.6)?
TOM: Probably not, probably not. Another place that you could take a look at, another website that has products that will do this as well, is Abatron – A-b-a-t-r-o-n.
SCOTT: A-b-a-t-r-o-n?
TOM: They make epoxy-based compounds that you may find a little harder than basic floor-leveling compounds because floor-leveling compounds are designed to go under tile or hardwood floor or something like that and the epoxy compounds may be a little stronger on their own because …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, they’re made to actually be the surface.
TOM: Right.
SCOTT: OK. Alrighty.
TOM: Alright? But you certainly can shape it and get it to do what you need to do here.
SCOTT: Oh, thank you very much.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply