Cantilevering outward as it rises from Manhattan’s Flatiron District in New York City, Madison Square Park Tower houses more than 80 luxury condominiums. Located at 45 E. 22nd St., it’s the tallest building between Midtown and lower Manhattan’s Financial District. Before the residential high-rise was completed in 2017, NYC-based concrete contractor Navillus Contracting was tasked with leveling all 60 floors.
The difference in elevation on each floor slab fell anywhere between 0 and 2 inches from one side of the building to the other. To make every floor uniformly level, Navillus used Rapid Set® LevelFlor® self-leveling underlayment.
After surface prep, the contractor primed the concrete substrate with Rapid Set® Acrylic Primer to improve LevelFlor’s adhesion to the substrate. Acrylic Primer seals porous concrete to prevent pinholes from forming in the finished surface.
Next, the crew applied LevelFlor to build up the lower areas of the floor and produce a flat, strong surface. The material was mixed using a barrel, placed with gauge rakes, and finished with trowels to smooth out the material. Designed for fast-track applications, the underlayment was ready for foot traffic in two to four hours and for the installation of floor coverings in four to 16 hours. This enabled the Navillus crew to complete half the floor while other tradespeople worked on the remaining half, then switch sides shortly after the underlayment was placed.
In all, Navillus Contracting leveled 120,000 square feet of residential floor over eight months. The contractor was pleased with LevelFlor’s performance, and the flooring contractor whose work followed was able to install wood floors over the underlayment efficiently.
