Carefully prepare the substrate before flooring installation

In many private homes, replace­ment of the old floor cov­er­ings is neces­sary at some point. Musty car­pets must be removed and old-fash­ioned ceram­ic tiles replaced, for example, by trendy large-format tiles or high-qual­ity par­quet floor­ing. The first step is the com­plete remov­al of the old floor­ing, includ­ing all adhes­ive residues. Before the new floor­ing can be installed, the sub­strate should always be care­fully checked and pre­pared. A few simple tips can help.

Tip 1: Provide a level subfloor

An import­ant pre­con­di­tion is a level sub­floor. If the screed is not of uni­form thick­ness and even­ness, hard floor­ing mater­i­als such as par­quet or lam­in­ate may later break if there is a hol­low space under­neath. Resi­li­ent floor cov­er­ings like car­pet and vinyl floor­ing will adapt to uneven­ness, but may not look very attract­ive later on. In addi­tion, uneven areas always carry the risk of trip­ping or slip­ping. That’s why floor cov­er­ings should be firmly bon­ded over the entire sur­face. In order to ensure optim­um adhe­sion, the screed should be abso­lutely level. If there are cracks, holes or oth­er defects, it is neces­sary to apply a lev­el­ling com­pound.

Tip 2: Never underestimate moisture

The sub­strate must also be sound. The adhes­ive will not adhere to a brittle, crum­bling screed. The strength can eas­ily be determ­ined with the scratch test by scratch­ing a grid (#) into the sub­floor with a sharp met­al object. There should be no flak­ing along the edges of the scratch lines.

Of key import­ance is a com­pletely dry screed. The prob­lem of mois­ture is often under­es­tim­ated, espe­cially in new build­ings. If the resid­ual floor mois­ture is too high, the adhes­ive fails to adhere. Moreover, mois­ture can pro­mote the form­a­tion of mold and odor. How quickly the screed dries always depends on factors such as air humid­ity, tem­per­at­ure and thick­ness of the screed slab. Before installing the new floor cov­er­ing, make sure to sweep and vacu­um the sub­floor so that no dirt particles can impair adhe­sion.