Warning: Beware of floor leveler drying times in winter

I spent 3 days trying to fix a dip in a living room floor last January in Portland. The bag said 4 hours to cure but it was still soft after 12 because my space heater couldn't keep the room above 50 degrees. Ended up scrapping the whole thing and starting over with a fast-set compound that actually worked at lower temps. Has anyone else had self-leveler fail on them because of cold weather?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_oscar15d ago

Man that Portland winter is NO joke. I'm just south of you in Salem and had almost the EXACT same thing happen with a bag of self-leveler I grabbed from the big box store. The bag said 60 degrees minimum but my garage temp was reading 48 and I thought a space heater would fix it. Nope. It was like wet sand for two days straight. I ended up having to chip it out with a hammer and chisel which was WAY more work than just buying the cold weather stuff from the start. Mapei makes a self-leveler that says it works down to 35 degrees and that stuff actually saved my whole project last December.

morgan_butler15d ago

Ran a heater overnight with a tarp tent. Worked good enough.