Levelling floor.
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Rorschach
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Levelling floor.
Yes I have sheet in my kitchen and bathroom. Problem with sheet, especially in larger spaces is that it stretches and then you bumps and bubbles. It's also spongy so more prone to damage and the only way to repair it is to replace entirely. Also requires a fitter to put it in and they always seem to damage stuff while doing it 
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Rorschach
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Levelling floor.
Realised I never did an update on this.
So it all turned out ok in the end (at least so far! lol). I keyed the surface heavily and smoothed it out manually, as mentioned before proper levelling was not an option. I ended up with a reasonably smooth and flat surface that of course still has high and low spots but the transitions are much more gentle now and no holes of course. I then put 2 coats of SBR to seal it (this was a mistake, should have just used one thinned coat but oh well) and then I installed the P&S flooring. Tests showed that extra adhesive was needed but apparently this is not uncommon. Installation was ok, a lot easier than sheet or laminate and the middle open section went very quickly, edges and cutouts were slower as I had to work around a lot of awkwardly shaped door frames with fixed thresholds and not a single wall was square to another surface. Caulking helped neaten the edges and will prevent mopping water seeping down the edges or under the skirting/thresholds.
I am very pleased with the result as is the missus. Hopefully it will last. If nothing else I have at least solved a big problem with the floor and only increased the overall floor level by about 3mm so we can always lay something else on top if we have to.
Thank you for the all the suggestions.
So it all turned out ok in the end (at least so far! lol). I keyed the surface heavily and smoothed it out manually, as mentioned before proper levelling was not an option. I ended up with a reasonably smooth and flat surface that of course still has high and low spots but the transitions are much more gentle now and no holes of course. I then put 2 coats of SBR to seal it (this was a mistake, should have just used one thinned coat but oh well) and then I installed the P&S flooring. Tests showed that extra adhesive was needed but apparently this is not uncommon. Installation was ok, a lot easier than sheet or laminate and the middle open section went very quickly, edges and cutouts were slower as I had to work around a lot of awkwardly shaped door frames with fixed thresholds and not a single wall was square to another surface. Caulking helped neaten the edges and will prevent mopping water seeping down the edges or under the skirting/thresholds.
I am very pleased with the result as is the missus. Hopefully it will last. If nothing else I have at least solved a big problem with the floor and only increased the overall floor level by about 3mm so we can always lay something else on top if we have to.
Thank you for the all the suggestions.
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dewaltdisney
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Rorschach
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Levelling floor.
It was time consuming more than anything. I had initial success in lifting the bitumen (it's very old so hard and not sticky at all), the area by the front door had obviously seen the most foot traffic and the top layer of concrete was more friable and scraping wasn't too bad so I thought with a couple of hours work I could lift the adhesive. Problem was once I got past this easy area it became much tougher and I could only scrap an area about 10mm wide at a time so I had to abandon that.
My test filling of the holes where some concrete had lifted along with the old thermoplastic showed that filler actually adhered quite well to the bitumen, I am guessing because it was so old and hard (and had a textured surface) the filler had something to bite into. So that's when I decided to try just scoring deep lines into the floor which went well, had the whole floor keyed in under an hour with very little mess. Then it was just a case of 3 layers of filler laid in patches over a few days (we still needed to walk on the floor).
FWIW I was quite impressed with the quality of the vinyl tile/planks for the money. The adhesive probably works better in "ideal" conditions but and extra layer of carpet glue did the job.
My test filling of the holes where some concrete had lifted along with the old thermoplastic showed that filler actually adhered quite well to the bitumen, I am guessing because it was so old and hard (and had a textured surface) the filler had something to bite into. So that's when I decided to try just scoring deep lines into the floor which went well, had the whole floor keyed in under an hour with very little mess. Then it was just a case of 3 layers of filler laid in patches over a few days (we still needed to walk on the floor).
FWIW I was quite impressed with the quality of the vinyl tile/planks for the money. The adhesive probably works better in "ideal" conditions but and extra layer of carpet glue did the job.