DIY Home Builder - Floors

Leveling Solid Floors
Solid, level floors are required as a base on which to mount tiles. You can use this technique to lay a whole floor or to fill in gaps and inconsistencies in an existing solid floor. Cement floor renovations are a fairly straight forward process and can usually be done by an amateur builder / DIYer.

Working With Screed
You are able to fill irregularities on a solid floor with cement mortar and then smooth it over, up to about 3mm deep, with a self-smoothing screed. This is mixed with water to form a creamy paste, which you pour on to the floor and roughly spread out with a steel float. The screed will automatically smooth out any trowel marks just before it hardens. This takes up to 12 hours to harden completely, but may be walked on after four hours.

Utilizing Ready Mix Screed
With irregularities up to about 9mm deep, you'll be able to apply a ready-mixed screed to fill in and level the surface.

Working with Cement Mortar
Indentations up to 50mm deep might be filled by resurfacing the floor with a conventional cement mortar screed consisting of three parts sharp sand to one part cement. Just before applying the screed, paint the floor surface with a PVA bonding agent to enhance adhesion.

Tips on how to fit skirting boards
Over the years the skirting boards can take a hammering from being knocked by vacuum cleaners, furniture legs and so on. In fact, that's what they're there for - to protect the plaster of the wall, which would soon fall apart under this treatment. Eventually, the skirting will start to look scruffy and you will need to repair small sections or even replace complete lengths.

How to Remove Mortar
In most cases, the skirting might be nailed in place, which makes removal and replacement uncomplicated. However, always make a check for screws first and release any you discover from the affected region.
Remove whole lengths of skirting by prising them from the wall with a bolster chisel and wooden wedges, beginning at an external corner or where the skirting meets a door frame architrave. If the skirting runs between two internal corners, you may possibly need to cut through it to pull it away as its ends may be trapped behind the ends of abutting skirting.

How to Replace
To replace just a section of skirting drive a bolster chisel to prise it from the wall, then knock in wooden wedges on every side of the damage. Cut out the damaged piece with a saw, making the cuts slope inwards at an angle.
Cut a new piece of board to fit the gap, sloping the ends to match the cuts within the original board. If necessary, nail wooden spacer blocks to the wall so that they just fit under the cut ends of the original board. Use masonry nails if fixing to brickwork. Tap the nail heads down with a punch and fill the holes before painting.