Lightweight concrete flooring upstairs

[Ianhaycox]

In my house I have large oak beams, old oak floor boards and then a 5cm thick lightweight concrete mixture full of polystyrene balls, then a thin self-leveling coat ? and finally covered in floor tiles.

What is the lightweight concrete mixture called ? Can you buy it by the lorry load ?

I have a building I'm renovating and the upstairs floor is oak beams and very tired oak floorboards. I was thinking of using this stuff but I was not sure about the weight, esp. with tiles on top. The floor feels a little springy, whereas my house does not. Could the covering have stiffened it up ? esp. if a wire mesh is buried in the floor ?

Thanks,

[isabelmaidment]

Point P stocked the balls about 7 years ago. They were called "Polybeton" there were more expensive than gravel but the advantages were :

1. Could get more ingredients for concrete within weight limit of car.

2. There are clean and have different thermal characteristics ( fell warm to the touch)

I do not think they are available in readymix form as blown aircrete would have many of the advantages without the costs.

Anton Redman ( sorry Isabel still cannot sort out new login)

[Ianhaycox]

I gather then, that PolyBeton might be a bit 'old fasioned'. What is aircrete ? I have a vision of a chocolate Aero bar made of concrete.

Any suggestions for covering the existing floor if polybeton is a non-starter ? I expect the final finish to be tiling for the bathrooms and most probably wood laminate the remainder.

Thanks,

[isabelmaidment]

If you are tileing upstairs you must get the floor firm to the touch and so that it feels that it does not move when you walk on it. The two methods I have succesfully used are :

Screw down ply wood on top of 22 mm tongued and groove chipboard with double the number of supports you use for Oak. Then use UK sourced 'Tile on Wood'

Use a glass fibre grid which you stapple to the the floor before using normal French tile cement. This survived three years till a professional French plasterer jacked up to a a plaster board cealing on the floor which cracked two tiles due to local loading.

Anton Redman ( still trying to revert to my own ID post software change)

[Peter72]

A couple of years ago, when it was more DIY orientated, Mason Travaux had quite a good article about the different types of lightweight concrete. Apparently it comes with treated straw, wood chips, polystyrene or vermiculite depending on area/supplier and is available by the toupi. If you are interested send me an email and I will try to dig out the article, might take a while though.

 

regards

Peter