How to Level a Concrete Basement After Framing

Lay the gravel base once your frames are in place, raking the gravel with a landscape rake. A concrete basement floor needs 2 inches of crushed rock.

Check whether the gravel is level with your spirit level. Add or remove gravel until the base is level.

Place 6-inch-by-6-inch concrete reinforcing mesh -- called 6x6 welded-wire mesh -- over the floor to fully cover the gravel. This helps prevent cracking in the finished basement floor. Alternately, lay bars of #4 rebar 18 inches apart on the floor. Place the rebar both vertically and horizontally to form a metal grid.

Put on work gloves to protect your hands from concrete, which can burn the skin.

Pour a 4-inch thick layer of concrete over the gravel substrate. Mix the concrete by hand in wheelbarrows in your basement, or fill wheelbarrows with pre-mixed concrete from a truck and wheel the material down to the basement. If you opt for the latter, set up a ramp on the basement stairs using 2-foot-by-8-foot or 2-foot-by-10-foot planks and wheel the load down the ramp. Use a shovel or trowel to pour the wet concrete out of the wheelbarrow. Rake the concrete into a 4-inch layer with a rake.

Continue to pour and rake concrete until you have covered the basement with an even layer. As you work, pull the rebar or reinforcing mesh partway up, so it sits in the middle of the wet concrete and concrete flows beneath and on top of the metal.

Use a concrete screed to make sure the basement is level, once you've poured the concrete and positioned the reinforcing mesh or wire. Push the screed across the wet concrete to level it off. Extra concrete will fall into the frames at one end of the basement, leaving you with an even grade.