[Cosmo Brown]

Hi. I am in an upstairs condo with a mortar or mud bed under all the flooring. I have various squeaks and thumps when I walk around the place and would like to fix that before I tile the bathroom and recarpet the rest. It looks like I would need to remove all the mortar bed and then replace the nails in the subfloor with screws. I believe the mortar bed is there for fireproofing between the upper and lower unit, as well as sound deadening. Is that correct? What happens if I leave the mortar bed out? I am checking with the city to see if code requires it to be there. Finally, what type of contractor would I look for to replace the mortar bed, and is it expensive?

Thanks for any information you can offer.

Alan

 

[Mudd]

Yes, it's probably gypcrete or laticrete or something like it... lightweight and there for sound deadening and to slow the spread of fire.

I'd be checking with the condo association before I did anything with it. Anything you do upstairs will affect the downstairs... you don't want chunks of plaster and acoustic texture dropping off your downstairs neighbor's ceiling during the tear out.

Separately, you may go to a lot of expense and discover the squeaks/thumps aren't fixed by what you do...

 

[Cosmo Brown]

Reply to Mudd

Thanks for the quick reply. I've been thinking that too - It will be a ton of work and mess to remove the mortar, and no guarantee that will solve the squeaks. I don't think my downstairs neighbor hears that well anyway. Maybe I'll cut to the chase and redo the floors as is. I will check with the Condo Association first anyway. I'm not in a hurry.

Alan