Self Leveling Compounds
Self levelling compounds and floor screeds from 3mm to 80mm: Sopro, Baumit and Ceresit. Get a floor flat before tiling, vinyl, laminate or timber.
Self Leveling Compounds: what to buy and how to use it
A floor that is out by a few millimetres will show through vinyl, rock a large format tile and leave laminate clicking underfoot. These compounds pour out and find their own level, turning a rough screed into something you can lay on within a day.
Pick by depth, because that is what separates these products:
- 3 to 50mm, fast: Sopro Floor WS 3.50 takes foot traffic after about two hours and tiles after twelve, which keeps a job moving.
- 5 to 30mm: Baumit quick-set is the straightforward choice for a typical room.
- 10 to 80mm: Ceresit CN-82 is a screed rather than a skim, for making up real depth in a garage, cellar or an old floor that has sunk.
- Walls, not floors: Cekol ZW-04 does the same levelling job vertically, 3 to 50mm in one pass.
Whatever the depth, prime first. An unprimed screed pulls water out of the compound and leaves it chalky and weak, and the primer range costs a fraction of relaying a floor.
Our guides cover compound versus screed and getting a floor flat before tiling.