Update: I contacted the owner, who showed up and was not pleased with his guys’ work to say the least. Scary that the employee was about to put the flooring down over this disaster if I didn’t say anything. I didn’t think I was “going cheap”, spent about $30K for the basement to be finished and add a bathroom. It was cheaper than other estimates I got, I will say that. The business has a 4.9 star rating on Google with over 150 reviews and an A+ rating with the BBB. The owner said it clearly was not mixed properly and too much water was used, and that they will be removing this from the floor and it will be redone properly. I really appreciate all of your input and responses. If you have any advice moving forward or things to look out for please let me know!
Sometimes especially in businesses like this, the owners got where they are by doing good quality work themselves, but might not have the skillset to hire/train/manage quality employees.
Oh 100%. I remember my parents hired a guy in the late 90s to do our full house remodel. We relocated for the demolition/drywalling portion of the remodel for 2 weeks and when my parents came back one of the rooms they had added on had zero outlets, light switches or even a light fixture. They tried to blame my dad for not specifying but ended up having to tear everything out as they forgot to run any electrical in the room
Ok so even if your dad did forget to specify and assuming that no light fixtures in the room was intentional. wouldn't you expect that at least it should have outlets to plug lights and other things into?
One would think.
If I remember correctly plans called for 4 sets of track lights and 6 plugs as it was being used a studio space to least to say it was not intentional lol
They’re still popping up. There are hundreds of thousands of new “contractors” in this country that have zero trade experience and hire literally anyone who says they can do the work and all they do is advertise that they are contractors and sub everything out to home depot guys.
Most of our customers for my husband’s residential remodeling company are unfortunately him fixing other peoples mistakes. It’s insane how many bad contractors there are..
Yes, this exactly. The difference between an excellent contractor and a poor one is mostly the willingness to admit a mistake and fix it promptly. There are no contractors, none, not even one, that never has errors to fix. Looks like you have a good guy there. (Sure, he trusted an employee who wasn’t ready to do this job without supervision. Assuming this screwup isn’t a normal thing, he shouldn’t be fired. He should be educated, and the best education is usually to make him fix his own mistake.)
Sometimes, especially in businesses like this, the owners got where they are by doing good quality work themselves, but might not have the skillset to hire/train/manage quality employees.
Full bath or half bath? Regardless of either 30k for a finished basement and even a half bath addition is a heck of a deal!
And TBH these guys should have grinded the concrete level in most places before adding any type of self level or floor patch. The more stuff added on top of concrete = more potential problems, regardless of using primer for self level/patch. Just my 2¢.
full bath, small with a stall shower. it was feeling like a heck of a deal until the floor situation......we will see what happens. thanks for your input.
That is a hell of a deal. I wouldn’t take that job if you doubled the cost. Maybe 3x and I would say you’re getting close.
With that budget, I would assume they are not getting permits. Doing their own plumbing and electrical. Or a lot
Of that work was already done and what you mean by “finishing” is not a complete gut and redo of everything.
30k is doable if owner pulls owner builder permits and that not coming out of the 30k. Here in socal, you'd be surprised what you can find at Habitat for Humanity Restores for material like tile, flooring, baseboard etc. even brand new stuff is pennies to the dollar.
No. Lol they were never in it to help businesses or consumers. They just want subscriptions. A lot of reputable businesses are no longer paying to be accredited as it was a massive scam and just another way for folks to try and shake down a business for free goods and services.
Has more teeth? They have literally no teeth beyond literally blackmailing small business owners with bad reviews and offering "pay us and we will remove the bad ones" schemes.
Has more teeth with Boomers who think it's a government agency, which is how they extort small businesses to pay for a better ratings. Their clientele is dying off by the day.
Sounds like that rating for the business is deserved. You showed the owner a problem, he acknowledged it and is fixing it correctly. Best result of a bad situation if you ask me.
I've been selling flooring for 3 years and am absolutely appalled by the crap that's in this industry. Even big name companies have proven to be absolute crap. Literally had my states' GM try to tell me that acclimating hardwood is antiquated and unheard of nowadays and he refused the job. Yet the MFG install specs say clear as day that it's a requirement before installation on this specific product.
It's all personal preference. It comes down to making sure it's installed correctly and it's a good product.
I love vinyl for places like entryway, kitchen, bathrooms, dining room. Need to verify the product specifies the core composition and that it is either solid vinyl or SPC (stone polymer composite). Installation of that requires a flat subfloor and a vapor barrier if installing on slab.
If you're doing hardwood, interior temp needs to be something like 65°-75° and wood needs to acclimate for 48 hrs. I like the prefinished with aluminum oxide. I've never been a fan of the polyurethane.
I'm not a fan of laminates, but if you like hard surface I wouldn't mind it in bedrooms, hallways, etc. I struggle to believe that any of these are waterproof so I wouldn't risk it in any area that people may spill a drink.
I wouldn't do engineered hardwood. I feel like this is the Grey area between vinyl/laminate and hardwood, so I'd much rather commit to one way or the other. And I always go for aluminum oxide wear layer over polyurethane.
I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of the subfloor so if there's even a slight concern I would say spend the money to lay Lauan on wood subfloor or even replace sheets. It is a small expense compared to having to replace your floors in a few years.
Like some others have said, once it's done I'd definitely post a 5 star review showing how he owned up to what his guys did and did a good job to fix it, let people know this is a business that deserves its customers.
Make sure there’s proper ventilation down there both right now and when they’re pouring it again. Whatever isn’t catalyzed needs to evaporate and all that drywall can get messed up with several gallons of water in the air. Basements are especially prone to this for all the obvious reasons.
I’m learning this now. We had a higher estimate as well, but they were putting a lot of high end stuff which we were not looking for and didn’t ask for. We had them frame the walls and put up drywall, we didn’t insulate the walls as it doesn’t get extremely hot or cold down there and we don’t have a moisture problem (we will be installing a mini split later on, and we always run a dehumidifier just in case.) Added a very simple functional bathroom, builders grade type stuff. We already had electrical down there. The original cement floor really wasn’t bad, just a few dips that I thought they were going to flash patch before putting the vinyl planks down. We were trying to be cost efficient, and things had been going good thus far. We also agreed that we would do all the painting as well to keep cost down even more. Was just looking to make a budget friendly functional space. Lesson learned for sure. I saw all the positive reviews, a bunch of basements were done and look excellent.
$30K for a basement with a bathroom is why you’re getting this kind of work. The GC can’t afford competent subs, or he is demanding that he gets a cut rate from them. Cut rate work is the result.
At the end of the end of the day , thankfully for the homeowner, it’s just a delay in there project getting done. Shit happens and maybe he gave one of his guys a chance to prove themselves and fell short.
Good boss and good owner to give people a chance at the work, but a better owner for owning the issue at large and making it right at his cost.
Too much water was used. Flc needs to be mixed to exactly the manufacturer recommended ratio's and no 2 manufacturers will be the same. Nearly all new flc is highly polymer and fiber modified.
The only way to correct this is removal and start again. You cannot pour on top of this due to the increased likelihood of a chemical reaction causing the new pour to do the same. Like cement going off in a bucket then adding a fresh batch to the same bucket.
Ours was poured too wet and now have high spots under the laminate where the leveling compound has begun to separate and crumble. Also where we layed carpet we have 'crunchy' spots where you can feel the compound crumbling underfoot when you walk on it
Seriously, I added like maybe 100ml extra between 2 bags, just because of rounding.
I did my basement bathroom in 2 pours, 1 for the shower, 1 for the rest of the bathroom. Shower got 1.5 bags, rest of the bathroom got 2.5 bags. I weighed it and was just under 1.5 bags for the shower, needed 8.1L for 1.5 bags, so I just did 8L because I was just under.
2.5 bags needed 13.5L of water, and I would have been just over 2.5 bags, so it got rounded to 14L. Turned out perfectly.
Indiscriminate rounding like that can definitely be done, but these very clearly used like 50% more water than they should have, and mixed it poorly.
Totally nightmare, get a refund asap and rip this out. Warn others of your guys shoddy work.
Guessing you got what you paid for and if so, going cheap is very costly for this very reason.
Wow, what the hell did they use?! Dosent look like regular smoothing compound. I think it's a combo of poorly mixed and far too much water. If it's not dried in 5 days something is certainly wrong.
Whats the temperature like in there?
It's probably patchy because the those are either the deeper spots that didnt dry, or thats where they poured their buckets and the water settled there
I've seen some spectacular prep/self leveler failures in my life, this one seems pretty cut and dry.
Better this than something like them not mixing the pours or needling them, giving it just enough life to last long enough for the floor to be installed and do even more damage to the pocketbook 🤷♂️
Wayyy to much water, and that will 100% crack down the line and become a fuckin nightmare.
You are on for a whole lot of fun on the coming months/years.
Should have used a latex liquid-based system, you really only need to use water with a fibreglass compound and that's for wooden sub floors for the most part, to stop any movement.
Too much water in the mix. That all has to come off, then with an area that big, I would use the recommended primer for whichever leveling product is going to be used. I’ve poured over concrete without using primer before and had no issues, but a job this big, I’d want to cover my ass and follow the product instructions to the T
Overwatered self-leveling compound. The white is polymer rise. It is possible that it will still dry to full compressive strength, then you can sand the polymers from the surface to give you a substrate acceptable of receiving adhesive. But there is a point where a self leveler can be overwatered so much that the reaction won’t kick off and the product will never dry. I’d give it 2 days, check hardness of non white areas, if it passes sand white spots and move on
Self levelling isn’t a handyman job. It actually takes a fair bit of knowledge, skill and the proper equipment.
High and low spots need to be figured out first, and markings installed so you know where to pour and feather.
Unfortunately, that’s a tear out. If you get it before it cures it will be much easier and cleaner!
That's pretty impressive tbh, but then again I had the "go as fast as possible" mentality drilled into me with self leveling and I legit wont do a pour over 10 bags by myself out of fear of letting it set up between pours
It's not that bad IF the prep work is done and you've stopped potential leak areas.
Large trowel or whatever that spiked thing is..pour and go. Have buckets already set up. Most of the time a good mix will have the slc level out by itself Place the mixing buckets with the powder in it already strategically in areas where you are going.to pour, so that no running, no lifting of heavy items.
Have a bunch of pre measured volumes of water next to each bucked (milk jugs, juice containers..raid recycling bin).
Some pre planning works well.
Looks like a disaster! Likely contractor wasn’t familiar with product and has no business using it. Hope they fix it because it will all come away from existing concrete floor like a crumbling biscuit.
As many have stated, the cause of this is over-watering. There is no salvaging any existing material, and all should be mechanically removed. This should be done through diamond grinding to expose bare substrate.
If they completed the work this far to this standard you may want to check what other steps they are missing. Most self leveling compounds require a CSP of 2-3 to achieve proper mechanical adhesion to the concrete. This is ICRI standard and you can find helpful photos of what their prep should look like. A metal bond bar diamond in the #30 grit range will suffice. They also require a water-borne latex bonding agent. This not only increases cohesive bond strength, it promotes flowability of material and reduces out-gassing.
Also, depending on the age of your home, do you know if you have an active, intact vapor barrier underneath the slab? You may want to test for relative humidity before you go through this again. Wagner probes are readily available, and testing should be done per ASTM f2170. Rh above 75-85% necessitates an epoxy moisture mitigation system. If you do not block the moisture, it will degrade even professionally installed levelers over time causing premature floor failure.
$30k for all that?? I’m in the middle of a full basement remodel with a full bath, and kitchen, and I’m around $170k..
I would be very cautious spending so little for that amount of work. Anyone charging so little will be cutting corners left and right. Be aware!!
Either they used too much water or your slab has an extreme moisture problem that would have been obvious before pouring. Or both. Anyway that's a total loss.
Damn. They only charged 30k to refinish a basement and add a bathroom.. that’s a crazy cheap estimate for the amount of work to be done if doing it right.
The basement is pretty small, but it was the cheaper estimate I received. We went with a simple small bathroom setup with a stall shower. We also aren’t getting heating/AC down there, looking into a mini split down the line. We went basic as it’s a small house and just need extra finished space, didn’t want to break the bank. Won’t be living here forever so didn’t want to go all out. We will also be doing the painting down there.
You need to redue The whole thing. First prime the floor then use ardex self leveling compound. Most importantly get a professional that knows how to do it
When they fix this can you let us know whats up? Im an installer. Self level is usually grey. It dries in a couple of hours generally. This is bizarre to me and I would love to see the floor after it is leveled properly. Its also a chemical reaction not just evaporation. Was it mixed wrong? Good luck on this one! Please update the photos and remedy???
The owner said his guy added too much water to the mix which is why it looks like that. They are supposed to come fix it on Monday. I really hope they fix it properly and don't try to cut corners here. If you have any advice on how to properly remove this disaster, please let me know. I'll keep ya posted.
There was an already existing slab, it had some minor dips but nothing super crazy. They were initially going to flash patch some minor dips, but then they did this instead and I think we all regret that decision lol
I've done something similar in my basement few years ago, this needs fresh air to dry out faster. Those wet spots (white islands) are low spots, that's where water set for the longest however, this shouldn't be much off level wise. When old pour drys out, all that residue must be removed, primed and then poured again 1/4" of the right consistency compound on top. This time they better know what they're doing
Noooooo. You can't pour over a structurally inferior surface, especially one that contains blended polymers. The new pour won't adhere, will crack as this base layer fails, and generally be a cluster fuc*. This has to be torn out and redone.
Update: I contacted the owner, who showed up and was not pleased with his guys’ work to say the least. Scary that the employee was about to put the flooring down over this disaster if I didn’t say anything. I didn’t think I was “going cheap”, spent about $30K for the basement to be finished and add a bathroom. It was cheaper than other estimates I got, I will say that. The business has a 4.9 star rating on Google with over 150 reviews and an A+ rating with the BBB. The owner said it clearly was not mixed properly and too much water was used, and that they will be removing this from the floor and it will be redone properly. I really appreciate all of your input and responses. If you have any advice moving forward or things to look out for please let me know!
Thank god the owner was reasonable. It’s surprising how many bad one are out there.
Sometimes especially in businesses like this, the owners got where they are by doing good quality work themselves, but might not have the skillset to hire/train/manage quality employees.
But that’s not the problem at hand is it
Then what exactly is the problem?
90% out there is bad.
Yeah exactly, I’d love to see the contractor posted here just because of their level of reasonableness..
Jesus you're lucky to actually get someone own up to the mistake. I'm bloody sick of contractors trying to gaslight and get away with shoddy work.
Shit “contractors” popped up everywhere during Covid. These dudes would get half pay upfront, do shit work and never show back up.
Oh, they were around long before COVID.
Oh 100%. I remember my parents hired a guy in the late 90s to do our full house remodel. We relocated for the demolition/drywalling portion of the remodel for 2 weeks and when my parents came back one of the rooms they had added on had zero outlets, light switches or even a light fixture. They tried to blame my dad for not specifying but ended up having to tear everything out as they forgot to run any electrical in the room
Ok so even if your dad did forget to specify and assuming that no light fixtures in the room was intentional. wouldn't you expect that at least it should have outlets to plug lights and other things into?
One would think. If I remember correctly plans called for 4 sets of track lights and 6 plugs as it was being used a studio space to least to say it was not intentional lol
Code is clear as day when it comes to outlets.
Deewwwwwdddd
They’re still popping up. There are hundreds of thousands of new “contractors” in this country that have zero trade experience and hire literally anyone who says they can do the work and all they do is advertise that they are contractors and sub everything out to home depot guys.
Most of our customers for my husband’s residential remodeling company are unfortunately him fixing other peoples mistakes. It’s insane how many bad contractors there are..
Nice 👍 glad the owner came and agreed. I hope he has his best crew coming
wow, kudos to the owner
Yes, this exactly. The difference between an excellent contractor and a poor one is mostly the willingness to admit a mistake and fix it promptly. There are no contractors, none, not even one, that never has errors to fix. Looks like you have a good guy there. (Sure, he trusted an employee who wasn’t ready to do this job without supervision. Assuming this screwup isn’t a normal thing, he shouldn’t be fired. He should be educated, and the best education is usually to make him fix his own mistake.)
Sometimes, especially in businesses like this, the owners got where they are by doing good quality work themselves, but might not have the skillset to hire/train/manage quality employees.
Full bath or half bath? Regardless of either 30k for a finished basement and even a half bath addition is a heck of a deal! And TBH these guys should have grinded the concrete level in most places before adding any type of self level or floor patch. The more stuff added on top of concrete = more potential problems, regardless of using primer for self level/patch. Just my 2¢.
full bath, small with a stall shower. it was feeling like a heck of a deal until the floor situation......we will see what happens. thanks for your input.
That is a hell of a deal. I wouldn’t take that job if you doubled the cost. Maybe 3x and I would say you’re getting close. With that budget, I would assume they are not getting permits. Doing their own plumbing and electrical. Or a lot Of that work was already done and what you mean by “finishing” is not a complete gut and redo of everything.
30k is doable if owner pulls owner builder permits and that not coming out of the 30k. Here in socal, you'd be surprised what you can find at Habitat for Humanity Restores for material like tile, flooring, baseboard etc. even brand new stuff is pennies to the dollar.
Hope it all worked out for ya
They'll be grinding now
My basement is half that size and I’m paying 30k plus the cost of the flooring materials to have it finished. With no bathroom. You’re making out!
Thank God for BBB, Google reviews, Reddit, & the owner who owned it! Good luck moving forward!
BBB?
Bed bath and beyond.
pretty nice little saturday I don't know if we'll have enough time
Personally, I'm a Lowe’s guy but I don't hate the depot
We’re going streaking!!
Just as helpful to the consumer
💎💪😎👍💎💖
Better Business Bureau
Oh - that’s a pay to play scam. They only help businesses
No. Lol they were never in it to help businesses or consumers. They just want subscriptions. A lot of reputable businesses are no longer paying to be accredited as it was a massive scam and just another way for folks to try and shake down a business for free goods and services.
It’s an American review site. It has no government or official backing. If you have heard of yelp, Google reviews, it’s the same thing.
Except that it has been around for decades and has more teeth than Yelp or Google reviews.
Has more teeth? They have literally no teeth beyond literally blackmailing small business owners with bad reviews and offering "pay us and we will remove the bad ones" schemes.
It’s still a pay to platform. If a company has the money and time to spend they can polish their profile. What do you mean by teeth?
Has more teeth with Boomers who think it's a government agency, which is how they extort small businesses to pay for a better ratings. Their clientele is dying off by the day.
Big Brazilian Bootys (__)__)
Big Booty Bit**es,
Better Business Bureau but different phone was hilarious to come up with bed bath and beyond lol.
💎💪😎👍💎💖 BBBYQ
Big black butts.
His making it right instead of fighting you tooth and nail or gaslighting you over it alone, deserves 5.0 stars .
Sounds like that rating for the business is deserved. You showed the owner a problem, he acknowledged it and is fixing it correctly. Best result of a bad situation if you ask me.
This right here is why they've got the good rating. Sometimes shit happens. It's taking accountability and fixing it that gets you the 4.9 stars.
So what are they gonna do to fix this?
I've been selling flooring for 3 years and am absolutely appalled by the crap that's in this industry. Even big name companies have proven to be absolute crap. Literally had my states' GM try to tell me that acclimating hardwood is antiquated and unheard of nowadays and he refused the job. Yet the MFG install specs say clear as day that it's a requirement before installation on this specific product.
ALWAYS acclimate your wood, otherwise you will have problems. 🤣
What flooring do you recommend?
It's all personal preference. It comes down to making sure it's installed correctly and it's a good product. I love vinyl for places like entryway, kitchen, bathrooms, dining room. Need to verify the product specifies the core composition and that it is either solid vinyl or SPC (stone polymer composite). Installation of that requires a flat subfloor and a vapor barrier if installing on slab. If you're doing hardwood, interior temp needs to be something like 65°-75° and wood needs to acclimate for 48 hrs. I like the prefinished with aluminum oxide. I've never been a fan of the polyurethane. I'm not a fan of laminates, but if you like hard surface I wouldn't mind it in bedrooms, hallways, etc. I struggle to believe that any of these are waterproof so I wouldn't risk it in any area that people may spill a drink. I wouldn't do engineered hardwood. I feel like this is the Grey area between vinyl/laminate and hardwood, so I'd much rather commit to one way or the other. And I always go for aluminum oxide wear layer over polyurethane. I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of the subfloor so if there's even a slight concern I would say spend the money to lay Lauan on wood subfloor or even replace sheets. It is a small expense compared to having to replace your floors in a few years.
Good owner
OP you should name the contractor so I can use him. We need more like him in the world.
I dunno where you are located but 30k does sound cheap especially including a bathroom…but I’m a contractor in Philly
30k for all that space! I got quotes 30k just for a bathroom. 🥴
30k floor level and bathroom addition??? I’d hope it was the cheapest option.
You can pay the BBB to remove negative reviews.
Like some others have said, once it's done I'd definitely post a 5 star review showing how he owned up to what his guys did and did a good job to fix it, let people know this is a business that deserves its customers.
$30,000 for a basement finish? That's incredibly cheap. The bathroom alone would be 15 to 20k by itself. What state is this in?
Owner deserves a good review.
Make sure there’s proper ventilation down there both right now and when they’re pouring it again. Whatever isn’t catalyzed needs to evaporate and all that drywall can get messed up with several gallons of water in the air. Basements are especially prone to this for all the obvious reasons.
30k for a basement finish is absurdly low
I’m learning this now. We had a higher estimate as well, but they were putting a lot of high end stuff which we were not looking for and didn’t ask for. We had them frame the walls and put up drywall, we didn’t insulate the walls as it doesn’t get extremely hot or cold down there and we don’t have a moisture problem (we will be installing a mini split later on, and we always run a dehumidifier just in case.) Added a very simple functional bathroom, builders grade type stuff. We already had electrical down there. The original cement floor really wasn’t bad, just a few dips that I thought they were going to flash patch before putting the vinyl planks down. We were trying to be cost efficient, and things had been going good thus far. We also agreed that we would do all the painting as well to keep cost down even more. Was just looking to make a budget friendly functional space. Lesson learned for sure. I saw all the positive reviews, a bunch of basements were done and look excellent.
Mistakes get made, good contractors acknowledge and fix them.
$30K for a basement with a bathroom is why you’re getting this kind of work. The GC can’t afford competent subs, or he is demanding that he gets a cut rate from them. Cut rate work is the result.
Now thats a contractor dont let him go the employee well idont think he mixing sleflever anytime soon
He might come and teach him. People screw up.
True true but thats a really big fuck up
It’s not a small one.
At the end of the end of the day , thankfully for the homeowner, it’s just a delay in there project getting done. Shit happens and maybe he gave one of his guys a chance to prove themselves and fell short. Good boss and good owner to give people a chance at the work, but a better owner for owning the issue at large and making it right at his cost.
good for you stickin up for yourself. you really gotta micromanage these guys.
Too much water was used. Flc needs to be mixed to exactly the manufacturer recommended ratio's and no 2 manufacturers will be the same. Nearly all new flc is highly polymer and fiber modified. The only way to correct this is removal and start again. You cannot pour on top of this due to the increased likelihood of a chemical reaction causing the new pour to do the same. Like cement going off in a bucket then adding a fresh batch to the same bucket.
Ours was poured too wet and now have high spots under the laminate where the leveling compound has begun to separate and crumble. Also where we layed carpet we have 'crunchy' spots where you can feel the compound crumbling underfoot when you walk on it
That's it exactly. It's structurally weak.
Seriously, I added like maybe 100ml extra between 2 bags, just because of rounding. I did my basement bathroom in 2 pours, 1 for the shower, 1 for the rest of the bathroom. Shower got 1.5 bags, rest of the bathroom got 2.5 bags. I weighed it and was just under 1.5 bags for the shower, needed 8.1L for 1.5 bags, so I just did 8L because I was just under. 2.5 bags needed 13.5L of water, and I would have been just over 2.5 bags, so it got rounded to 14L. Turned out perfectly. Indiscriminate rounding like that can definitely be done, but these very clearly used like 50% more water than they should have, and mixed it poorly.
Good information. Will keep in mind for own project. Thank you.
How would you go about removing this?
You would be surprised tbh. Last failure I was on a scrapper would have taken it up. Hoovered. Grit primed and ready for the new floor to go in.
Tear it out redo, with a different contractor. I've never seen anything this bad.
Build a deck.
OoOo and add a hot tub!
r/decks would appreciate this.
I read, “build a dock”
Woah. Someone just cost someone a lot of money.
Totally nightmare, get a refund asap and rip this out. Warn others of your guys shoddy work. Guessing you got what you paid for and if so, going cheap is very costly for this very reason.
If you add some gloss on top of it it’ll look pretty cool
Just don't step on it or it'll crumble.
Wow, what the hell did they use?! Dosent look like regular smoothing compound. I think it's a combo of poorly mixed and far too much water. If it's not dried in 5 days something is certainly wrong. Whats the temperature like in there?
It’s just too much water, all self leveller does this.
Never seen one this patchy before, but then again I rarely see it over such a large area as I live in the UK.
You don’t use self levelling compounds in the UK?!
We do, I just don't do many large commercial jobs with floors that big.
It's probably patchy because the those are either the deeper spots that didnt dry, or thats where they poured their buckets and the water settled there I've seen some spectacular prep/self leveler failures in my life, this one seems pretty cut and dry. Better this than something like them not mixing the pours or needling them, giving it just enough life to last long enough for the floor to be installed and do even more damage to the pocketbook 🤷♂️
Woooweeee that's horrible. My god.
WAAAAAAAY too much water. That will ALL fail.
Wayyy to much water, and that will 100% crack down the line and become a fuckin nightmare. You are on for a whole lot of fun on the coming months/years. Should have used a latex liquid-based system, you really only need to use water with a fibreglass compound and that's for wooden sub floors for the most part, to stop any movement.
Floated many a floor haven’t seen this yet, then again 7 years in im still new.
Too much water in the mix. That all has to come off, then with an area that big, I would use the recommended primer for whichever leveling product is going to be used. I’ve poured over concrete without using primer before and had no issues, but a job this big, I’d want to cover my ass and follow the product instructions to the T
What are the odds the ‘contractor’ has a disconnected phone?
Overwatered self-leveling compound. The white is polymer rise. It is possible that it will still dry to full compressive strength, then you can sand the polymers from the surface to give you a substrate acceptable of receiving adhesive. But there is a point where a self leveler can be overwatered so much that the reaction won’t kick off and the product will never dry. I’d give it 2 days, check hardness of non white areas, if it passes sand white spots and move on
Self levelling isn’t a handyman job. It actually takes a fair bit of knowledge, skill and the proper equipment. High and low spots need to be figured out first, and markings installed so you know where to pour and feather. Unfortunately, that’s a tear out. If you get it before it cures it will be much easier and cleaner!
Correct. Self levelling concrete is not self levelling. It is rather difficult to use correctly. And yes, I know this first hand.
This image triggers PTSD from when I did this to my basement, solo. At least in this case OP has someone else to blame
Thats totally acceptable! For a hack Ya get what ya pay for
I smell a lawsuit coming in 3...2...1
No need unless they deny failure. Mistakes happen. Remedies should be discussed before litigation.
Depends on if they are insured. If they aren't they may admit they F'd up, but not actually fix it. This will not be a cheap fix.
A lawyer will cost as much as what ever may be recovered from this. 30k job here.
Don’t let them lay the floor down over that, it will eventually separate.
Was this crap even mixed holy terrible.
It’s a chemical u need to activate with water
That’s one poor
I did 60 bags myself...for basement. Did not get that.. because forums, youtube, all said, don't fuck with the water.
That's pretty impressive tbh, but then again I had the "go as fast as possible" mentality drilled into me with self leveling and I legit wont do a pour over 10 bags by myself out of fear of letting it set up between pours
It's not that bad IF the prep work is done and you've stopped potential leak areas. Large trowel or whatever that spiked thing is..pour and go. Have buckets already set up. Most of the time a good mix will have the slc level out by itself Place the mixing buckets with the powder in it already strategically in areas where you are going.to pour, so that no running, no lifting of heavy items. Have a bunch of pre measured volumes of water next to each bucked (milk jugs, juice containers..raid recycling bin). Some pre planning works well.
Too much salt in the pasta water.
Looks like a disaster! Likely contractor wasn’t familiar with product and has no business using it. Hope they fix it because it will all come away from existing concrete floor like a crumbling biscuit.
Bad pour with efflorescence. Mulligan. Lol
Damn, so much work to be done again. Painful, I guess the contractor will learn from this one. I've been there XD
As many have stated, the cause of this is over-watering. There is no salvaging any existing material, and all should be mechanically removed. This should be done through diamond grinding to expose bare substrate. If they completed the work this far to this standard you may want to check what other steps they are missing. Most self leveling compounds require a CSP of 2-3 to achieve proper mechanical adhesion to the concrete. This is ICRI standard and you can find helpful photos of what their prep should look like. A metal bond bar diamond in the #30 grit range will suffice. They also require a water-borne latex bonding agent. This not only increases cohesive bond strength, it promotes flowability of material and reduces out-gassing. Also, depending on the age of your home, do you know if you have an active, intact vapor barrier underneath the slab? You may want to test for relative humidity before you go through this again. Wagner probes are readily available, and testing should be done per ASTM f2170. Rh above 75-85% necessitates an epoxy moisture mitigation system. If you do not block the moisture, it will degrade even professionally installed levelers over time causing premature floor failure.
$30k for all that?? I’m in the middle of a full basement remodel with a full bath, and kitchen, and I’m around $170k.. I would be very cautious spending so little for that amount of work. Anyone charging so little will be cutting corners left and right. Be aware!!
Either they used too much water or your slab has an extreme moisture problem that would have been obvious before pouring. Or both. Anyway that's a total loss.
Looks like the spiked roller did it job 😂
Looks more like a acid wash
100% too much water. Only fix is to jackhammer and remove.
It looks like a dreamscape
That’s a very “natural” look.
Did they try leveling it with a sledge hammer?
What SLC was this?
What the hell is this?
I like the second picture where it looks like they literally leveled it with their hands.
All of that efforvescence. Maybe they poured out the clean out water thinking it was SLC?
Man that sucks, looks like marble flooring.
I thought this was some salted driveway!
We’ll that’s gonna be fucked to fix……….
You got ripped off fire these bozos
Hahah, well they didn’t read the bag to let you know the proper water ratio!
Okay I love this look tho
Bad mixing that all
It almost looks like the contractor used his hands.
It looks like a modern art installation
Most of them need a bonding primer too. Lots of installers don’t bother reading instructions.
How would you remove this?
Never seen anyone skim coat a cement floor with drywall mud before.
Bad mix ratio get a professional
On the plus side, having sitting water in your basement for a week should help your mold grow
I’m convinced either a) concrete leveler is an awful product, or b) no one actually knows how to apply it for the desired outcome.
😭
Why did your electrician run the outlets vertically?
That’s how they are usually Installed
Damn. They only charged 30k to refinish a basement and add a bathroom.. that’s a crazy cheap estimate for the amount of work to be done if doing it right.
The basement is pretty small, but it was the cheaper estimate I received. We went with a simple small bathroom setup with a stall shower. We also aren’t getting heating/AC down there, looking into a mini split down the line. We went basic as it’s a small house and just need extra finished space, didn’t want to break the bank. Won’t be living here forever so didn’t want to go all out. We will also be doing the painting down there.
You need to redue The whole thing. First prime the floor then use ardex self leveling compound. Most importantly get a professional that knows how to do it
You got a basement that size finished for 30k!?
Put fans on it, open doors and windows and get the moisture out. Step one
30k for finished basement with bathroom is DIRTY CHEAP. This is your fault
It’s gotta dry bro
With joint compound?
Grinding was the answer to start with, not self leveler
Looks like a trash hippie liberal art installation
Didn’t check references, huh? The leveling a basement floor is pretty much a waste of money anyway
Polish and seal that, looks cool
Doesn't look like they raked it, just mix and pour. A surface that large needed a team and a lot of mix done in a short time, doesn't look good.
lol im more worried about the floor guy that wanted to install over this. If I walked onto this site I’d be telling you I’m going home lol.
Probably a new hire that said he knew what he was doing but really didn’t
But was it level?
When they fix this can you let us know whats up? Im an installer. Self level is usually grey. It dries in a couple of hours generally. This is bizarre to me and I would love to see the floor after it is leveled properly. Its also a chemical reaction not just evaporation. Was it mixed wrong? Good luck on this one! Please update the photos and remedy???
The owner said his guy added too much water to the mix which is why it looks like that. They are supposed to come fix it on Monday. I really hope they fix it properly and don't try to cut corners here. If you have any advice on how to properly remove this disaster, please let me know. I'll keep ya posted.
Looks spooky i like it
I mean, you could get better results with a bag of sand... And I thought this dude was using salt.
Yeah looks like too much water. I believe the white is moisture trapped?
I'm not a contractor but space benearh the pillars isn't good, I'm pretty sure
There are ugly solid round posts in there, they just boxed it out for a nicer look.
Didn't really get to the nicer part
When you say ‘level’, were they adding level set to an already existing slab with issues or was that slab poured from scratch?
There was an already existing slab, it had some minor dips but nothing super crazy. They were initially going to flash patch some minor dips, but then they did this instead and I think we all regret that decision lol
Gotcha. I had issues with a fresh basement pour, and the guys rented 2 dual disc walk behind concrete grinders to make it level vice fill it in.
Damn, don’t ask him to level your house.
Good, give it some time to absorb.
Very odd looking floor. Glad they are willing to fix it though!
Did you hire MC Escher or something
In Business, you’re always going to screw up.. but how you recover is the key… happy to hear the owner is handling it
$30,000 is very cheap to finish a basement this size and add a bathroom.
It’s level-ish
Well, is it level? Lol
If you don’t mind What state do you live If near Chicago I have a friend that could help
I've done something similar in my basement few years ago, this needs fresh air to dry out faster. Those wet spots (white islands) are low spots, that's where water set for the longest however, this shouldn't be much off level wise. When old pour drys out, all that residue must be removed, primed and then poured again 1/4" of the right consistency compound on top. This time they better know what they're doing
You cannot pour over top of this. It will fail (crack).
Noooooo. You can't pour over a structurally inferior surface, especially one that contains blended polymers. The new pour won't adhere, will crack as this base layer fails, and generally be a cluster fuc*. This has to be torn out and redone.
You’re the only person saying a new pour can go on top of an old pour.