Customer Reviews for Sika SikaLevel 50 lb. Self-Leveling Underlayment Concrete Floor Leveler

I read all the positive and negative reviews. I'm an experienced DIYer. Be prepared-- make sure you know how to do this. It sets up fast. I'd say I had 5 minutes working time max using cold water. Don't use too much water. Start with 4 quarts (1 gallon) and see what the consistency is. Some people recommend way too much water. For me, 4.25 quarts was perfect. And yes, you still have to work it, but it will level once you move it around and smooth it out. My project was a success: 10 bags poured.

Easy to mix and to use for leveling a bathroom floor after repairing a water damaged area, and before installing new flooring.

I did fallow all instruction but the product filled after a. Day it all crack on me I’m not sure what to do I installed about 90 bags

I almost didn’t purchase after reading some of the reviews but gave it a shot and it turned out wonderfully. I used eight bags and leveled to a depth of 1 inch. When mixing use 1 gallon, or 4 quarts, no more. It will mix, but it takes a few minutes to get the consistency, scrape the edges and use the proper blade attachment for mixing, I use the 5 gallon bucket with a drywall mud paddle. Dampen, prime and lay it down.

Works great. Does the trick!

Been using it for a number of years now works well for me drying time is good works well.

It is very bad self level wasted my money and have to scrap it of now to much sand in it I have used other self levelers before this is horrible performance

I poured the lower deck of a bow window at about 1" deep so I could lay ditra and tile (see photo). This worked great. However, the Q&A and reviews that state you have to use 5 quarts of water are spot on. Do NOT pour this with a gallon. This was about as thick as it could be to flow and I had to pour it out evenly across the surface to get it to level, but it came out perfect for the next phase. Not sure why the instructions aren't accurate b/c it would screw up an otherwise nice job.

A week after doing a small test pour with Sika Pro & Sika Primer, we went back to cover it with the more reliable floor leveler Home Depot sells. We had noticed Sika Pro did a poor job of self leveling. Before covering the Sika leveler with the other leveler, we found the whole top of the Sika product area was softer than chalk. We were able to grind that surface off. If we had not, we would have been in real trouble after pouring the other more reliable floor leveler over the Sika product.

Went against my gut feel and followed instruction to use 1 gal water per 1 bag. The product was too thick and did not flow properly. The product set up within 15 minutes and had not distributed itself resulting in 300 square feet of unusable floor. Towards the end I started adding more cool water in and was able to salvage 50 or so square feet but the rest of the area had to be chipped. I wasted about 7 bags that had to be chipped and nearly 10 hours of my time to chip it out. Refund please!

I’d like to preface this review that I’m a licensed engineer and design & construction isn’t anything new to me. I bought 48 bags of this self leveling underlayment (about $1,300) for a few sections of my house that needed leveling. I used a laser level and marked off areas that needed leveling. I had the organized labor for mixing, concrete mixer, rake and mixing tub. We followed the directions to the “T”! We mixed the bags with the correct amount of water every time and found there was inconsistencies with the product (maybe bad mixes at the factory, don’t know). With the proper mixing, raking, etc. there were still sections of the slab that were too high and sections that were too low. The end result is I had to get a concrete grinder and grind down the high spots to be level an additional $780! I brought the bags to Home Depot and he took down my number and name and told me he knew the Sika Rep but never got a call or voicemail from the guy. Be wary if you want to play Russian roulette.

Bathroom floor out 1 1/4 over 4 feet. Wow! Bad builder but we can fix. Installed 1/4” Hardieboard over 1/4 notched thin set and mixed exactly as directed 1 gallon per bag. Product flowed perfectly to give me the desired result.

I use this leveler as a substrate to embed my heated floors it worked great it was easy to use and leveled nicely. Make sure you follow directions and mix it enough and tell there's no lump left and you should have no problems

this product should be pulled off the shelf. the directions are vuage and the product does not self level. even with a tool to try and move it around you end up with divets. caused more of a problem than anything else. maybe it would work for a small area that you can fill up with one bag...but if using on larger areas it leaves a message the joints

I mixed 1.5 gallons of water (not 1 gallon like they said to)Prime your floor with Sika Primer prior

This product works fine for me. Level out perfectly. Add one and a quarter gallon of water per bag. It won't dry as fast because of the extra water so check the weather and plan accordingly.

I had a 10x7 corner of my basement that was slightly dipped (3/4") and I needed to level it. It took me about five and a half bags. The product worked as advertised. I might suggest the directions should be changed to one and a quarter to one and a third gallons of water per bag. It needs to have a liquidy consistency and then poured so that it spreads and levels itself. I believe the folks that were complaining stuck to the directions and it was just too thick. Make sure you use a drill and a mixer tool to get a good mix. I made the rookie mistake of using my DeWalt drill with two batteries. Quickly realized I was going to use them up so I did the initial heavy mixing with a slab of wooden flooring. I then used the mixer to do the final blend. That worked like a charm and I poured and backed up, poured and backed up.

Our project required leveling an area in preparation to install a shower pan and some other tile work. We calculated just under two bags for the job. After following the directions on this packaging we have a floor that is way off level. I am very disappointed...

As many others noted, it's too thick and doesn't level. I have worked with concrete, stucco and other Cementous products for a long time and know what I am doing. Followed the guidelines to the letter. Have used self-leveling (different product - don't remember) few years back with no problem. This product simply doesn't work and will ruin your day. See the attached picture. The company simply responds to all the negative reviews "I am sorry" and then points to instructions assuming everybody is stupid. If so many customers have issues then there is something wrong with the product. They should be refunding instead of just saying "sorry". Huge waste of money and time. Will take the bags to Home Depot and talk to a manager about the refund and, I assume they will act honorably.

Good product although they all leveled a little differently and we mix all 10 bags the same way. A couple of seams but after we put down a concrete water base dye it hid the imperfections well.

This was so easy to use. If you mix this correctly and pour it quickly you will have no issues. Use a good drill and a solid egg beater to make a mixture with a milkshake consistency. We poured 5 bags to fill a sagging area and it took about 20 minutes. Make sure to use the concrete prep.

I bought 25 bags to level a room, it worked well for me. Make sure you prime, use more water than recommended and mix throughly. I used a gallon and a half per bag.

This product did not work as advertised -- it was far too thick and difficult to spread, and it did not self-level at all. I was extremely careful and followed the instructions on the bag exactly: put exactly 1 gallon of cool water in bucket, slowly poured in powder while mixing, mixed 3 minutes with egg beater style concrete paddle on a drill, poured on cool, cleaned, primed concrete floor -- and it just didn't work. The end result is that my floor is far worse than before. The as-mixed consistency was similar to regular concrete, but with a very short working time. It was extremely difficult to push the concrete around. The promotional video on HomeDepot.com shows it spreading around like liquid, but that was not the case at all; it was extremely thick and heavy. In my photo, the back part of the room is what my wife and I were able to MANUALLY smooth out before the mixture set up too much to work with. In the rest of the floor, we roughly spread it out by grueling labor, but it was DIFFICULT because it wanted to clump up like a paste, not run like a liquid. Even on my hands and knees spreading with a 2x4, I was unable to push the mixture any thinner than 1/8", even though the description on the Home Depot website claims 1/25" minimum thickness. The light color at the doorway was the result of me throwing some extra water on top of it at the end just to see if it made it more workable (answer: no), since I already knew the floor was ruined anyway. Reading other reviews, it sounds like the quality of this product is inconsistent. It works for some, but many others have the same experience I did. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT -- it's not worth the risk.

Followed the instructions to the letter, cool water, three minutes of mixing with a proper paddle and an industrial mixing drill. 4quarts water/bag. Firstly, you absolutely want to use at least 5 or 5.5 quarts or the product will not level itself and will get ripples with any drag trowl. It also hardens much faster than 10 minutes. Within about 5 minutes the base of the pour will already be a sediment like mud and will cause any trowlwork to create ripples. To cover a 350~sqft room I needed about 10-11 bags and it was still pretty thin coverage, about 1/8 - 1/4 inches. Unfortunately after spending all the money and doing all the work, the floor definitely isn't flat and it was apparent even when very wet that ripples were present throughout the room .

Mixed it and poured under vinyl in kitchen and bath ... Worked GREAT and I didnt even use primer ...parts of it even cured well over existing vinyl

Bathroom remodel. The concrete floor had a slight slope. Pulled linoleum tiles off, cleaned the area, shored up threshold and poured two bags. Like magic, the slurry poured, spread and produced a clean level surface. Highly recommended. Follow instructions and you will be happy with results.

Great for leveling under underlayment to bring dropped floor to level again just 16" center all scribed studs for nailers

I followed the instructions exactly. Completely cleaned and primed the existing surface. Mixed the exact amount of water, in the order specified, for as long as specified, and worked fast to get it poured before it set. I used a concrete rake to minimally move the product in the right direction, expecting it to then flow and level itself. This product did not self-level at all. I was left with mounds and valleys where each consecutive pour met. I was running roughly 5 minutes between pours, and they did not flow together, you can see exactly where each pour began and ended. Also came out with random coloration. Extremely frustrating to have wasted $500 and an entire afternoon to make my floor even worse than before.

I'd read forums and reviews for two weeks prior to buying and using this "self" leveler. 40 bags worth, approximately 1600sqft. I wished I'd recognized it's issues after the first room and returned them. But, alas, I kept thinking it was something I was doing incorrectly. Apparently I like the abuse. I am a very handy real estate investor that has done just about every project you can think of over the last 15 years. I am the guy everybody asks about how to do work on their houses and even bounced ideas from contractor friends. Framing, roofing, cabinetry, tile, sheetrock(yes and I'm good too), and now self-leveling installation, well sort of. Prep was done by using TSP and a scrub brush, then rinsing with fresh water and vacuuming with a wet vac. All areas were primed with the recommended primer. All ac and ceiling fans were off. Temp was maintained at 78 F. We used Ice water for the mixing to allow for more working time. We used the egg beater type mixer and used 17 gallon drums to mix either two or three bags at a time. We tried mixing for 3 minutes only, mixing ofr 2 minutes and letting sit for a minute, then mixing for another minute, and we tried mixing for 4 minutes straight. The video associated with the product is contradicting the instructions on the bag. My concern is that once we started pouring, it was immediately evident that this stuff will not "level" unless you pour a lot in one spot and it obviously spreads due to it's own weight. Also, the mix is too thick to move much on it's own to begin with, but I thought I was prepared for this. We used a large squeegee to push and pull around the room as necessary, but no matter how much we moved, it would leave severe tool marks and edges that would not break. Once the surface of the leveler that is mostly liquid is moved/removed during spreading you are left with the drier cement type material that will do nothing by itself. Enters the hand float. I did my best and got to a point that I realized this wasn't working. So then I continued to finish the room and knowing I had plenty of bags on hand, I decided to do another layer the next day, but by adding a splash more of water. Obviously, this was a little thinner, and spread a little better, but still left valleys. The problem here, in all the valleys the film dried as a chalky layer that had to be scraped off, otherwise no glue would stick to it. So here you are, you can mix according to the directions and not get a good level, or add water and get an ok level, but you'll have to scrape every inch of it to restore the surface to clean, and this is just with an o.k. edge but you'll still have up to 1/8th of an inch valleys even then. I even thought I'd figured it out by the last room by spreading in less/thinner amounts and immediately spreading with the hand float to assist it. I thought we did well, but 1/8"+ valleys still and not going to work with the vinyl we are putting down. I shopped around HD and started looking at the other products. Today I used some Henry 555 leveler. Let this sink in. Sika's bag is 50 lbs and uses 4 qts of water. The Henry 555 levelpro is 40 lbs and uses 5 quarts. Which do you think will be more liquid and more likely to level better? I'll be re-poring the larger, last room I just did, to get it as flat as possible with the Henry 555. Wish me luck. And good luck to you guys.

Installing a new basement bath. After groundwork plumbing and filling/covering the trench was complete, had to level the slab surface out (especially since there was a floor drain and the original slab sloped to it). Cleaned area with cement cleaner, rinsed, primed, then followed the product instructions. Data sheet from Sika website is worth reviewing (vendor posted it in another comment). Here's what I learned from my installation, especially if you're doing multiple bags: move efficiently, get help (someone to mix), work the bulk of the material briskly with a rake. After spilling it on the surface, you sort of have to break the material's tension at the edges (I used a rake) to help it flow. Get the whole pool of material 90% in place, then when you're satisfied, start work on the details. This stuff isn't magic, people. It takes common sense -- you have to finesse it to where it's needed. Then leave it alone to settle to a smooth finish. If you're working on an open area, don't expect a feather finish at the edges (I'm going to use a separate product for that). Product by itself seems really well suited to 'edge-to-edge' applications, meaning an entire room where it has defined spots to stop. I would definitely use again.