How to level uneven garage floor

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greenlangtern

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 1, 2008
100
1
48
Sacramento, CA
I'm in the process of building a 8' x 4' stand for a 1000 gallon tank. Its going in the garage and I'm wondering how other people level out the often sloped ground that garages are built on. I'd estimate that the height difference from the 8 feet would be a +/- 1-2 inch on opposite sides of the tank. I was thinking of getting a mat or some sort and try doubling the layer on one side to even it out. Mats like these where they can absorb the pressure a little.
http://www.matsmatsmats.com/commercial-industrial/ind-anti-fatigue.html

Any help/suggestion is greatly appreciated.
 
I built a wooden frame...level up the whole frame/thing then filled the gaps between the frame and floor with concrete. (You should be able to remove the concrete easily when you decide to remove the tank in the future). Finally, the tank and stand goes on top of my frame or you can skip the frame part and level directly to the stand using concrete. If the gap is small, you should be able to use mortar instead of concrete.
 
Is your stand going to made of tubular steel or wood? The cement floor under my tank was specially reinforced. The contractor may have been over zealous in sloping the floor toward two 3" floor drains. Since my 15' x 4' stand is made of tubular steel, if the floor slopes under the stand, we will just shim the stand until the whole thing is level. My tank and stand are way too heavy to slip a little cement or mortar underneath it.

The reinforced area is where my tank will sit. The flooring for my fish room was poured over the old garage floor. The engineer who drew up our plans deemed it necessary to reinforce the cement.
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I realize that my tank is heavier than yours, but 1000 gallons of water is still a lot of weight. You should check with a structural engineer to see if 1/2" of cement would hold up under your tank. (I know it wouldn't work for my tank.)
 
shim it
 
they make self leveling cement I've seen it on DYI seemed to work pretty well not sure about wieght issues though 1000 gal. is alot of wieght better to be right than sorry
 
I just poured 6 bags of the self leveling compound last week on my kitchen floor over electrical heating elements in preparation for tile. The stuff does work great but it is pricey at ~$40 a bag. Well worth the expense and effort for me! It was the first time I had used the stuff and it was very easy to work with.

There is a bonding agent that you roll on the subsurface first to help the leveling compound adhere to the subsurface. I also reenforced the compound with stucco rated fiberglass mesh. You need mesh rated for stucco as regular fiberglass mesh will break down from the alkalies in the compound. You need a border of some sort to contain the pour or it will just run all over the place. If you are just doing a pad for the stand I would guess one bag should be plenty. You will need a drill with a stirring wand, that and a 5 gallon bucket is about it. I went on the thin side of there recommended amount of water after the fist bag and that helped a lot with the self leveling properties. It seems very strong once it has dried.
 
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