studioporn

good news: this was by far the smoothest floor leveling i've done. there were a some blemishes, like some dimples and whatnot throughout the floor, but i was able to fill these in with a featheredging patch and get things pretty smooth.

bad news: as i was down on my hands and knees troweling the patch, i started noticing these little hairline cracks. as i moved around more i started noticing more. upon closer inspection, the entire floor has hairline cracks about every 6-12 inches. i'm going to call the company that makes the leveling mix that i used tomorrow and see if they know of any conditions that might cause this.

regardless of what they tell me, i'm really bummed, since i'm 99% certain whatever they tell me is going to start with "well, you'll need to rip up the stuff you already laid down and then..." given that i've already spent $500 pouring this stuff, i'm not exactly eager to sink that kind of money into doing it again.

with my streak of bad luck with floor levelers thusfar, even after finding the best brand possible and getting useful advice from everywhere, i'm feeling inclined to say fuck it, i don't care anymore if the floor isn't level, and just pummel everything with a hammer drill and rip it out.

this still leaves the second reason i had for leveling the floors, which was to encapsulate any mastic residue from the previous floor tile which might contain asbestos. i'm thinking i might just attack this with some sort of pressure washer, which is more or less what the asbestos contractor would do if i paid them about $2000.