I live in a very old (150 years) house. At sometime in the past a cement floor was poured (not sure when). Now there are high and low spots as well as cracks (they don't go all the way through, as far as I can tell) and dents. The floor was painted with some kind of porch paint. Is there anyway that this floor can be leveled easily and cheaply? I am retired and have a very limited budget. I was thinking of some kind of self-leveling cement, but I have no idea what kind or how to go about this. I don't want raise the level of the floor any more than necessary. Thanks.

I have never seen a cheap way to level an old floor that was inexpensive that also worked. One of your problems is that the floor is painted, so before anything will stick to it, the paint must be removed and a new profile must be created on the concrete. There are a lot of products out there with big claims, just beware. No company will warranty their product without proper surface preparation.

The best way to create a new profile is from shot blasting which is expensive. Scraping and acid etching would not open the pores of the concrete, it would more likely fill them in.

I have had more luck with using bulked-up 2 part epoxy (not epoxy paint) to level a floor. But, epoxy is expensive.

I have used epoxy-stone (GoldenLook) to level cellar floors with excellent success. However, I would assume you would be looking at an installed price of no less than $8.00/sqft.

You would be best off doing nothing instead of going with a method geared towards saving money.

Thanks. I think you're correct when you say that doing nothing is better than doing it wrong (which I am almost certain to regret). How about some sort of shimmed up wooden subfloor? Or would this be too difficult?

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by shimmed wood floor.

My concerns would be how to build a sturdy floor that would not creak without raising the floor, hence lowering your ceiling height.

My other concern is trapping condensation/moisture under the floor which can lead to possible mold growth.

I have installed flexi floor tile in basements, but again it is not cheap. It will cost you about $6.00 to $7.00 a square foot. The picture below is an example of the tile. It is perforated to allow the floor to breathe, but its hard to clean under them.