Most floor failures start underneath.

Proper floor preparation is one of the most important parts of a successful flooring installation. Every floor covering carries its own standards for the flatness, levelness and overall condition of the substrate before installation can begin.

Flooring substrates must meet strict flatness tolerances, and those tolerances vary considerably depending on the flooring system and the manufacturer's requirements. Before installation, Trade Mark Floors evaluates the substrate and determines what preparation is necessary to meet the specification.

Can floating flooring fix an uneven subfloor?

A common misconception is that click-together or floating flooring can compensate for an uneven subfloor.

Floating floors are in fact especially vulnerable over an improperly prepared substrate. Low spots and variations leave sections of the flooring unsupported, and over time that movement and deflection contributes to joint failure and other problems.

Correcting the substrate before the finished flooring goes down is critical to a successful installation.

Commercial floor leveling & subfloor preparation

Trade Mark Floors specializes in preparing concrete and wood substrates for new flooring installations. Depending on existing conditions and the specification, preparation may include:

• Grinding and mechanical preparation
• Patching and filling
• Self-leveling underlayment
• Repairing damaged substrates
• Correcting high and low areas
• Preparing concrete or wood substrates for the specified flooring system

Trade Mark Floors holds training and certifications from manufacturers and industry organizations including UZIN, Schluter Systems and the Tile Council of North America (TCNA).

Large-scale self-leveling at 500W, downtown Louisville

One of the largest self-leveling projects Trade Mark Floors has completed was the Baird buildout at 500W, 500 West Jefferson Street in downtown Louisville.

The work covered the top five floors of the 29-story tower — floors 25 through 29 — at roughly 16,000 square feet per floor, or approximately 80,000 square feet total.

Trade Mark Floors installed UZIN NC 170 self-leveling underlayment to correct the existing substrate. The specification called for a finished tolerance of 1/8 inch over 20 feet, far tighter than a typical commercial pour. The reason was structural: the buildout set glass wall systems directly on the prepared substrate, and glass partitions will not seat, seal or stay plumb on a floor that moves out of plane.

Despite the scale of the work and the logistics of moving material and equipment to the top five floors of a downtown high-rise, we completed the required substrate corrections in approximately three weeks.

Louisville commercial floor leveling contractor

Trade Mark Floors specializes in commercial floor preparation, self-leveling and subfloor repair on both concrete and wood substrates throughout Louisville, Kentucky, and the surrounding region, including Southern Indiana.

Proper preparation protects the finished flooring system and prevents costly problems after installation — problems that are far more expensive to correct once the floor is down.