We are renovating the hallway and decided to replace the tiled floor with new tiles and parquet. So, we chipped away the tiles and the tile adhesive. However, I noticed that the concrete was quite porous in some areas, and the chisel sometimes went through the concrete in places. Often along the edges. When we removed a particle board from the floor, we could see the casting in cross-section. Is a casting supposed to look like this? It feels like it might have been done improperly. I should also mention that we have water-based underfloor heating in the hallway.
Here is the cross-section:
Here, I went through the concrete while chipping, and the underfloor heating pipe is visible:
Looks like EPS? I might be wrong, but I seem to remember it's a bit coarse, like stone-styrofoam. It should reasonably be more porous than regular concrete.
What is the problem then? Of course, you don't cast load-bearing arches with EPS, so being able to make holes with a chisel in certain places doesn't affect the load-bearing capacity.
The EPS is used as filler and insulation.
What is the problem then? Obviously, you don't cast load-bearing arches with EPS, so the fact that you can make holes with a chisel in certain places doesn't affect the structural integrity. The EPS is used for filling and insulation.
Ok, thanks for all the replies. I've learned what EPS is then. The floor structure is lightweight concrete (I think) since we have a basement.
I don't really have a problem; I mostly just wanted to know why they built the way they did. I was a bit concerned that the underfloor heating pipe was 1 cm from the surface in some places, and I was close to putting the demolition chisel into the pipe.
useless said:
